For years our outdoor faucets have leaked. Sometimes it’s the hose connection, or the faucet dripping when it’s open at certain positions, or sometimes just all the time when they are open. If it’s the hose connection, that’s easily solved with a new washer. But, when we’ve tried to have the faucets fixed any improvements were short lived so we just do the best we can to minimize the waste. Then this happened…
The 20 yr old Korean Lilac in the back suddenly started showing signs of severe stress for what I thought was no logical reason.
As I walked back to inspect, I quickly realized the entire area was sopping wet. Usually in the past that meant an issue with the drainage system, but not this time. It was the faucet dripping!
We usually leave the faucet on and control the water with a hose extender that is easier to access. I’m not one for crawling around in the bushes every time I want to water the plants or use the hose. What I didn’t realize was that the faucet had starting dripping quite severely. The mushrooms in the area should have been my first clue, but again, I don’t go back there very often.
I got the water turned off and hoped for the best. A week later and looking worse.
It was time to finally deal with the leackey faucets so I don’t waste any more water and damage any more plants. This is actually not a simple job, so we had to call a plumber in. I am not going to do any soldering of copper pipes in the house (or outside for that matter).
Yay! My new faucet. We had the front one done too while were at it. No more leaky faucets, wasted water or damaged plants!
While it pretty much looks terrible, there’s still a few green branches on the lilac. Maybe there’s hope. We’ll just have to wait until spring.
I was struggling with the same problem yesterday. Fortunately the faucet is not positioned to do as much damage to plants, but it can cause water to leak into a corner of the basement. I may have to call in a plumber also.
Like most things, I wish I had taken care of it sooner. It was a little pricey, but worth it to be finally done with the aggravation.