How often should you winterize your outdoor faucets?

Why bother

Trapped water bursts the pipe in a freeze. This is an essentials-tier job. Skip it and you're inviting the expensive kind of problem, or the dangerous kind.

What the job involves

1. Unscrew every garden hose, drain it, and store it out of the weather. A hose left on holds the water in, which is the whole problem you're trying to avoid.
2. Find the indoor shutoff that feeds the outdoor faucet, usually in the basement, crawl space, or a utility spot by the outside wall, and close it.
3. Open the outdoor spigot and let it run dry. If the indoor valve has a small bleeder cap, open that too to clear the water stuck between the valve and the spigot.
4. Leave the outdoor spigot open all winter so any water left has room to expand, and slip an insulated cover over the outside. That's the lot.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

Yourself, no tools needed, and an insulated cover is a few dollars. Pay a pro only if there's no accessible indoor shutoff, or you want a frost-free sillcock fitted so it's hands-off in future: replacing a standard faucet runs about $175 (roughly $150 to $300 installed), a frost-free upgrade about $250 to $450 installed.

What skipping it costs

$150 to $600 for a straightforward outdoor pipe or spigot repair, which is the cheap way this ends. The expensive way: water trapped behind the wall freezes, expands, and splits the pipe, and the crack usually sits just inside the heated wall, hidden until spring when you turn the faucet on and water pours into the wall, floor, or ceiling instead of out the spout. The average freeze-related water-damage insurance claim runs into the tens of thousands once a burst floods finished space; State Farm averaged over $30,000. Draining a faucet costs nothing but five minutes.

Signs it's overdue

• You turn the faucet on in spring and water trickles from inside the wall, the basement, or the ceiling below instead of out the spout. That points to a freeze crack in the hidden run of pipe.
• Nothing comes out at all, or you see frost, ice, or a bulge on the pipe near where it enters the house in cold weather.
• A hose is still screwed on going into a freeze, or the first hard frost arrives and the indoor shutoff was never found and closed.

When to start thinking about it

Give yourself about 7 days' notice. That's when Grumpty starts grumbling, so it doesn't land on you the day it's due. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 12 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

Questions people ask