<p>Dh is spending part of his winter break cursing our plumbing. The outside spigot has long had a leak. He replaced the washer, and it still leaks, though not as badly. When they built the house (about 30 yo), the spigot was actually cemented into the brick, so he can’t replace the whole apparatus without busting up the brick. Any other ideas on how to stop the leak?</p>
<p>Where does it leak? Can you take apart the faucet and put in new plumber’s tape?</p>
<p>Buy a screw-on spigot cap for a couple of dollars and cap it. When you need to use the spigot just remove the cap, screw on the hose and then replace the cap when done. This assumes it’s leaking from the outlet though as opposed to through the valve.</p>
<p>I use ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad’s method on my leaky outside faucets. If you want to “solve” the problem though, you do have a couple of options. If you’re feeling ambitious, you could (turn off the water line to the faucet, and) twist the faucet to see if it’s the screw-on type. That type can be replaced from the outside of the house. If it turns out it’s soldered on, you can (probably) replace it from the basement or crawl-space … presuming you know how to solder of course. If you’re not that ambitious, I’ve had reasonable luck grinding the seat in the faucet valve a bit … just enough that a new plastic washer will seat well enough to eliminate the leak.</p>
<p>Good luck, whatever you decide.</p>
<p>Actually, that gives me an idea… Our outside faucets have inside valves so they can be turned off for the winter. If your faucet feed line is easily accessible from inside, you could add a valve to the line.</p>
<p>Thanks. He likes the cap idea best. It is leaking from the outlet. We have a slab foundation, not pier-and-beam, and no basement.</p>