Hose Bibs: the Cheapest Fixture, the Most Expensive Failure
A spigot costs very little. A spigot that split behind the siding in January and ran into a wall cavity for two days does not.
Disconnect garden hoses before the first freeze. It is the single most effective five-minute job of the Georgia winter.
The Georgia pattern
Why hose bibs are the first thing to freeze
Georgia does not have a long winter. It has short, sharp freeze events, often after weeks of mild weather. That combination is worse for plumbing than a steady cold season, because nothing is prepared and nothing is drained.
A hose bib is the most exposed piece of plumbing on the house: a brass fitting on an exterior wall connected to a pipe running through an unheated wall cavity, a crawl space or a garage. When temperatures drop into the low twenties overnight, that is where ice forms first.
The hose is the mechanism. A garden hose left connected holds water against the valve and prevents the spigot draining. Ice forms in the hose and at the valve, and the expansion travels back into the pipe inside the wall. The split is often not at the spigot at all. It is a foot or two inside the house, where you cannot see it.
And you find out at the thaw. While it is frozen, the ice plugs the split. When it warms up and you turn the tap on in spring, water pours into the wall cavity or the crawl space. Every year there are Georgia homeowners who discover a January freeze in March.
Prevention, in five minutes each autumn. Disconnect every hose. Drain and store them. Close the interior shut-off for the spigot if one exists, and open the spigot to drain. Fit insulated covers on non-frost-free bibs. Insulate the pipe run in the crawl space or garage. See pipe insulation and freeze protection.
After a hard freeze, test each spigot deliberately
Turn it on and watch, inside the crawl space or basement if you can, and listen at the wall. Water audible inside the wall, or a spigot that gives no flow when the weather has warmed, means a split. Shut off the supply and call before you run any more water into it.
Everyday faults
Where the drip is coming from
Dripping from the spout with the tap closed. The washer or seat inside the valve. On a standard compression bib it is a cheap washer and a short repair. On a frost-free bib the seat is at the far, warm end of a long stem, so the repair means pulling the whole stem out, still routine, but it is a stem and washer rather than a washer alone.
Water weeping from around the handle. The packing nut or the stem packing. Often resolved by tightening the packing nut a quarter turn, or by replacing the packing washer.
Water appearing at the wall when the tap is on. More serious. Either the connection behind the siding has failed or the pipe inside the wall is split, the classic post-freeze presentation. Stop using it and get it looked at, because that water is going into the structure.
Spigot turns but no water. If other outdoor taps work, suspect a closed interior shut-off, a blocked or frozen line, or a split that has ice in it. If nothing outside works, look at the supply and the pressure. See water pressure regulator.
Loose or wobbling spigot. The mounting flange screws have pulled out of siding, or the pipe behind is unsupported. Worth fixing: every movement stresses the joint behind the wall, and that joint is the one you cannot see.
Very hard to turn. Mineral build-up on the stem, or corrosion. Forcing it snaps the stem or, worse, twists the pipe behind the wall.
A dripping bib is a small job. A wet wall is not, and one becomes the other.
Book a Spigot RepairThe upgrade
Frost-free spigots: what they do and what they do not
A frost-free, or frost-proof, hose bib has a long stem, typically six to twelve inches, with the actual valve seat at the inner, warm end. When you close the tap, the water shuts off inside the heated envelope of the house and the exposed section drains out through the spout. There is nothing left in the cold part to freeze.
It must be able to drain
A frost-free bib works only if it is installed with a slight downward pitch to the outside and the spout is left clear. Installed dead level, or fitted where it cannot drain, it holds water in the stem and freezes exactly like an ordinary bib, and then it splits inside the wall.
A connected hose defeats it entirely
This is the part people miss. Leave a hose attached and the stem cannot drain, so a frost-free bib freezes and splits like any other, usually at the inner end, inside the wall. Frost-free is not hose-proof. Disconnect the hose regardless.
Longer stem, same principle
A dripping frost-free bib is repaired by removing the entire stem assembly and replacing the washer or the stem. Slightly more involved than a standard bib, still a short job, and considerably cheaper than replacing the whole fitting.
