can i repair and old outside faucet(sill cock?)?

[Jill of all trades]

I live in a house built in the late 70's and have put vinyl siding on the old exterior. I have an old outside faucet that has leaked for years no matter how hard I turn on the handle.

I want to know if it can be repaired with out having to replace it since I would have to take the vinyl siding off in order to remove the old spigot. It is an old Mansfield brass spigot and it leaks from the spout and not around the handle.

I assume that this is a washer-less spigot and it is possible that it may just be wore out although it has leaked as long as we have lived in the house which has been 13 years and must have leaked for some time prior to our ownership because the exterior wood that we vinyled over was water damaged.

I know I said I am a Jill of all trades which is true cause I have done a little of it all over the last few years I just tend to let things like this go since I am a procrastinator and my husband is certainly not a handyman. So it all falls on me to do the repair work.

So can someone help we while I am in the mood to do it?!!!!!!!

I this works then I might become a regular on here since I have several things that leak around here and it is getting to be ridiculous how long I have put off fixing them.

Thank you
Michelle

 

[Terry]

Most outside faucets are of the frostfree type.
They tend to be 6" to 8" long, and are placed in line with an interior wall.
The connection is normally inside the house.
There would be no need to go through the siding, nor would it help in any way.

Replacement is the best answer for something that old.
Most of the time, you cut the wall inside where the faucet would be attaching to a pipe, using two wrenches, you can spin off the old one, and reinstall the new one, assuming they are the same length.

Most of the time, I'm not that lucky, and I have to solder a different length of pipe on.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Wet_Boots]

If you obtain a faucet washer assortment, you should be able to repair the sillcock. You might also want to get some 'packing' to have on hand when repairing these things. You'll have to have a really, really old faucet, not for it to take a washer you'll have in a box of assorted washers.

 

[Terry]

Replacing the washer is easy?

You can try, but at best, that's only half the fix.
Is the seat the washer sets on still good?

 

[Cass]

99% of the mansfields I have tried to repair start leaking a short time after being repaired if it works at all. In my NSHO replacing the whole thing is what should be done but the repair kits are $3.00 so it might be fun to try.

 

[Wet_Boots]

Replacing the washer is easy?

You can try, but at best, that's only half the fix.
Is the seat the washer sets on still good?

Sillcock repair is an occasional sideline of mine, when forced to employ one as a water source for a lawn sprinkler system, the alternative being a four-figure plumbing-and-carpentry job in a finished basement. (not that I have anything against a homeowner standing the expense for that kind of work, should they want) I have to install new washers on ones that drip, and maybe add some packing if there's leakage from the stem. The repaired sillcock doesn't have to be in brand-new condition. It only has to shut off drip tight for winter, and not leak water when opened in the springtime. Otherwise, it's never touched. A new hose bib will be used by the customer for the garden hose.

I've never seen any extreme problems on ordinary (not supplying sprinkler systems) sillcocks I've put new washers in, none of them being the frostproof type. Most of them were Nibco brand. The worst problems were on old sillcocks without packing nuts, because it wasn't always easy to keep them from leaking along the stem.

Most of these almost-swallowed-by-new-siding sillcocks seem to get a Siamese shutoff Y-connector threaded onto them anyway, so good-as-new operation really isn't needed. Just no drips in winter.

Of course, if Mansfield sillcocks are like the cheapo ones where the screw holding the washer in place will corrode away, I take it all back about it being easy to repair.

 

[Kordts]

Does this sillcock repair include backflow prevention?

 

[Wet_Boots]

Does this sillcock repair include backflow prevention?

A homeowner can always install a hose-thread vacuum breaker on a old sillcock, if desired. Around these parts, there doesn't seem to be any hue and outcry over old sillcocks that don't have vacuum breakers. Houses still get sold, without mandatory retrofits.

As a side-issue, with wide regional variations, are policies that forbid the existence of any threaded outlet on exterior lawn sprinkler plumbing, upstream of a backflow preventer. I personally don't like the idea, because it does not allow the simple preventative of opening an exterior drain on the plumbing's low point (pipe exiting a home above grade) to protect it from water leaking by a defective indoor shutoff valve, and the use of said drain as the connection point for compressed air for winterizing the sprinklers. ~ What such policies seem to overlook, is the fact that any BP with testcocks possess those selfsame prohibited threaded openings, and upstream of the actual backflow-protecting part of the device.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

you are wasteing your time

I dont repair sillcockls... because half the time
you cant repair the SEAT and you charge the customer
$$ jsut for a temporary fix..... you cant warranty the job for 5 minutes...

or you break the faucet trying to make the reapir....


also you get yourself into a liability issue next spring
when their home floods out due to the leaking washer you
installed 6 months earlier freezing and breaking the inner pipeing........


just go get a good WOODFORD frost free hose bib and


do like Master Terry has laready told you to do....


he no lead you wrong....

 

[Wet_Boots]

Will the kindly advisor also spring for the carpentry repairs? Rebuilding the marble-walled bathroom on the other side of the sillcock? Moving fifty-nine feet on his back to get at the inside plumbing in a crawl space that has broken glass in it? I'll take vanilla.

The nice lady only wanted to know if the thing can (and it can) be repaired, not whether a professional plumber, with an understandable dislike for callbacks, would be interested in attempting the task. If a repair doesn't work, she can always go to plan B.

I have a Woodford binder, and it's interesting how they try to out-think the homeowners who never remember to remove the hoses from the sillcocks. Too bad they can't solve the situation where the homeowner not only leaves the hose connected, but also has the water left on, with a trigger spray on the hose. Every fall, I rescue a few clients like that, a day or two before a hard freeze.