Leaky hose bib

[Scutter01]

I have a leaky hose bib on the outside of my house. I suck at plumbing. How hard is it to fix something like that and am I better off calling someone who's not me? Know any good plumbers in Noblesville?

 

[Crbn79]

If you have a close shutoff it's not bad. You can likely purchase a repair kit for it. Makes it so much easier! If it's a screw-on bib it's super simple. Cutoff water supply to house or inline shutoff, remove old house bib, teflon tape it, put on new bib. If it's a sweat connection that's a little more involved.

 

[Scutter01]

If you have a close shutoff it's not bad. You can likely purchase a repair kit for it. Makes it so much easier! If it's a screw-on bib it's super simple. Cutoff water supply to house or inline shutoff, remove old house bib, teflon tape it, put on new bib. If it's a sweat connection that's a little more involved.

I couldn't possibly be lucky enough for it to be screw-on. I'm sure it's whatever the cheapest thing the home builder could find. I'd actually like to replace it with a better quality one anyway.

 

[SmileDocHill]

Where is it leaking? Can't screw the hose on tight enough to prevent a leak? Not to insult your intelligence but have you tried replacing the rubber (or similar material I'm sure) seal that goes in the female part of the hose attachment? I used to have a drawer full of them and have to replace them once a year.

Like the black piece on this pic.

 

[Scutter01]

Where is it leaking? Can't screw the hose on tight enough to prevent a leak? Not to insult your intelligence but have you tried replacing the rubber (or similar material I'm sure) seal that goes in the female part of the hose attachment? I used to have a drawer full of them and have to replace them once a year.

Like the black piece on this pic.

The valve is the leaky part.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

If it's leaking out the hole that water is supposed to be coming out of anyway, there's a washer all the way at the back. With the water off, wrench the front of the bib off and the whole guts will come out, including the washer. Replace that and wrench it back together.

 

[hoosierdoc]

can you get to the pipe in the crawl space? At least shut off there first?

 

[Scutter01]

can you get to the pipe in the crawl space? At least shut off there first?

I don't have a crawl space. I'm on a slab. I'll have to shut off the water to the entire house.

 

[eldirector]

I've replaced a few, and have more to do. Piece of cake if they have threads. Still pretty easy if they are "sweated" on.

- turn off water (nearby shutoff, or in my case, the whole darned house)
- relieve the pressure (open the hose bib)
- unscrew, or heat up the joint to loosen, then remove
- thread sealer and screw on, or slip on and heat/sweat in the solder.

You can get the little torch and solder kits from any hardware store. Tons of youtube vids of the process.

The only "hard" part is if you need to work in a crawlspace or finished basement area.

I'm replacing mine with the "frost free" versions as they fail. Necessitates cutting the pipe and sweating on the new parts, but still not all that hard. Just lots of crawling around under the house (yay!).

 

[Scutter01]

Yeah, if there's any sweating to do, I'm hiring a guy. Seriously, I'm really bad at it. Also would prefer not to accidentally melt my siding.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I think I've been sweating pipes since I was 10. Seriously, check the bib, you should be able to wrench the core out. A washer is a lot cheaper and easier to replace than the whole valve.

 

[Rookie]

Before doing anything, make sure the core isn't loose. Grab an adjustable wrench and try to tighten the fitting directly behind the faucet handle.

 

[Scutter01]

Ok, now that I'm home...

(That's rainwater, by the way. It's not spewing leaks all over the place.)

Since I have to shut the water off to the house, I don't want to start dismantling this without knowing what I'm getting myself into. If I can't put it back together, then I've got no running water until I can get someone to fix it.

I hate this hose bib. Seems like there should be a much better way to design a valve.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Looks something like mine, only mine has a blue handle and an aerator on top.

I recently had to make this same repair. Seems the conical rubber washer on the far inside of the valve decided to warp itself beyond all reason. I think I didn't get a long enough frost-free for my house. Luckily, it was installed professionally with Ameri-PEX. Unluckily, the household shutoff valve is shot, making for an unimpeded path from the curb-side valve to the sillcock.

I hear a lot of people recommending just straight up pulling the core without an attendant admonition to shut that water supply off first. Needless to say, this course of action will result in a much accelerate rate of leakage. I had to pull the water meter cover (26 mm 12-pt socket fits that funky pentagonal head) and use a set of channel-locks to shut off water to my entire house.

While I had the opportunity, I spliced in a separate indoor shutoff valve (sadly just for the sillcock) in-line with the Ameri-PEX and anchored it to the bottom of a floor joist (3/4 basement, 1/4 crawl).

Then, I installed the repair kit I bought at Lowe's for half the price of a complete new FF sillcock alone. Use a phillips screw driver to remove the handle. Apply the channel-locks to the valve body, so as not to overstress those rusty screws holding it to the house, while using a box-end wrench on that six-sided bit. That will allow you to remove the core and apply the repair kit. Alternatively, replace the whole shebang.

Apparently, while the temps remained sub-freezing, the FF sillcock stayed plugged up. When the weather warmed up, it started wasting an accelerating trickle of water. I now have about $100 worth of water bill I didn't anticipate.

I did this repair myself, only because it was PEX. If it was copper, I'd be paying Benjamin Franklin to come back and repair the valve they installed themselves.

 

[Crbn79]

The nut directly behind the handle looks awfully loose. Try to tighten it up.

They sell complete swap out kits for those for about $15 at Home depot/ (nobody seems to work here) lowes.

it's about a 10 min swap is all. Remove the one core, put in new, tighten up, put your knob back on and your good to go.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Like Crbn79 said, I'd first try to snug up the little nut just behind the handle. In the old days, that "packing nut" squeezed string-like packing that seals the valve stem. New ones just have a rubber seal, but if the nut gets loose, it will still leak.

If that doesn't fix it, and/or it's leaking at the spigot, you can shut off the water and pull the whole stem assembly out by loosening the larger nut behind the packing nut. You can replace the rubber washer at the end of the stem.

 

[Crbn79]

Like Crbn79 said, I'd first try to snug up the little nut just behind the handle. In the old days, that "packing nut" squeezed string-like packing that seals the valve stem. New ones just have a rubber seal, but if the nut gets loose, it will still leak.

It's pretty common, I rebuilt about 10 of those last year on bank owned homes. The rubber ages and looses it's elasticity.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

It's pretty common, I rebuilt about 10 of those last year on bank owned homes. The rubber ages and looses it's elasticity.

Yeah, a plumber's dream job. Fix it in 6 minutes; "That'll be $53.95, please".

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I think I've been sweating pipes since I was 10. Seriously, check the bib, you should be able to wrench the core out. A washer is a lot cheaper and easier to replace than the whole valve.

Sweating pipes was a lot easier back in the old days with real lead solder. Now, especially with big brass shut-offs, you gotta get them good and hot. I only use MAP gas these days, cause propane doesn't get hot enough.

 

[Crbn79]

Sweating pipes was a lot easier back in the old days with real lead solder. Now, especially with big brass shut-offs, you gotta get them good and hot. I only use MAP gas these days, cause propane doesn't get hot enough.

Map gas with a high output torch! That's the only way to roll with brass valves!