Seasonal · Toilets, sinks & showers
Winterizing Outdoor Faucets
The first hard frost in Markham often arrives in late October or November. Ten minutes at the hose bib before then saves a cracked pipe in spring.
- A plumber answers when you call
- Clear price before any pipe is cut
- Basements left as clean as we found them
The Markham angle
An outdoor faucet is the one place your plumbing pokes straight through the wall into the weather. If water is left in that short stretch of pipe, it freezes, expands and splits the line. The worst part is the timing: the crack often stays hidden until April, the first time the garden hose runs and water pours into the basement ceiling instead of the garden.
Homes across Markham, from Box Grove to Buttonville, use two kinds of outdoor taps. Older houses usually have a standard bib that relies on its own indoor shut-off. Many newer homes have frost-free sillcocks, with a long stem that closes the valve well inside the warm wall.
One step after another
- Disconnect the hose. Take off hoses, splitters and timers. A hose left attached traps water in a frost-free tap and defeats its design.
- Find the inside shut-off. For standard bibs, look in the basement ceiling or a nearby utility room for a small valve on the line heading to the outside wall.
- Close it. Turn the inside valve fully off.
- Drain the line. Open the outdoor tap and leave it open. If the inside valve has a small bleed cap, open that over a pail to let trapped water out.
- Check frost-free taps. Even these benefit from an inside shut-off if one exists. At minimum, make sure the hose is off and the tap slopes slightly downward to the outside.
- Cover if you like. Foam faucet covers add a little protection on very cold nights but do not replace draining.
- Don't forget the extras. Irrigation systems, garden sinks and outdoor kitchens all need their own shutdown.
Slip-ups we see often
- Shutting the indoor valve yet forgetting to open the tap outside. Water stays trapped between the two and can still freeze.
- Assuming a frost-free tap cannot burst. With a hose attached, it can.
- Turning the water back on in March during a warm spell, then getting caught by a late frost.
- Ignoring a tap that dripped all summer. A worn washer or cracked body is easier to replace in the fall than after a freeze.
Spring start-up
When nights stay above freezing, usually by late April, open the inside valve slowly with the outdoor tap open. Then close the tap and look inside along the line for drips. If the basement ceiling gets wet, shut it off and call us.
Time to pick up the phone
Call if you cannot find an inside shut-off, if that valve refuses to turn, or if you want a frost-free sillcock installed. We handle outdoor faucet repair and can add shut-off valves where none exist. For the rest of the house, see our brief on preventing frozen pipes.
If the inside valve has a small bleed cap, open that over a pail to let trapped water out.
From the job notes of Plumbers in Markham
Guide · Toilets, sinks & showers
Signs to watch for
- A drip from the spout or a damp cabinet floor
- The shower goes scalding when someone flushes
Call a plumber when
- Water is reaching a ceiling, wall cavity or electrical panel
- Sewage is coming up through a floor drain or toilet
- You smell gas near the water heater: leave and call the gas utility first
- A valve will not close or a fitting keeps weeping after tightening
Markham note. Builder-grade fixtures in 1990s and 2000s Markham subdivisions are now twenty to thirty years old, which is when fill valves, shower cartridges and the plastic shut-off stops under sinks start to fail.