How to Winterize Your Exterior Faucets
A single forgotten garden hose is the most common cause of burst pipes every winter. Water left in the faucet, hose, or supply line freezes, expands, and splits copper or PEX in hidden wall cavities. The damage rarely shows until spring thaw—when you turn the faucet on and flood your basement. Thirty minutes of work now prevents thousands in repair bills.
Quick Summary
Time Required
30 minutes
Difficulty
Easy — DIY friendly
Cost
$5–$15 per faucet cover
Disconnect Every Hose from Every Spigot
Before you touch a valve, walk the perimeter of your house and remove every hose. A connected hose is the single biggest reason winterization fails, because it traps a column of water against the faucet where it has nowhere to go when it freezes.
Unthread every hose
Check the front, back, and sides of the house plus any detached garage, shed, or deck spigots. Hoses connected to splitters and quick-connect fittings count—remove them all, not just the main hose. If a coupling is stuck, use slip-joint pliers gently to break it free.
Drain the hoses completely
Stretch each hose out flat, then lift one end and walk it toward the other to push water out. A standard 50-foot hose holds more than a gallon of water. Draining prevents the hose from bursting in storage and makes it much easier to coil without kinking.
Store hoses out of the weather
Coil hoses and hang them inside a garage, basement, or shed. UV light and freeze-thaw cycles destroy rubber and vinyl hoses within a few seasons. Storing indoors doubles or triples their useful life, and the same goes for sprayer attachments and pistol nozzles.
Locate and Close the Interior Shutoff Valve
Every properly plumbed exterior faucet has a dedicated shutoff valve inside the house. Finding yours once means you will always know where it is for future years and for any plumbing emergency.
Where to Find the Shutoff Valve
- Basement or crawl space: Follow the pipe that penetrates the rim joist from the outdoor spigot. The shutoff valve is almost always within a few feet of where the pipe enters the wall.
- Utility or mechanical room: In slab-on-grade homes, exterior hose bibb lines often branch off the main water supply in the laundry or mechanical closet.
- Under a kitchen or bath sink: Some older homes tee the outdoor faucet off an interior fixture. Look for a valve under the nearest sink to the outdoor spigot.
- No dedicated valve: If you cannot find one, you have either a frost-free bibb that drains itself (still disconnect hoses and add a cover) or a plumbing oversight worth correcting—a plumber can add a shutoff with bleeder for $150–$300.
Drain the Line Completely
Closing the interior valve is only half the job. The water between that valve and the exterior faucet still sits in the pipe and will freeze. You need to physically drain that trapped column of water.
Open the outdoor faucet fully
With the interior valve closed, walk back outside and crank the outdoor faucet wide open. Water will gush at first, then slow to a drip, then stop. Let it run for a full minute to be sure. Leave the faucet in the open position all winter so any residual water has room to expand rather than push against closed fittings.
Bleed the interior valve
Most interior shutoff valves have a small bleeder screw or cap on the side, usually a quarter-inch brass fitting. Place a bucket or rag underneath and open the bleeder one to two turns. Water trapped in the pipe will run out. Close the bleeder when flow stops.
Listen for the line to go dry
You should hear air replacing water through the bleeder as the line clears. If water continues to trickle after two or three minutes, your interior valve is not fully closing. Have it replaced before a freeze arrives—a leaking shutoff defeats the entire winterization.
Insulated Covers and Frost-Free vs Standard Bibbs
The final step is physical insulation. A $5 foam cover adds a layer of dead-air insulation between the spigot and the wind, and it dramatically reduces the chance of a surprise overnight freeze reaching the pipe behind your wall.
- Standard hose bibbs: These place the shutoff valve right at the spigot, meaning the entire pipe on the exterior side of the wall can freeze. They require all four steps above—disconnect, shut off inside, drain, and cover—every single year.
- Frost-free (frost-proof) bibbs: These have a long stem that places the shutoff valve 6 to 12 inches inside the heated wall cavity. When you close the handle, water drains out of the exterior portion of the pipe automatically. They are still vulnerable if you leave a hose connected or if the bibb was installed tilted up instead of slightly down toward the spigot.
- Choosing a cover: Soft foam covers with a draw-string cost about $3 and work fine for typical winters. Hard-shell plastic covers with a foam liner cost $8–$15 and handle extreme cold better. Both strap against the siding with a rubber loop that hooks around the spigot—make sure the seal against the wall is tight so wind cannot funnel cold air under the cover.
- Installation: Slip the cover over the faucet, pull the strap through the back, and hook it over the spigot handle or stem. The cover should sit flat against the siding with no visible gap. If your spigot has a vacuum breaker on top, use a larger cover sized for that geometry.
Pro Tips
- •Label the shutoff valves: Tie a luggage tag to each interior shutoff valve with the location of the outdoor faucet it controls. Next fall you will not waste 20 minutes tracing pipes, and during a plumbing emergency anyone in the house can identify the right valve instantly.
- •Do it before you need a furnace: The perfect trigger is the first night you turn the heat on. That is typically 2–4 weeks before a hard freeze, which gives you plenty of buffer. Do not wait for a freeze warning on the forecast—sudden cold snaps catch procrastinators every year.
- •Inspect the spigot for leaks now: With the outdoor faucet open and interior valve closed, touch the packing nut and handle. A dripping packing nut means the faucet itself is worn. Replace a standard hose bibb for about $15 in parts, or install a frost-free replacement for $30–$60. Either is a 30-minute job with a pipe wrench.
- •Do not trust a single freeze event: One mild winter does not mean your plumbing is safe. Microclimates on a windy north wall can freeze a pipe even when the forecast low is 34F. Winterize every single exterior faucet every single fall, including ones you never use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I still need to winterize a frost-free faucet?
Yes. Frost-free (also called frost-proof) hose bibbs extend the shutoff valve 6 to 12 inches back into the heated part of the house, so the water column drains on its own when you close the handle. But they only work correctly if no hose is attached. A connected hose traps water in the faucet body where it can freeze and split the pipe inside your wall. Always disconnect hoses from frost-free faucets, and if the bibb sits on a cold rim joist or tilts the wrong way, add an insulated cover for extra protection.
When exactly should I winterize outdoor faucets?
Winterize before the first hard freeze, defined as an overnight low in the upper 20s Fahrenheit or colder for several hours. In most of the northern United States this falls between mid-October and mid-November. Do not wait for the forecast to tell you a freeze is coming tonight, because a single unexpected dip into the mid-20s can crack a pipe. A good rule is to winterize the same weekend you turn on your heating system for the season.
What happens if I skip winterizing an outdoor faucet?
Water trapped in the faucet or the pipe behind it expands by about 9 percent when it freezes. That pressure can split copper or PEX supply lines inside the wall. The damage often is not visible until spring, when you turn the faucet on and water pours into the basement or wall cavity instead of out the spout. A single burst supply line can dump hundreds of gallons in an hour and typical repair costs run from $400 for a simple pipe replacement to $5,000 or more if the leak runs behind finished drywall, damages flooring, or reaches framing.
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