How to Winterize Outdoor Faucets Before the First Freeze

Every winter, burst hose bibs flood basements and crawlspaces, and every one of them was preventable. Ten minutes in October saves you a plumber, a mess, and a few hundred dollars. Here is the whole job.

Step 1: Disconnect everything

Take off every hose, splitter, and timer from every outdoor faucet. This is the step most people skip, and it is the most important one. A hose left connected traps water in the faucet body. That trapped water freezes, expands, and splits the pipe inside your wall where you cannot see it. Disconnect now, drain the hoses, and store them out of the weather.

Step 2: Shut off the inside valve

Most outdoor faucets have a shutoff valve inside the house, on the pipe feeding the faucet. It is usually in the basement, crawlspace, or utility room. Turn it clockwise until it stops. Then go back outside and open the faucet itself. Water trapped between the shutoff and the faucet drains out. Leave the outside faucet open all winter so any remaining water has room to expand.

Step 3: Drain the line

Many inside shutoff valves have a little drain cap on the side. Put a bucket under it, unscrew the cap, and let the water between the valve and the outside faucet drain out. When it stops dripping, screw the cap back on. This empties the section of pipe most likely to freeze.

Step 4: Cover the faucet

Foam faucet covers cost a few dollars and add real insulation. They are not magic, but combined with a drained line they handle all but the worst cold snaps. Slip one over each outdoor faucet and tighten it. If you do not have covers yet, even a thick rag wrapped and bagged beats nothing, but buy the foam covers. They are cheap.

Frost-free vs regular hose bibs

A frost-free hose bib has a long stem that shuts the water off twelve inches inside the warm house instead of at the outside wall. They are much more freeze resistant, but they are not freeze proof. If you leave a hose connected, water stays trapped in the long stem and it will still burst. The disconnect rule applies to frost-free faucets too. If your house has old regular hose bibs in a cold climate, upgrading to frost-free is a worthwhile project, but winterizing as described still comes first.

What if you forgot and it froze?

If a faucet will not flow on a cold morning, do not force it. Open the faucet, then warm the pipe gently starting from the faucet end working back toward the house. A hair dryer on low or warm towels works. Never use a torch. Once water flows, check inside the house along that pipe run for drips. A split pipe often does not leak until it thaws, so check again when temperatures rise.

Do not forget the irrigation system

If you have underground sprinklers, they need winterizing too, and it is a bigger job than hose bibs. The lines must be blown out with compressed air to prevent freeze splits. Most homeowners hire this out once a year, and it is money well spent. A split irrigation line underground is an expensive dig. Schedule the blowout when you winterize the faucets so nothing gets missed.

Mark your calendar for the same weekend every year. Tie it to another fall job like changing smoke detector batteries or putting the patio furniture away. Rituals get done. Good intentions do not.