How To Repair A Hose Bib

Learn how to supersede a hose bib the piece of cake way. No soldering or fancy tools needed, and no demand to pay someone to practice it for you!

Did my hose bib survive the wintertime? Let'southward turn it on and find out!

It's ane of the classic Rites of Leap along with volition my lawnmower start?,what new species of weed is this?, and how much canis familiaris poop survived the winter and is waiting to be scooped?

When we moved into this house in late leap of 2022, I had the pleasure of meeting this unruly and ill-tempered hose bib. Its sometime-timey blueish handle was spackled with white paint or possibly bird shit. I considered either choice equally likely. The spigot jutted from the firm as if eager to escape its cramped quarters in a lonely corner of the front end garden. But worst of all, at some betoken, someone had welded (or in another way, made permanent) the gold-ish attachment to the primary bib which served no purpose (every bit far equally I could tell) other than spraying and soaking the hapless schlub tasked with turning on the spigot. This schlub learned his lesson the hard way afterwards hooking up my hose and naively thinking I'd soon be watering my plants. The moment I twisted the blue wheel of misfortune, I was violently sprayed almost the head, neck and breast with a cool, chlorinated blast of nourishing city h2o.

I closed the spigot (in itself a creaky and precarious proposition) and tried removing the mysterious gilt protuberance with my centre-aged and weakening easily.

No dice.

I tried again with vice-grip pliers. Surely the unwelcome hose-bib parasite would yield to the mighty power of hardened steel!

Zero doing.

It actually had been welded on! I allow out a stream of sailor talk and threw my head back then I could bellow to the clouds.

Why? Why exercise people do stupid things like this? Why??

I wiped the bleach-scented h2o from my face and stormed away muttering indelicate phrases while my eye twitched with fury.

Spray me in the face, will y'all? I mumbled.

Welded, are you? I grumbled.

We'll see about THAT! I promised.

I ran to my car and hightailed it to Home Depot. Fixing was off the table. This called for a total-on hose bib replacement.

How to Replace a Hose Bib

(Note: it's actually spelled "bibb," simply since I'm non only writing this tutorial for you, dear TNP reader, but also for the wandering searchers of Google, I'm spelling it the fashion it'south most-commonly searched. In fact, according to my search-engine sources, basically no one on earth searches for "hose bibb.")

When I was younger and dumber, I once paid someone more than than I care to admit to supersede a hose bib that was all loosey-goosey exterior the house. What a complicated affair information technology was with all the soldering! I filed the experience away and vowed that if I ever needed to replace another hose bib, I'd do it myself, and I'd find a better fashion.

And then I did. Have you heard of SharkBite? These are the guys who figured out a fashion to make plumbing easy.

Hither's all it needed.

Supplies to replace a hose bib

2-human foot length of 1/2″ copper piping (you may need more or less, just Home Depot sells 2-foot lengths for under $six. You may also have 3/4 inch piping, then verify earlier purchasing.)
i/2 inch SharkBite hose bib (I'one thousand a big fan of i/4-turn spigots as opposed to the turn-and-turn-and-turn variety of yesteryear, simply if you similar wrist workouts, by all ways, buy the quondam-timey type.)
one/2 inch x 1/2 inch SharkBite straight coupling
Mini pipe cutter
Outdoor caulk (optional)

Since this item spigot was in the front of the firm, I had to climb upward on a ladder in the basement to access its entry bespeak into the house. When I supersede the lawn hose spigot afterwards this jump, it'll be a much easier affair, since the basement is walk-out back there.

Anyway, before doing anything, I turned off the water to this spigot. Every outdoor spigot has a shut-off valve somewhere simply inside the business firm. Information technology should go without proverb that you shut it off before starting a job like this. Then again, I'chiliad sure American infirmary beds are peppered with dingbats who embarked upon electrical repairs without outset de-energizing the piece of work site.

*sigh*

So, in the interest of keeping yourself dry out and warm, delight plow off the water to the spigot earlier attempting to replace a hose bib.

Anyway, I cutting the pipage about halfway between the joist and the ninety-caste elbow. These mini pipe cutters are amazing for this sort of work. Merely brand sure y'all don't cutting off a section longer than the replacement piping y'all bought.

With the pipe cutting, I would be able to remove the old spigot.

Back outside, I simply pulled the old hose bib and piping out from the pigsty.

I laid the two pipes on the only work surface I had at the time (remember, this was just after nosotros moved in, and I didn't take whatever sort of workbench still).

To one cease of the new pipe, I fastened the new hose bib. SharkBite makes it so like shooting fish in a barrel. All that's needed to connect the two components is pushing them together.

The straight coupling would connect the new pipe to the existing water pipe.

I lined upwardly the former and new hose bibs and then I could measure out the pipe at the back end.

The coupling would add about 1/two inch (considering of the middle part shown by the red lines) to the overall length if I cut the new pipe to the same length every bit the old.

And then I accounted for this past cutting the new pipage 1/2 inch shorter than the old i.

Back outside, I inserted the new pipe and hose bib back into its pigsty.

Then dorsum within for the final step of connecting the new pipe to the existing pipe with the straight coupling.

Couldn't be easier! All told, this was about a 15 minute fix, and most of that time was figuring out how I was going to proceed. I'm sure I tin can practice the dorsum spigot in 5 minutes.

There's actually no demand to hire a plumber or handyman for a job similar this. As long as yous have admission to where the pipe enters the house, you can replace a hose bib yourself. This ranks among the easiest of abode DIYs, but information technology's ane that many people might remember is beyond their skill set because they see soldered copper pipes.

At that place are a few options on the outside at this bespeak. There are screw holes to secure the hose bib to your siding. Because we have brick cladding, I decided against screws. Too many holes in one brick might cause information technology to scissure. I did, notwithstanding, put a band of outdoor caulk around the hole that leads inside the house. Though it was already a snug fit, and there was no testify of prior h2o leaks or insect incursions, all-time non to accept a chance. Caulk secured the spigot, merely I can still hands remove or replace it if I demand to in the hereafter.