How to Fix a Leaking Shower Head
Most dripping shower heads cop the blame for a fault that isn't theirs. Water held inside the head and along the arm empties out for a short time after you shut the shower down, and that drain-down is normal. A drip that persists for hours after the shower is off comes from the mixer in the wall, where a perished seal lets water slip past.
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So the answer to how to fix a leaking shower head hinges on one question: leftover water, or a live leak? This page works through that check, the signs that follow, and where Queensland law draws the DIY line. For in-wall repairs across Brighton, the work needs a licensed plumber.
What Leftover Water Looks Like
A brief drain-down after use is perfectly ordinary; a drip that hangs around well past shut-off is not. Every head and arm traps a little water when the taps close, and gravity empties it over the next minute or so.
Time is the test. Shut the shower off, wait five minutes, then look again:
- Water draining briefly and stopping by itself: leftover water, nothing to fix.
- A drip still going at the five-minute mark and beyond: water is getting past a seal somewhere, and that seal lives in the mixer, not the head.
The mixer is the fitting concealed in the wall that controls the flow and the blend of hot and cold. Its internal seal, a washer or a cartridge depending on the design, is what wears out and lets water creep through overnight.
Signs Pointing to the Shower Mixer
A dripping head traces back to one of a few spots: the connection between head and arm, the wall mixer, and the diverter on a bath-shower setup. Each one shows a different sign:
The head-to-arm connection
Water seeping there with the shower on means the joint has loosened, or its rubber seal is finished. Pressure-driven leaks like this stop when the shower stops.
The wall mixer
A drip that persists with everything switched off points here. The cartridge inside controls flow and temperature, and wear can also show up as a handle that resists turning, or water at the wrong warmth.
The bath spout and diverter
Where a bath and shower share one mixer, water dropping from the head while the bath tap is on signals a diverter past its best. So does water running out of the spout mid-shower, which points to a restriction instead.
Scale plays its own trick. Mineral crust blocking the spray holes forces water sideways through gaps it was never meant to use, which looks like a leak yet is only the spray pattern changing.
Brighton's housing makes the wall mixer worth suspecting early. The suburb filled with detached houses through the postwar decades, and plenty of those bathrooms have run the one mixer for thirty or forty years.
Average rainfall here runs close to 1,087 mm a year, and the supply water leaves its mineral mark on fittings over time. Seals that old fail on their own schedule.
Still Dripping After a Repair Attempt
When a replacement washer or cartridge fails to stop the drip, the trouble sits deeper than the part. The washer seals against a seat, and the cartridge seals within the mixer's body, so wear or damage in either one defeats the new part.
A licensed plumber makes that call. Assessing the seat and the body, then choosing repair or replacement, is diagnosis work, not trial and error. Swapping in a second part on the guess that the first was faulty wastes money and delays the real fix.
The category keeps it simple. Fixing or swapping an internal fitting is minor work: a QBCC licensee does it, no permit applies, and nothing gets lodged afterwards.
What Counts as Unregulated Plumbing Work
Yes, the head swap sits outside regulated plumbing in Queensland. The QBCC puts a shower head replacement in the unregulated category, yours to do if you have the competence.
The paperwork matches. No licence is needed, the QBCC and local government require no approval, and there is nothing to report.
Two conditions still apply:
- The finished job has to comply with the minimum standards the plumbing laws and codes set, licence or not.
- A replacement head should carry a label under the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards (WELS) scheme. Heads sold in Australia have to be WELS-registered, and the star rating and the water-use numbers have to show wherever the head is advertised, online listings included.
The freedom ends at the wall. Cartridges and valves within the mixer belong with a licensed plumber, because the unregulated list covers the head and nothing else.
When to Ring a Plumber
Ring us when the drip outlasts the drain-down, when a new part hasn't stopped it, or when bath and shower water cross over. A leak inside a wall never improves with time, and the longer it runs, the more lining and framing it reaches.
Three things set the price once we've seen the job: the fault's location, the part required, and how easily the mixer can be reached. Head faults and in-wall faults carry different parts and different labour. You get a fixed quote before any work starts, so the figure is settled before anything is opened.
Our shower repairs page goes deeper on mixers, diverters and arms.
Dripping Shower Head Questions
Call (07) 3523 6484What makes a shower head leak?
Most dripping heads trace back to four faults. A perished rubber seal where the head attaches leaks only mid-shower, while a drip overnight points to worn internals in the wall mixer. Scale blocking the spray holes, or a failing bath diverter, explains the rest.
Can I swap a shower head myself in Brighton?
Yes, provided you have the skill for it. Queensland classes the swap as unregulated work needing no licence, approval or report. The finished job must still meet the standard the plumbing laws set.
Who fixes a dripping shower in a Brighton rental?
The renter lets the manager or owner know promptly, and the owner's job is a rental kept sound and compliant through the tenancy. A head swap ranks among the tiny jobs exempt from the licence rule. Mixer internals are different: they belong with a licensed plumber.
What should a new shower head have on it?
A WELS label. Every head sold in Australia must carry WELS registration, with the stars and water-use figures shown on any listing, online included. That label makes comparing models simple.
Call Us About the Dripping ShowerWe'll call you back.
Phone (07) 3523 6484 for a licensed plumber in Brighton. We work under QBCC No: 15024607, with flat-rate pricing, no hidden fees and same-day where we can.
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