An outdoor hose bib can take a lot of wear and tear over the summer months if you are busy watering your lawn, vegetable garden, and any other flower areas you may have.
Much of this wear comes from tugging your best garden hose, which weakens parts of the hose bib. In addition to this, many of these are years old, and fittings are worn through age.
If you see how much it can cost for a plumber to do this job, you will be shocked. The task isn’t as difficult as it appears.
Here you can learn all you need to know about making a hose bib replacement, because you quickly find, these are nothing more than simple outdoor faucets, and it is no harder than to fix a leaky kitchen faucet.
Can You Fix Your Outdoor Spigot?
A simple outdoor faucet can be known as a hose bibb, as well as a water spigot. Before you automatically think you need a new hose bib, you should check if you can fix it first.
Here are some things you can do quickly to determine if it is fixable, or you do need a hose bibb replacement.
Check for damage on the handle, stem, or the main water supply pipe.
Leaky Handle: You can try tightening the packing nut, or you may need to replace the washers.
Joint & Supply Pipe Leaks: Remove your leaky faucet and check the threading for any damage. Clean and then wrap with new Teflon tape before fitting back in the pipe.
Spout leaks: It may have internal damage, and it can be better to replace hose spigot altogether as part of your home improvement plan.
Tools Required to Fix a Leaky Faucet
While these faucets go by some confusing names, you will be glad to know it doesn’t take many tools to fix a leaky faucet.
- 2 x pipe wrenches (you can use a pipe wrench and an adjustable wrench)
- Stiff brass or nylon-bristled brush
- Cleaning rags
- Teflon tape (white plumbing tape)
- Penetrating oil spray
Types of Spigot
It may be worth removing the entire thing before you head to the hardware store. Your spigot may have a couple of differences you may not know. You may also find your new spigot type can be an anti-siphon spigot.
These are designed to prevent water draining back into your mains pipe from your garden hose if there is a pressure drop.
- Size of thread: Spigots come in 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch
- Male & Female: Your new hose bib will need to be male or female depending on the other fitting
How to Replace Hose Bib
Here are the step-by-step guides to fix a leaking hose bibb. They are easy to follow, and the entire job of changing hose bib can take less than thirty minutes.
1. Locating Your Mains Water
Your mains water supply shut off valve may be situated close to the water meter. If you reside in a cold area, your meter may be inside your home or garage.
There may be one of two valves. Your valves are either a lever for a ball valve or a wheel handle for a gate or globe valve.
2. Shutting off the Mains Water
Turn the faucet on slightly and then go to your shut-off valve. Turn this off, and you will see the water supply slow from your faucet. If you can see the meter continually running, it may be your home has a second shut-off valve.
Once you locate the right one, you should see the water slow. Before you use the shut-off valve, make sure no one or anything in the home is using water, such as your heating, cooling, or anyone is in the shower or tub. (Read Shower Valve Height Code Guide)
3. Remove Water Bib
Using your spray and wrenches, remove the screw portion of your bibb from the mains. You might have already done this earlier if you took the spigot to the hardware store. Turning the spigot anti-clockwise will undo the thread.
4. Clean Corrosion
You can clean all the areas on the fittings with the spray and the stiff brush.
5. Seal Threads
On your new spigot, wrap the Teflon tape in an anti-clockwise direction around the threads to prevent leaks when you replace a hose bibb.
6. Fit Your New Bibb
Now, it is just a matter of screwing in to replace hose bib and tightening it up before turning on the water flow and checking for leaks.
Frost Proof Faucets
One of the most significant differences in your faucets can be if they are a frost-proof faucet, or you wish to install a frost-proof faucet to your home.
The way this work is they are made in such a way that water is isolated in a tube that will sit inside your home close to a water heater or storage organization area that is warm.
Once temperatures drop, there is no water in the outer part of a freeze-proof faucet, and the shut-off mechanism is on the inside of your home.
While many of the steps are the same as a standard bibb change, you will be making changes for your frost proof faucet inside rather than outside,
Isolate all your water
- Unscrew the old pipe closest to the outer wall inside your home
- Measure and cut out a section to the length of your new freeze prevention faucet
- Feed your new frost proof faucet tube through your wall (it may require a new hole drilling)
- Connect the dielectric fitting to your copper pipe (connects copper to galvanized steel)
- Add Teflon tape to the male threads on your pipes where you have a new isolation valve
- Measure and cut your copper tubing, so the two ends meet together
- Lastly, solder on a 3/4 inch coupling to join the two ends of the copper pipes
- Gently turn on the water at the mains and check for leaks
A frost-free faucet is a good idea when you live in cold areas. Rather than burst outside, they can cause the weaker pipes inside to spit, and you could have a considerable leak inside your home.
