Every winter, without fail, we get a few calls from panicked customers (often in tears) who have water pouring into their basement. There are of course the unlucky few who have a pipe burst due to no fault of their own, but the more common reason for the tears is when the customer knows the flooding was preventable had they taken a few minutes to shut the water off in the fall. Often the reasoning is, “we’ve never shut the water off in the past and haven’t had a problem”.

While that may have been the case in the past, they definitely have a problem now.

Long story short, every hose bib needs to be winterized… It doesn’t matter if you have one of the fancy “Frost Free” ones (more on these in a second), or a regular old hose bib. Taking the necessary steps as the weather starts to turn will help prevent that teary call in the dead of winter.

So what do we do?

There are two answers, depending on the type of hose bib you have:

“Regular” Hose Bibs - The 4 Step Process

“Regular” hose bibs are just that - regular. These are the normal, old, hose bibs that have been around for forever… The kind you used to drink from as a kid.

While they’ve been around for a long time, there is a certain way they’ve been shut off in the winter for just as long - a process as old as time that’s been passed down through the generations. If it hasn’t been passed down to you, you can be the one to pass it down to your kids after reading this ;).

While simple, this 4 Step process must be done correctly and in the proper order, or you’ll leave yourself at risk of a flood.

Here we go:

Step 1

The first thing we want to do is to find and shut off the valve INSIDE the house. Yes, that’s right, there is going to be (or at least should be) a valve inside your house dedicated only to shutting the hose bib off for the winter. If you can’t find it, there’s a good chance it’s been drywalled over by some well-meaning homeowner or “handyman”. Typically speaking, this valve is going to be directly inside the house from where the hose bib is, usually in the ceiling of the basement. If it’s not there, you can also check mechanical rooms or under nearby sinks.

If you don’t have one, or can’t find it, you unfortunately might have to call the plumber to put one in for you - it’s better to call now than have to call when the pipes burst anyway!

Step 2

After you’ve shut that inside valve, go outside and remove any hoses, splitters, etc. As bonus points, try your best to drain any water from these hoses, so that when spring comes back around and you go to water the garden, you’re not heading to Home Depot for a new one!

Step 3

After removing the hose, splitters, etc., we’re going to open the hose bib outside the house. LEAVE IT OPEN FOR THE WINTER! This may be worrisome to a few of you, but there’s good reasoning behind it.

Remember the interior valve you shut in Step 1? Well, those valves can also fail. When that happens, they often allow a small amount of water to sneak past the valve and into the pipe that we’re trying to drain for the winter. If you’ve got your hose bib closed, what will happen is that pipe will slowly fill up, freeze, and we’ll be in the same position as if we hadn’t done anything at all. Leaving the outside hose bib open for the winter allows the water somewhere to go in the event of a valve failure. While you may not see the slow drip from the hose bib, you’ll definitely see the big icicle that will form outside. Seeing that icicle, you’ll know you’ve got a problem, but at least it’s not in the form of a burst pipe that’s flooding your basement.

Step 4

Lastly, you’re going to go back inside to the valve you shut off in Step 1. You’ll notice that there is (or at least should be if the correct valve was installed in the first place) what we call a “bleeder cap” on the side of the valve. If you’re unsure, it looks like a very small (roughly about 1/4” or so) screw-on cap, mounted on the side of the valve. Go ahead and open the little cap, but make sure you have your least favourite coffee mug to catch a bit of water. Opening that cap allows any remaining water in the pipe to drain - it may drain into your coffee mug or to the outside where you’ve left the valve open.

Without getting too far into the physics behind it, we need to allow air into the pipe to replace the space that the water took up. Think about when you were a kid and you put your finger over the end of a straw, trapped some Coke in the straw as you lifted it out of glass, then removed your finger to let the Coke fall out of the straw - your finger is that bleeder cap stopping the water from draining from the pipe.

Once the water stops, put the bleeder cap back on.

You’ve done it! Time to start nagging to your spouse that they don’t do anything around the house and you have to take care of everything.

“Frost Free” Hose Bibs - Easier, But Not Perfect

So called “frost free” hose bibs have been sold as a “set it and forget it” solution for those who are looking to never have to worry about turning the water off for the winter again. While you don’t technically have to turn off the water, there’s still some work to do.

Frost free hose bibs are built in a way that the “stem” (the part that shuts the water off) extends through a tube that stretches from the outside (cold side) to the inside (warm side) of the house. Since the water is actually being stopped inside the house on the warm side, in theory, there isn’t any water that sits inside that tube which can freeze.

As a quick caveat, this assumes proper initial installation - having the frost free hose bib sloped with the inside end lower than the outside end will still trap water and create a situation where freezing can occur, so we need to make sure that water can drain from inside to out when installing these.

Now, the ONLY thing you have to make sure you do to prepare for the winter is… drumroll please… remove the hose! I know, it’s tough. Alongside the hose, just the same as the regular hose bibs, make sure to remove any splitters, irrigation systems, or that pressure washer you bought your husband that he never uses. The reason to remove these things is that like we said earlier, the frost free hose bib needs to be able to drain itself of any water that might be stuck in there (which if installed properly, should happen automatically) - and your hose is the only thing stopping it. Once that water drains, there should be nothing left to freeze!

Voila, you’ve winterized your frost free hose bib.

In Conclusion…

No matter what type of hose bib you have, you need to take the steps in order to make sure it’s properly set up for success over the winter months. I typically suggest taking care of this in mid to late October before a real threat of freezing, but make sure to watch the weather. It doesn’t take long for these pipes to freeze and you don’t want to be the one to make that teary-eyed call!