You’ve probably ignored it for weeks now. That steady drip-drip-drip from the hose bib every time you shut off the water, pooling into a little mud puddle by the foundation. Maybe you’ve even convinced yourself it’s not a big deal because it’s “just outside.” It is a big deal, actually — that drip is wasting water, staining your siding, and slowly inviting rot or pest problems right where your house meets the ground. The good news is that fixing it almost never requires a plumber, a trip to buy a whole new fixture, or any real plumbing knowledge. It’s a washer. It’s basically always the washer.
Why It’s Dripping in the First Place
A standard outdoor spigot, sometimes called a sillcock or hose bib, works like a tiny valve. When you twist the handle closed, a rubber or nylon washer at the end of the stem presses against a metal seat inside the faucet body, blocking the water. Over years of sun exposure, mineral buildup, and just plain age, that washer hardens, cracks, or wears down unevenly. Once it can’t form a tight seal anymore, water sneaks past it drop by drop. It’s not usually a sign of some bigger plumbing failure. It’s the same reason a fifteen-dollar rubber gasket in your dishwasher eventually needs replacing — cheap parts wear out first.
What You’ll Actually Need
- An adjustable wrench or channel-lock pliers
- A flathead screwdriver
- A replacement washer kit (a few dollars at any hardware store, buy an assortment since sizes vary)
- Plumber’s grease, if you have it, though it’s not essential
Before touching anything, shut off the water supply to that spigot. If you don’t have a dedicated shutoff valve for it, you’ll need to close the main water valve to the house. Yes, this means briefly no water anywhere, which is annoying, but it’s a twenty-minute job, not a weekend project.
The Actual Repair
Unscrew the packing nut, the hexagonal nut right behind the handle, using your wrench. Once it’s loose, the entire stem assembly should pull straight out of the faucet body. At the very end of that stem you’ll find a small screw holding the old washer in place. Remove that screw, pop off the cracked or flattened washer, and replace it with a new one that matches the size as closely as possible. This is the one place where trial and error is fine — if it doesn’t fit quite right, try another one from the multi-pack.
While everything’s apart, take a second to look at the metal seat inside the faucet body where the washer presses against. If it’s pitted or rough, that’s actually a separate and slightly more annoying problem, and no washer will fix it permanently. But for most spigots, especially ones under fifteen or twenty years old, the seat is fine and the washer was the whole issue.
Reassemble everything in reverse: screw the new washer onto the stem, slide the stem back into the faucet body, thread the packing nut back on, and turn the water supply back on. Test it by opening and closing the handle a few times. If it closes with a firm, complete stop and no drip afterward, you’re done.
A Word on Timing
Mid-summer is actually the ideal time to notice and fix this, since you’re using the spigot constantly for hoses, sprinklers, and filling up buckets, so a slow drip becomes obvious fast. Don’t put it off until fall when you’re less likely to check on it — a dripping spigot left unaddressed through freezing temperatures can crack the internal parts entirely, turning a five-dollar washer fix into a full sillcock replacement. Twenty minutes now saves you a much bigger headache later.
