A leaking outdoor faucet wastes thousands of litres a year and, in a York Region winter, an unprotected hose bib can freeze and split the pipe behind the wall. We fix and upgrade them properly.
Outdoor faucets, also called hose bibs or exterior spigots, take more abuse than any other plumbing fixture on your home. They face full temperature swings year-round, get left running, and have hoses left connected into freezing weather. The result is leaking valves, corroded stems, and, in winter, burst pipes inside the wall when the water trapped in a standard (non-frost-free) faucet freezes and expands.
We repair leaking and seized hose bibs, replace damaged exterior spigots, and install frost-free (freezeless) faucets. A frost-free bib has a long stem that puts the valve seat inside the heated part of the wall, so the section outside drains when you close it. We set them with a slight downward pitch to the outside so they can drain, and fit a vacuum breaker (the anti-siphon part) so hose water cannot be drawn back into the house supply.
If you had a frozen outdoor faucet this past winter, or you still have a standard hose bib on a home in York Region, upgrading to a frost-free unit before next winter is one of the most cost-effective plumbing improvements you can make. We carry frost-free faucets in standard lengths on every service truck and can usually complete the swap in under an hour.
A frost-free hose bib costs less than the plumbing repair after a single freeze-burst event. If your home does not have them, we can upgrade all exterior faucets in a single visit.
Straightforward, no-surprise service from the first call to the final test.
We check the faucet, the shut-off valve, and the pipe section behind the wall to understand the full scope of the problem.
Repairable faucets are fixed on the spot. Failed, corroded, or standard (non-frost-free) units are replaced with frost-free models.
We check the pipe section inside the wall for any freeze damage before closing everything up.
We run the faucet through full open and closed cycles and check for any drips at the body, handle, and supply connection.
In converted cottages around Keswick, Sutton and Jackson's Point, the pipe feeding the outside tap often runs through a crawl space or inside an outside wall that never warms up, so a frost-free bib on the end of it does not protect the pipe itself. There we add an inside shut-off and a drain-down point so the whole run can be emptied, and on a seasonal place the tap is part of the fall cottage drain-down in Georgina.
In the older cores of Newmarket, Aurora and Holland Landing the original bib may be threaded onto old galvanized supply that has corroded behind the wall, so we check that pipe before forcing a seized valve. If a tap has already frozen and split the line inside, that is a burst pipe repair; our guide to preventing frozen pipes in York Region covers what to do before the first hard frost.
Whether the bib can be repaired or has to be replaced, whether there is a working inside shut-off, whether the pipe behind the wall needs replacing, what the wall is made of (siding, brick or stone outside, a finished ceiling inside), and how many taps we do in one visit. You get a written price before we start.
What York Region homeowners ask about hose bibs and exterior spigots.
Outdoor faucet and hose bib service is available in every community we serve.
We can usually fix or replace a hose bib the same day you call, and if you want to upgrade to frost-free before next winter, now is the right time.
