Hose Bib? What is A Hose Bib?

30 Dec Hose Bib? What is A Hose Bib?

When the season turns from Summer to Fall, we send out a list of winterization items to our tenants, as most good property management companies do. A few days after the letters went out I received a call from a newer tenant with a question that went something like this:

“Hi Jen, this is Mary at 123 Main Street. I received your letter about the items around the house that need to be winterized and I have a question…what’s a hose bib and what am I supposed to do with it?”

 She was obviously amused as was I by the question. After all, hose bib is kind of a silly word when you look at it. Visions of pink and blue baby bibs made for hoses comes to mind, but I digress.

There’s a very simple answer to this question. A hose bib is a spigot, or faucet if you prefer, located on the outside of the house that you attach your garden hose to. The truly technical word for it is sillcock, but for our purposes let’s go with hose bib.

Winterizing it is quite simple:

1. Remove the hose from the hose bib.
2. Close the water shut off valve to the hose bib. (This is normally located on the other side of the wall of the hose bib usually in a utility or laundry room.)
3. Once the water is shut off to the hose bib open it to allow any water in the pipe to drain.
4. Finally, when there is no more water draining, close the hose bib.

It’s a very simple procedure that could save you from a major (and expensive) headache down the road. When a hose bib is not winterized you run the risk of frozen pipes which could then cause cracks. And likely you won’t even know until you go to turn on your hose in springtime and found you’ve sprung a major leak.