Outside Tap Leaking or Burst? Fixes & Prevention
Outside taps lead a hard life — fully exposed to frost, rarely serviced, and often installed decades ago without isolation — which makes them both the most commonly damaged tap on the house and the most commonly frost-burst pipe. A leaking or split outside tap is rarely complicated to fix; the valuable knowledge is the isolation and the autumn routine that stops the annual repeat.
Dripping, spraying, or split: what you're looking at
A drip from the spout is the same washer/seat wear as any tap — annoying, wasteful, and in winter a hazard, since a drip-fed tap and its wall pipe freeze readily. Spraying from around the handle when running is the gland packing. But a tap or its supply pipe that sprays or streams — especially first use after winter — is frost damage: ice split the tap body or the pipe behind the wall, and the thaw revealed it.
The sinister version hides: a split on the pipe inside the wall or just behind it leaks into the wall fabric when the tap runs. If the wall dampens below or around the tap during use, treat it as a burst, not a drip.
Immediate action for a split
Close the tap's isolation valve — usually inside, on the pipe before it exits the wall (kitchen sink cupboard is the common home). No isolation valve? Main stopcock off, and this becomes the week you have one fitted. With supply off, the emergency is over; a split outside tap with isolation closed can wait calmly for repair.
Resist the temptation to leave it 'for summer' if the split is on the pipe rather than the tap: a wall-side split wets masonry with every accidental opening, and freeze damage weakens progressively.
Repairs and costs
Tap replacement is the standard fix for a split or worn tap body — outside taps are inexpensive, and replacing beats rebuilding at £80–£150 fitted including a quality bib tap with a check valve (double-check valves are required on outside taps to protect the drinking supply from back-siphonage — a hose left in a water butt is the textbook risk). Washer and gland repairs on a sound tap run at the low end of normal tap-repair money.
A split supply pipe adds pipework repair: accessible pipe, modest; pipe buried in the wall, more — and often the moment to re-route the final run so the vulnerable section sits inside the heated envelope with only a short stub outside.
The autumn routine (and the better installation)
Every autumn: disconnect hoses (a connected hose traps water in the tap and freezes it — the single biggest cause of split outside taps), close the internal isolation valve, then open the outside tap to drain the exposed section, leaving it open or closing loosely. Spring reverses it. Two minutes, twice a year, and frost claims someone else's tap.
Installing or replacing? Specify: an internal isolation valve as standard, a double-check valve (or a tap with one integrated), the shortest possible external pipe run, and insulation on any exposed pipe. Frost-resistant tap designs that close the seal inside the wall exist for genuinely exposed positions — worth the modest premium on a north wall.
| Symptom | Cause | Typical fix |
|---|---|---|
| Drip from spout | Washer/seat | £60–£100 or replace |
| Spray at handle | Gland packing | Repack/replace |
| Streaming after winter | Frost split | Replace tap, £80–£150 |
| Wall damp when running | Split pipe in/behind wall | Pipe repair + re-route |
| No isolation valve inside | Original installation | Fit one — £40–£80 |
Practise this before you need it
Emergency procedures work when they're rehearsed: find your stopcock today, confirm it actually turns, and show everyone in the house. Two minutes of practice converts this guide from something you'll half-remember mid-flood into a sequence you'll execute calmly. The households that suffer least from identical failures are simply the ones that could isolate the water in under a minute.
Frequently asked questions
Why do outside taps burst so often?
Full frost exposure, water standing in the tap and its stub of pipe, and — the multiplier — hoses left connected, sealing water in. The autumn disconnect-isolate-drain routine addresses all three.
Do I legally need a check valve on an outside tap?
Water regulations require backflow protection (a double-check valve) on outside taps to stop contaminated water siphoning back into the drinking supply. Modern taps often integrate one; older installations frequently lack it — add one at the next service.
Can I fit an outside tap myself?
Self-cutting DIY kits exist, but they're the source of a steady trade in weeping connections and regulation-free installs. A plumber-fitted tap with proper isolation, check valve and a soldered or press connection costs £100–£180 and doesn't reappear on your to-do list.
Is a dripping outside tap worth fixing before winter?
Emphatically: the drip feeds a slow trickle through the exposed pipe, which freezes progressively in cold snaps, and the resulting split arrives with spring. Pre-winter is exactly when to fix it.
Where this guide's advice ends
Written guidance has a natural limit: it can tell you what usually causes a symptom, but only eyes on your actual pipework can confirm it. If what you're seeing doesn't quite match any pattern described here, or matches several at once, that ambiguity is itself diagnostic information worth giving an engineer. Our vetted local plumbers do this triage daily — and an honest one will tell you on the phone if your problem sounds like a cheap fix, a bigger job, or (occasionally) not a plumbing problem at all.