Hose Bib Repair and Replacement in Greater Seattle
Done Right Plumbing repairs, replaces and adds outdoor faucets, the hose bibs on the outside of the house, from Lynnwood and Bothell down to Seattle. We stop drips, replace bibs that have cracked or no longer shut off, install frost-free models that drain themselves, and run new ones through the foundation wherever a house needs another tap.
Should I Repair a Leaking Hose Bib or Replace It?
Repair it when the leak is at the spout or the handle and the faucet still shuts off, because new gaskets, a washer or packing usually stop it. Replace it when the body has cracked, the tube behind the wall has split in a freeze, or the valve no longer closes, and choose a frost-free model when you do.
The two cases look different from the start. In September, in the Highlands at Mill Creek, Malikai and Joshua stopped a leaking hose bib with new gaskets, a repair that cost a fraction of a replacement. A split tube is another matter: the water escapes inside the wall, the faucet cannot be rebuilt, and the only lasting fix is a new bib.
Real Work: A Failed Hose Bib in Hawthorne Hills
In October, Joseph T. replaced a failed hose bib on the side of a house in Hawthorne Hills, in northeast Seattle between Laurelhurst and Bryant. The old faucet came off the wall, and a new one was mounted on the siding and connected to the copper supply line inside. The work carries our one-year warranty.
Near Lynnwood, in Alderwood Manor, Nick and Jeremy have been adding outdoor faucets to houses that needed more of them. In March they put in two at one house, one in the front yard and one by the back patio, each drilled through the foundation and tied into a cold water line in the crawlspace, and in June another went in the same way at a second house. In Bothell's Wayne neighborhood, they installed a hose bib that a homeowner had bought, on the side of the house below the kitchen sink.
What We Do
Replace a cracked or failed hose bib
The old faucet comes off the wall and the supply line inside is cut back to sound pipe, so the new bib connects to good material. Where the wall allows it, we fit a frost-free model whose body is long enough to put its valve inside the heated house.
Install frost-free hose bibs
A frost-free hose bib, also called a frost-proof sillcock, keeps its shutoff six to twelve inches inside the wall, where the house keeps it warm. When you close it, the water left in the tube between the valve and the spout drains out through the spout, as long as the bib slopes slightly toward the outside and nothing is attached to it.
Add an outdoor faucet where there isn't one
A tap for the back garden, one by the driveway for washing the car, or one on a side of the house that never had water. We tie into a cold water line in the crawlspace or basement, run new pipe to the spot, drill through the foundation or the rim of the house, and set the new bib so it drains to the outside.
Stop a drip at the spout or the handle
Water dripping from the spout means a worn washer or seat inside the valve, and water seeping around the handle stem means the packing has worn. When the body and the tube are sound, replacing those parts ends the leak, as the new gaskets did in Mill Creek.
Backflow protection on every hose connection
The Uniform Plumbing Code, which Washington adopts, requires backflow protection on an outdoor faucet that takes a hose: a vacuum breaker that cannot be removed, built into the faucet or fixed to it, so water from a hose lying in a puddle or a sprayer full of fertilizer can never be drawn back into the house pipes. Where freezing weather occurs, the code calls for a self-draining frost-proof bib with that protection built in.
Install the hose bib you bought
We install customer-supplied hose bibs too, as we did in Wayne. The faucet's own warranty comes from its maker, since we can only warranty the parts we supply.
What Freezes Hose Bibs Around Seattle
Western Washington winters are mild most of the time, which is exactly why outdoor faucets get forgotten, and a few nights of hard frost are enough to do the damage. A hose left connected holds water in the faucet and in the tube behind the wall. That water freezes, expands and splits the tube, and nobody knows until the first warm day of spring, when the faucet is opened and the water runs into the wall or the crawlspace instead of out of the spout.
Seattle Public Utilities' winter advice covers the basics: disconnect and drain garden hoses, insulate or cover outdoor faucets and exposed pipes, shut off and drain in-ground sprinklers, and know where your main water shutoff is. In a crawlspace house, the line feeding an outdoor faucet runs through the coldest part of the house, along the outside wall, so it deserves insulation as much as the faucet does.
Pressure wears hose bibs out too. Above 80 psi, the point where the plumbing code calls for a regulator, washers and packing give out early, and our water pressure page explains how to check yours.
Our Process
1. Find out what failed
A drip at the spout, a leak at the handle, water inside the wall, or a faucet in the wrong place each lead to a different fix, so we start by finding which one we are dealing with.
2. Shut off and protect
We close the branch valve for the outside faucets, or the main if there is none, and protect the wall and the floor inside.
3. Remove the old faucet
The old bib comes out and the pipe behind it is cut back to sound material.
4. Set and connect the new bib
A frost-free body sized to the wall, sloped to drain, sealed at the flange and protected against backflow, connected to the supply line inside.
5. Test it, inside and out
We open the faucet under full pressure, close it, and check the connection inside for leaks before we leave.
FAQs About Hose Bibs
Why does my outdoor faucet leak inside the wall when I turn it on?
Because the tube behind the wall has split, usually in a freeze. On a frost-free hose bib the valve sits inside the house, so a split tube leaks only while the faucet is open, sending water into the wall or crawlspace instead of out of the spout. Stop using it and have it replaced; the tube cannot be patched.
Is a frost-free hose bib really frost-proof?
Only if it can drain. A frost-free bib keeps its valve inside the heated house and empties the tube when you close it, but a connected hose or splitter holds water in that tube, and a bib installed level or sloping back toward the house cannot empty itself. Either way, the water left inside can freeze and split it.
What is the little cap on top of my outdoor faucet?
It is a vacuum breaker, a small backflow preventer. It stops water in a hose lying in a puddle or feeding a fertilizer sprayer from being drawn back into your house pipes if the pressure drops. The plumbing code requires one on outdoor faucets that take a hose, and water leaking from it means a worn part.
Can you add an outdoor faucet where I don't have one?
Yes. We tie into a cold water line in the crawlspace or basement, run new pipe to the spot, drill through the foundation or wall, and set a new hose bib, ideally a frost-free one. Near Lynnwood this year we added two at one house, in the front yard and by the back patio, and another at a second house.
How much does it cost to replace a hose bib?
A straight swap, with the connection easy to reach from inside, is one of our smaller jobs. The price rises when a finished wall or ceiling has to be opened, when the new bib needs a longer frost-free body, or when a faucet is moved or added, which means new pipe and a hole through the foundation.
We quote it after seeing the faucet and what sits behind it.
Hose Bib Service Across Snohomish and King Counties
From our Lynnwood shop we repair, replace and add hose bibs in Lynnwood, Seattle, Bothell, Mill Creek, Edmonds, Shoreline, Kirkland, Bellevue and the towns between them. If you are getting the house ready for winter, our fall plumbing checklist covers the outdoor faucets along with everything else.
Licensed, Bonded & Insured
WA Contractor License #DONERRP852N5
Done Right Plumbing is licensed, bonded and insured in Washington State and family-owned since 2011, with twelve technicians working out of our Lynnwood shop.
Call About an Outdoor Faucet
A faucet that drips from the spout, water in the crawlspace whenever the hose bib is on, or a garden with no tap anywhere near it? Call for a free estimate, or request a callback and we will reach you at a time that works.