Maintenance

Replacing Outdoor Spigots

Ever since we moved into our house, I never gave a thought about winterizing our spigots because I had no idea I need to do that. Last winter, I didn’t even disconnect the hose from the spigot. When we were driving back from skiing on a snowy day, my wife told me about it, she made me worried. I was praying the pipes wouldn’t bust. I disconnected the hose from the spigot the next day. Fortunately, we didn’t have any issue and I started looking into winterizing out spigots.

A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law noticed that the spigot in front of the house started to leak. Although tightened up the screw stopped the leak, it was time to replace the old spigots with the hose bibb round wheel handles with the ball valves. I called my handyman Ricardo.

I watched him replacing the spigots and learned so I could be more confidence if I have to replace them on my own. When he cut up the ceiling for the back spigot, we discovered a shut-off valve to winterize the spigot. I asked him to replace the valve as well. Even though we didn’t discover a shut-off valve for the front spigot, I asked him to put one in as well just to make sure we won’t have any issue in the winter.

While I had him in the house on Monday, I asked him to replace the shut-off valves for the kitchen faucet. I could have replaced them myself, but I rather had the professional taking care of them for now. He recommended Sharkbite technology for the plumbing works even though he could also do the soldering. I now have a peace of mind knowing where all the pipes are and how to fix them.

Here are the products we used:

The labor was $400. He also fixed the leaking PVC pipe that drains from our half bath. I forgot what the part called.