Sometimes you run across a leaking spicket that is on the outside of the house. If you live in the city, this could increase your water bill not by much but still an increase. If you live out in the country this might increase the electric bill because the well keeps on running to provide that water. Depending on the type of spicket that you have will depend on the fix. If you have a standard compression spicket, which usually has the round metal handle on it, the leak may be coming from the handle stem, if so all you have to do it tighten the packing nut that is buy the handle. To do this just take a wrench and tight the packing nut around the stem. Now if that doesn't fix it, and the handle is still leaking, or that the leak is coming from the spot, we are going to have to take the take the spicket apart. To do this we want to start off by shutting off the water to the spicket. This is done usually in the basement or crawl space. Now if your house is on a concrete slab there is one of two things you can do. One is shut the water main off to the entire house, or if you are lucky and the plumbers installed a shut off for that spicket, which they most likely didn't do, you can turn that off. The same goes if you don't have a shut off in the basement for the spicket, you have to shut off the main to the house. Now the main to the house will have a large meter on it known as, you got it the water meter. There will be some sort of valve near it. Warning! DON'T SHUT THE VALVE OFF THAT GOES INTO THE METER. This will get you into a lot of trouble it tampered with. The valve that we want is on the out of the water meter. With the water shut off, its time to get to work. Now go outside and turn and open the valve to release and water that is in the pipes from the inside valve to the spicket. If you had to shut the main off go every fixture in the house and open them to release the water and the go to the spicket and open it. This will remove any water from the house and then you don't have to work with water coming at you by surprise. Now, if the stem is leaking we are going to want to remove that part from the spicket. To do that, we are going to need an adjustable wrench. Behind that packing nut there is a spot that you can place an adjustable wrench and unscrew the assembly. Completely unscrew that packing assembly and remove it from the spicket. Now we are going to want to get to the packing nut washer. To do this we need to unscrew the handle on the assembly. There should be a nut or screw on top of the handle that you can unscrew. Unscrew it and remove the handle.
Next you are going to want to unscrew and remove the packing nut. Inside the nut you are going to find some type of washer, either a Rubber packing washer or graphite packing string. Remove either and replace with a new matching one. Now if you can't find a matching washer for the packing nut, you can use graphite sting. Wrap the string around the stem and the push the packing washer over it and tighten it down. You can do this by using a flat blade screw driver. The reverse the steps, first by reinstalling the packing nut, put the handle on the assembly, put the assembly back in to the spicket, and tighten. Now if the spicket was leaking from the spout, all beginning steps are the same to get the assembly out of the spicket. Then you are going to want to replace the compression washer that is on the bottom of the assembly. Unscrew the nut that holds it in place and replace the washer with it exact match size and shape. Re-screw the screw back on to the assembly to hold the washer. Then reinstall the assembly back into the spicket. With the spicket reinstalled it is safe to turn the water back on. Make sure that all the faucets in the house that you opened are closed first.
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