How To Repair An Outdoor Faucet

How To: Replace an Outdoor Faucet

Replacing that leaky outdoor faucet with a frost-free model tin can salvage yous money on your water neb while preventing hereafter leaks.

Photograph: istockphoto.com

Though a leaky outdoor faucet may not seem similar much of a problem, each baste is costing yous money. A faucet that drips once per second can waste matter up to 3,000 gallons of water in a unmarried twelvemonth, co-ordinate to the Environmental Protection Bureau. The costs to your banking company business relationship and to the environment are compelling reasons to replace that outdoor faucet.

While most outdoor faucets are made of sturdy stainless steel or brass that can resist the elements, they do have their Achilles heel in the class of a rubber washer that'south responsible for creating the watertight seal that prevents the faucet from dripping when the valve is closed.

Unfortunately, this rubber seal is susceptible to cracking if the water it's holding back freezes. While replacing the rubber washer each fourth dimension it fails is an selection, a improve solution is to replace the outdoor faucet with a frost-gratis outdoor faucet that keeps the washer and water in the line out of freezing temperatures. Frost-gratis faucets take a long stem that positions the condom washer and water inside the home, as opposed to on the exterior of the wall, preventing the line from freezing in cold temperatures.

The proficient news is yous don't even need to be a licensed plumber to switch out the sometime faucet. A competent DIYer can complete the job with just a few specialty tools and plumbing supplies.

Related: Prevent Freezing and Bursting Pipes—Here's How

Tools & Materials

• Pipe cutter
• Phillips caput screwdriver
• Frost-free outdoor faucet
• Drill and masonry chip
• Concrete screws
• Tape mensurate
• See total list «
• 3/iv-inch copper coupling
• A few inches of plumbing piping
• Emery material
• Flux
• Solder
• Soldering torch
• Plumber'due south tape
• Crescent wrench

Before You Begin

Before you get started, assess the plumbing you have in your abode to decide the blazon of supplies y'all need by going into the basement or crawl infinite and looking at the water line that extends to the outdoor faucet. While this guide volition focus on copper pipes, homes as well can have PVC, galvanized, or PEX h2o lines. You'll need to purchase materials that are compatible with your dwelling house's plumbing.

STEP 1: Locate the shutoff valve and cut the water supply to the outside tap.

Locate the shutoff valve for the outdoor faucet, also known every bit a sillcock. First, wait for a shutoff valve inside the home on the pipe that runs to the outdoor faucet and close information technology. If the outdoor faucet does not have a shutoff valve or yous cannot locate information technology, you'll need to notice the main water shutoff for the entire home and shut that valve. A main water valve is typically located on a front wall of a business firm, in a crawl space or basement for those who take them or a pantry or closet for homes on a slab. After you lot close the valve, open the lowest faucet in the firm to drain whatever water left in the lines.

Photo: istockphoto.com

Related: seven Secret Weapons for Surviving the Worst of Wintertime

STEP 2: Inside the firm, locate the water pipe leading to the outdoor faucet and cut it a few inches from the wall.

Before starting this step, brand sure yous have a saucepan fix to catch any water left in the pipage. You'll also need a simple and affordable tool chosen a pipe cutter to make the cut. This tool clamps around the pipe and has small wheels with sharp edges that button up against it. As you rotate the cutter around the pipage, the blades slowly cutting through information technology. Keep turning the tool until you've cutting completely through the line.

Photograph: istockphoto.com

If y'all don't have a piping cutter on mitt, it is possible to employ a hacksaw to make this cut. However, a pipe cutter will create a cleaner, more than precise cut, making it easier to connect the new faucet later.

STEP 3: Exterior the house, remove the old faucet and test-fit the new outdoor faucet.

Remove any screws property the old faucet to the side of the business firm, then slide it out of the pigsty. Insert the new outdoor faucet into the hole to bank check for fit. At that place should be a small gap between the supply line you simply cut within the domicile and the new sillcock.

