I'm having trouble getting my outdoor spigot to stop leaking. Last week it ruptured so I went in the basement and closed the shutoff valve to it. While it stopped the flooding outside, it's still is leaking at a pretty good rate, at the spigot. The shut off valve hasn't been closed in at least the 3 years I've lived there and god only knows how long before that. I live in Duluth, MN so this build up of ice is a bit of a problem. I know it can take awhile for a shutoff valve to swell back up but by now it should have. Should I open the spigot valve or will that not make any difference?
Does anyone have any advice?
If there is a shutoff valve in the house on the line that feeds the hose bib, and the hose bib is still leaking then you have a bad shutoff valve as well as a damaged hose bib.
I'd recommend installing a frostproof hose bib instead of the current setup at a very minimum. If you like the added wintertime benefit of the interior shutoff valve that's fine, but the frostproof hose bib will help prevent the problem you're currently having from happening in the first place.
Do you have copper pipes? Do you know how to solder (or want to learn)?
They arent' copper pipes unfortunately. I'll try a frost proof hose bib though, that might work. I do know how to solder somewhat, will the new hose bib require soldering?
Get a cap with (female) garden hose threads. If you have a lawn sprinkler that can daisy chain to other lawn sprinklers, that probably has such a cap you can take and use.
This should stop the leaking until you can make repairs, provided that the entire spigot (bibb) didn't crack open from being frozen.
What kind of pipes do you have? Since they're not copper, soldering won't apply. That pretty much leaves us galvanized pipe or plastic of some sort. It should be reasonably easy to install a new frostproof sillcock, since the connections will be threaded most likely.
The benefit of a frostproof unit is that it has a very long valve, so the water shutoff point occurs within the home where it isn't so cold and the unit only has water in it when it is turned on...Whereas a conventional hose bib's valve and water is located just behind the siding where there is still a likelihood of freezing.
I would "cut back" to the copper , the use a copper coupling to extend copper to the place its going
Could you take a picture for me?
Is that possible , if you do I can tell you exactly what fittings you need and all
If you want I can write a step by step guide for you if you need it .
EDIT :
I actually had pictures on my pc of a job I did for a neighbor using all her tools
I made this for you
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