Fitting an outside tap (Garden)

[scar1]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can please help me. I have done a bit of plumbing in my house before, changed radiators, plumbed in a dish washer etc so have some knowledge of water and fittings etc.

I have recently decided to fit an outside tap for garden, when looking outside I noticed I had a pipe coming out under my kitchen window, adjacent to my kitchen plumbing. (please see image).

It had a square nut on the bottom which I opened with a spanner and water started to flow out of spout.

My question is how would you recommend I convert this into a standard outside tap that I can simply turn on and off.

Any advice is much appreciated

Thanks
Steve

 

[DC76]

It's a drain cock to allow you to drain the system. Bit strange being outside but without knowing what it's connected to inside it's a bit tricky. It could be on your water supply but could also be on central heating system.

 

[scar1]

Hi - Thanks for the quick response!

If this helps, the water which comes from this tap is cold and my boiler is located upstairs.

Are you saying that there is a chance that this pipe could be a drain outlet for my boiler & central heating system?
I suppose one way to check could be to to open this tap outside and let it run for a while, then check my boiler pressure? Would that be a correct way to check?

Cheers
Steve

 

[newbie1]

put heating on gwt rads warm then open..if warm then its heating drain off..dont know why anyone wld put a cold water drain off outside

 

[Bernie2]

Funnily enough I have worked on sites where external c/h system drain offs have been asked for.

I think it was probably in houses with what they call floating floors, which are a concrete raft overlaid with polystyrene and chipboard flooring. The thing is there are no low points at which one could put a drain off cock, if the c/h circuit was on the ground floor. And so they put the drain offs outside.

Frost??? What's frost??? Ohh! That frost!

Never mind put the central heating in in the Summer there isn't much chance of frost then?

You want it on in the Winter?

Don't be weedy, turn it off and drain it in the Autumn so its doesn't burst in the Winter.

What your cold in the Winter?

Be a man wear a pullover!!!

Ahh! The good old days! When we where all daft!

 

[scar1]

Thanks all for the comments!
So I need to fit an external tap. I have a toilet at the front of hour and as mine is an end terrace I have the option to run the hose round as necessary.

My kitchen is at back of house looking onto garden with cold water pipe under sink.

I suppose my question is whats the easiest way to fit an outside tap.
This will probably need to be in a new post.

Thanks All.

Cheers
Steve

 

[WaterTight]

Hi, I'm a trainee plumber with as yet no on-the-job experience so take my advice with caution but this is my suggestion..

Firstly, what we really need is a photo of what's inside. If the job is do-able using that site and position of pipe-work what you do inside depends on what is used inside. Compression fittings? Soldered joints? Push-fit? T-section? Pipe-run end?

Just for info drain-offs are there for a reason. If a plumber needs to do work on some of your appliances he may well need to use it to drain-down that section of pipework (or the whole system) before he can start work. However, since you wish to place a tap at the site of a drain-off it will perform the same function and so in this instance, no prob.

If you can determine that it's just a cold water supply drain-off (is the pipe that it connects to on the inside running to a cold tap? toilet?) then there should be no probem putting a tap on it. If you plan on running the outside tap while someone else uses the nearby sink and someone else goes to the toilet there might be a drag on the supply but I doubt that's a huge worry.

Firstly you need to make sure you have enough room on the inside to work and secondly you need to make sure you can isolate the water supply to that section of pipework (most likely a stop-cock with a handle or lever or an isolation valve with quarter-turn screw facility)

Try and isolate it. Once you think you've isolated it, open the drain-off valve outside and if you have succeeded water should stop coming out after not too long.

From what I can see what you've got appearing outside is a soldered elbow on the end of a very short bit of pipe. I don't know how easy it will be to loosen and remove the pipe and valve but you don't want to try and connect anything to the drain-off valve, you'll need to remove that bit of pipe and the valve and push a new bit through.

On the inside you may have some sort of copper T-shaped fitting (either a compression fitting that you can undo with an adjustable spanner or a soldered joint which will need to be cut on the applicable pipe section using pipe cutters and compression fitting/push-fit attatched) or it might just be a solitary end of a single pipe run. Picture please!

Basically what I'd do is remove the pipe and valve, put a new section of pipe through, and install a tap there. What you've got on the inside will dictate what you need to use and do but since you've already got a sited hole, directed pipe run etc you've got some of the tricky bits done already.

 

[Carl86]

If that is coming directly out the wall where your kithcen sink is situated the inside see if you could get the back of your unit off to have a look to see if its coming off the cold feed under the kitchen sink. I have seen drain offs on hot and cold on sink units.

But to save time do run your heating first then open that drain off, the waters hot then its on the heating circut. In anycase do make sure if you install an outside tap you try and protect it from the weather with lagging and provide an internal isolation valve to it can be switched off from inside the house during the colder months.

 

[Mike Jackson]

It's higly unlikely that's anything other than a drain off for the central heating.

Your best bet is to pick up a feed from the cold main under the kitchen sink. Turn off the cold mains stop tap and open the sink tap to make sure that it's off. Close the tap off and you're ready to cut into the pipe, there should be a drain off at the low point of the plumbing but 9 times out of 10 there isn't so you need to use an old towel to catch any residual water. You can then fit a tee and a stopcock or quarter turn valve. Once this is fitted shut it off and you can get the water back on so your better half can reward your hard work so far with a nice brew.

You can now extend the pipework to outside and fit your tap. You will need a double check valve fitted internally and it's good practice to sleeve the pipe where it passes through the wall. If your tap isn't at the low point of the exterior pipework you'll also need to fit a drain off to allow the pipework to be drained in cold weather.

Mike