Outdoor spigot repair in Los Angeles for hose bibbs that drip, leak or won't shut

A classic compression hose bibb has a rubber washer on the end of a threaded stem, plus packing around the stem where it passes through the bonnet. When the washer wears or the packing dries out, we can rebuild the faucet for a small cost. That works well on a solid brass bibb that turns smoothly and has an undamaged seat.

Replacement is the better call when the brass is cracked, the seat is too pitted to hold a new washer, the threads are stripped, or the faucet has no vacuum breaker. A new quarter-turn ball valve hose bibb is easy to operate, resists scale buildup better than a compression stem, and lasts a long time in Southern California weather.

We also look at where the spigot sits. A faucet too close to the ground can't fit a bucket under it, and one in a spot you never use may be worth capping off entirely.

In many Los Angeles houses, the hose bibb screws onto a short galvanized or copper nipple that comes through the stucco from a line inside the wall or under the house. On galvanized systems, that nipple is often the most corroded piece of pipe on the property, because it sits at the end of a run where water stagnates and the outside face bakes in the sun.

When we remove an old bibb, we check the threads and wall thickness of the nipple. If it crumbles or the threads are gone, we replace it back to a sound fitting. Sometimes that's inside a crawlspace, and on slab homes it can mean a small, neat opening in the stucco or drywall. A leak hidden here shows up as damp stucco and is worth catching early, before it reaches framing or the kind of leak that needs tracing.

If the nipple and spigot are galvanized throughout the house, the corrosion we see at the hose bibb is a preview of the pipe elsewhere. Our guide on galvanized pipe and repiping lays out the choices.

A garden hose can become a straw. If water pressure in the street drops while a hose end sits in a pool, a pond, a bucket of soapy water or a hose-end chemical sprayer, that water can siphon backward into the house piping. A hose bibb vacuum breaker, either built into the faucet or screwed onto the threads, stops that.

Every new spigot we install has backflow protection, and we add screw-on breakers to old faucets that are otherwise fine. Irrigation systems tied into the house line need their own backflow assembly, and those are a separate topic covered under backflow testing.

• Built-in vacuum breaker on every new hose bibb we install
• Screw-on breakers added to sound older faucets
• Irrigation tie-ins checked for a proper backflow device
• Spigots near pools and ponds flagged for extra attention

Many homeowners want a faucet on the side yard for a garden, near the driveway for car washing, or by the back fence for a new planting bed. We tap a branch off an existing cold line, run it through the wall or under the house, and mount a new bibb with a solid backing block so it doesn't flex when the hose gets pulled.

If you have a backyard unit or a detached garage, a hose bibb can come off that building's supply (we often add one while doing plumbing for a new ADU) instead of running a long new line from the main house. We plan where the shutoff for the new branch goes, so you can isolate it later without turning off water to the whole property.