Yes, on any freeze-exposed wall
Replacing an ordinary bib with a frost-free one is an inexpensive job that removes a recurring winter risk. On a north or west wall, on a crawl space house, or anywhere a previous freeze has caused trouble, it is straightforwardly worth doing.
Autumn is the right time, ordinary rates, no emergency, and it is done before the first freeze warning.
Upgrade to Frost-FreeWater safety
Vacuum breakers, and why a hose is a contamination risk
A garden hose is the classic cross-connection risk in a house. If the hose end is sitting in a bucket of soapy water, a pool, a pond, a livestock trough or a puddle of fertiliser, and the mains pressure drops (a main break, hydrant use, a pump shutting down) water can be siphoned backwards into the household plumbing.
The protection is a hose bib vacuum breaker: a small brass device that threads onto the spigot and admits air to break the siphon. Modern bibs often have one integrated. They cost very little and they are required by plumbing codes on hose connections for exactly this reason.
Worth checking: that each outdoor bib has one; that the integrated ones are not seized or missing their cap; and that the bib serving an irrigation system has appropriate backflow protection for that use, irrigation systems have their own requirements and are a step up from a hose bib breaker.
What we do not do: backflow certification testing. That is a separately certified activity, and where a system needs annual certification you will need a certified tester. We will tell you when that is what you need rather than pretend otherwise.
The job
What repair and replacement involve
Washer or stem repair. Water off, handle and packing nut removed, stem withdrawn, washer or stem replaced, reassembled and tested. Short visit, cheap parts, and the right answer where the bib body and the pipe behind it are sound.
Full spigot replacement. Where the body is corroded, cracked from a freeze, or being upgraded to frost-free. Access to the pipe behind the wall is the variable: in a crawl space house it is usually straightforward from underneath; in a slab house with a finished interior wall it can mean opening drywall inside.
Post-freeze split repair. The split is often inside the wall rather than at the fitting, so the work is locating it, opening the smallest reasonable access, replacing the damaged section, and reinstating with a frost-free bib and insulation so it does not recur. If the freeze caused damage elsewhere, this is worth a wider look. See burst pipe repair.
Adding a new outdoor tap. Common request, and a good one, a bib at the far side of the house or by a garden ends the dragging of hoses. Needs a supply point, a route, ideally an interior shut-off, a frost-free bib and a vacuum breaker.
While the plumber is there. Ask for interior shut-offs to be fitted for each outdoor bib if they do not exist. That single addition makes winterising the house a two-minute job every autumn for the rest of its life.
Doing several bibs, or adding one? One visit, ordinary rates, autumn is the right season.
Book Outdoor Tap WorkQuestions we get on the phone
Answered plainly
It is a small job with cheap parts, a washer on a standard bib, or a stem assembly on a frost-free one. Worth doing rather than ignoring, because a spigot that will not close properly cannot drain before a freeze, and a bib that cannot drain is the one that splits inside the wall.
Usually a split pipe inside the wall or a failed connection behind the siding, the classic result of a freeze with a hose left connected. Stop using that tap, shut off the supply to it if you can, and call. Water running into a wall cavity does structural and mould damage quickly.
Yes, and it is the single most effective five minutes of the Georgia winter. A connected hose holds water against the valve so the spigot cannot drain, ice forms and the expansion splits the pipe, frequently a foot or two inside the wall where you cannot see it. This applies to frost-free bibs too.
It has a long stem with the valve seat at the warm inner end, so when you close it the water shuts off inside the heated part of the house and the exposed section drains. On any freeze-exposed wall it is an inexpensive upgrade that removes a recurring winter risk. It must be installed with a slight downward pitch so it can actually drain.
Two usual reasons: a hose was left connected, so the stem could not drain, or the bib was installed level rather than pitched slightly downwards to the outside and holds water in the stem. Frost-free is not hose-proof, and an installation that cannot drain gives up the entire benefit.
Yes, and it is a popular job, a bib on the far side of the house or by a garden saves a lot of hose dragging. It needs a supply point and a route, and it should be done with a frost-free bib, a vacuum breaker and ideally an interior shut-off so winterising is easy.
Dripping bib, or damage from the last freeze?
Small job in autumn, big job in January. We would rather do the first one.
(866) 559-0826