You'll need to add an adapter to the end of the sillcock to attach it to your dwelling'due south plumbing. Adapters come up in a variety of types to accommodate copper, PVC, and PEX plumbing. One terminate of the adapter should screw into the sillcock, while the other stop should fit into the dwelling house's existing plumbing. When screwing the adapter into the new sillcock, wrap the adapter's threads in plumber'southward tape to ensure a watertight articulation.

STEP iv: Install the new outdoor faucet, calculation a generous amount of caulk between the faucet and home exterior.

Before caulking, you lot'll need to drill pilot holes in the foundation and then you tin can attach the faucet to the foundation. Hold the faucet in place and mark the concrete for the screw holes. Drill pilot holes into the physical using a drill and a masonry fleck. Use caulking around the hole, and so slide the new faucet's stalk into the pigsty and press the mounting plate into the caulk. The caulk will seal whatever gaps between the sillcock and the concrete, insulating the indoor space by preventing air from passing through. Employ a screwdriver or ability driver to attach the faucet to the foundation by driving two concrete screws through the mounting plate into the predrilled holes.

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STEP five: Remove the faucet stem earlier heading inside to solder the new sillcock to the existing h2o pipage.

Copper is an excellent heat conductor, so when you heat the sillcock and pipe with the soldering torch, information technology could cause the prophylactic washer inside the new outdoor faucet to melt. To preclude this from happening, unscrew the stem from the new sillcock and set up it aside until the soldering is complete.

STEP half dozen: Measure and cutting a piece of new pipe to connect the sillcock and coupling to the water pipe.

After the outside components are fitted, information technology'south time to connect the sillcock to the house's plumbing. Use a tape measure to measure the gap between the cut cease of the pipe and the adapter. Employ that measurement to cut a new piece of copper pipe to make full the gap using your pipe cutter.

Related: 7 Things Yous Tin can Make with Copper Pipes—Easily!

Photo: istockphoto.com

STEP seven: Clean and add flux to the pipe and fittings, so solder everything together.

Utilize emery material to clean any burs left on the cut ends of the existing pipage and the new piece of pipe. The emery cloth, which is essentially sandpaper with a textile backing, will shine the surface to ensure a tight connection when you solder the pieces together.

Side by side, add flux to the pipes, coupling, and adapter to clean away any oxidation on the copper, ensuring a stronger connection with the solder. Connect the pipes, coupling, and adapter extending from the new sillcock.

Put on middle protection and a pair of protective gloves, because soldering torches are capable of reaching temperatures of three,600 degrees. Information technology'due south critical to accept the necessary precautions to protect yourself from possible burns.

Light the torch, then solder the pieces together using a process that plumbers ordinarily refer to as sweating the pipes. Use a back and along motion to heat the piping evenly. In one case the metallic is hot, hold the solder against it and allow the solder to cook and flow into the joint, making sure the solder fills the joint around the entire connection.

STEP viii: Outside the business firm, reinstall the stem inside the new sillcock and tighten it in place.

After the inside piping and fittings are fix, the next stride is securing the new sillcock. Thread the stalk back onto the new faucet by hand, then use a crescent wrench to tighten the stem into place. Make sure non to overtighten the articulation to avoid damaging the safety gasket.

Stride 9: Turn the water back on and test the new outdoor faucet.

Turn the faucet on to brand sure it's working properly, then turn it off. Retrieve, since the washer that stops the water when the valve is airtight is further dorsum in the sillcock, it will take longer for the h2o to bleed out of the faucet once you turn it off.

After the excess water has drained out of the faucet, bank check the connexion within as well equally the connection betwixt the stem and the new sillcock for leaks.

By using this method to replace your onetime sillcock with a frost-proof model, you lot'll eliminate that costly leak while protecting your outdoor faucet from potentially damaging subfreezing temperatures.

Some jobs are better left to the pros

Get gratis, no-delivery estimates from licensed plumbers near you.

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Source: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-replace-an-outdoor-faucet/

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