Why Your Outdoor Faucet Leaks or Won’t Shut Off

Where the water shows up tells you which part has failed. An outdoor faucet that drips from the spout, weeps around the handle, or keeps trickling after you crank it closed is not one problem with one fix. It is three different parts giving you three different signals. Match the leak to the part, and a vague “my spigot leaks” becomes a targeted repair you can usually finish in an afternoon with a screwdriver and a replacement washer. Match it wrong, and you take the whole faucet apart for nothing.

This guide reads the leak first, then walks the safe repairs, and draws a hard line at the one situation that is not a homeowner job: water that only appears inside your wall when the faucet runs.

Reading the Leak: Spout Drip, Handle Leak, or Won’t-Shut-Off

Start by noting exactly where the water comes out and whether the handle is open or closed when it happens. That single observation points to the part.

• Drips from the spout with the handle closed. The shutoff itself is not sealing. On a standard spigot, that points to a worn rubber washer at the bottom of the stem, or a pitted valve seat the washer presses against. This is the most common outdoor-faucet leak and usually the cheapest to fix.
• Leaks around the handle or packing nut while the water is running. Water escaping at the top of the faucet, behind the handle, when the valve is open points to dried-out or compressed stem packing. The packing is the seal that lets the stem turn while keeping water from climbing up past it. It shrinks and hardens over the years.
• Won’t fully shut off, keeps trickling no matter how hard you turn it. On a standard hose bib, this is again a damaged washer or a chewed-up seat, just far enough gone that the washer can no longer make a complete seal. On a frost-free model, the same symptom can mean the long internal stem or its seat deep inside the wall is worn, which is a different repair with a different boundary.

A frost-free (frost-proof) hose bib moves its actual shutoff valve back inside the heated wall, so its leak points can sit much farther in than the part you see outside. For how that design works and how to tell whether you have one, see our guide on what a frost-free hose bib is and how it works (162). Here, the design matters mainly because it changes where the failure lives and whether you can reach it.

The Washer-and-Seat Problem Behind a Dripping Spigot

A spout that drips when the handle is closed almost always means the washer is no longer sealing against the seat. Everything else follows from that.

Inside a standard hose bib, turning the handle drives a threaded stem down until a rubber washer on its tip presses flat against a metal ring called the valve seat. When the washer is fresh, that contact stops the water cold. Over years of compression, heat, and mineral grit, the rubber flattens, cracks, or cups, and water sneaks past it as a steady drip. A washer is a small consumable part, and replacing it is the core repair below.

The seat itself can also be the culprit. If a previous washer wore out and someone kept cranking the handle to stop the drip, the metal seat can get scored or pitted. A new washer pressed against a gouged seat still drips. On many hose bibs the seat is part of the body and cannot be swapped, which is one reason a faucet that keeps leaking after a fresh washer is sometimes simply worn out as a unit rather than worth chasing further. You will know you are in seat-damage territory if a brand-new washer fails to stop a spout drip.

A worn washer is purely a sealing failure, not a safety issue, as long as the leak stays at the faucet itself. The drip wastes water and can ice up and damage the spigot in winter, but the repair is squarely a homeowner task.

Repacking a Leaking Handle (the Packing Nut and Stem Packing)

If water shows up around the handle only while the faucet is running, the fix is usually the simplest one on the faucet: snug the packing nut, and repack it if snugging is not enough.

The packing nut is the hex nut directly behind the handle. Behind it sits the stem packing, either a soft washer or a wound graphite-impregnated string, that hugs the turning stem and blocks water from traveling up and out. When that packing dries and shrinks, water weeps past it whenever the line is pressurized by an open valve.

For a handle that weeps only when running, try this first. With the faucet closed, hold the faucet body steady with one wrench and turn the packing nut a small amount clockwise with another to compress the existing packing. Open the faucet and check. Often that quarter-snug stops the weep on its own, and you are done.

If snugging does not seal it, the packing is spent and needs replacing. That step requires shutting off the water and partly disassembling the stem, so treat it like the washer job below: shut off the supply first, then remove the packing nut and stem to renew the packing or its washer. Do not keep wrenching the nut tighter to force a seal. The packing nut and the parts around it are brass or plastic, and over-tightening a corroded nut can crack it or seize the stem, which turns a five-minute adjustment into a real repair.

Replacing the Washer on a Standard Hose Bib, Step by Step

This is the clearly safe repair: no soldering, and once the supply is off, no pressurized line to fight. It applies to a standard (non-frost-free) hose bib that drips from the spout. Have a replacement washer and stem screw on hand; the right size matches the old one.

1. Shut off the water supply to the spigot. Find the indoor shutoff valve on the line feeding that outdoor faucet, often just inside the wall where the spigot enters, in a basement, crawlspace, or utility area, and close it. If you cannot find a dedicated shutoff, close the main supply to the house. Never start this repair with the line still pressurized.
2. Open the spigot to release pressure. With the supply off, open the handle fully and let any water in the line drain out the spout. The faucet should run dry.
3. Loosen the packing nut and back out the stem. Hold the faucet body steady and turn the packing nut counterclockwise to free it, then unthread the stem and pull the whole stem assembly out of the body.
4. Replace the washer at the tip of the stem. Remove the screw holding the old rubber washer on the end of the stem, fit the matching new washer, and reseat the screw. If the stem also carries an O-ring that looks flattened or cracked, replace that too.
5. Inspect the seat. Look into the faucet body where the washer lands. If the metal seat is smooth, you are set. If it is visibly scored or pitted, a new washer may not fully seal, which tells you the body is worn.
6. Reassemble and test. Thread the stem back in, retighten the packing nut snug but not forced, then slowly reopen the supply. Run the faucet, shut it, and watch the spout and handle for any remaining drip.

Keep the work to these parts only. You are replacing a washer and maybe an O-ring on a fixture you have isolated from pressure, which is well within DIY range. Replacing the wall shutoff valve that feeds the spigot is a separate job with its own risks; see our guide on replacing a fixture shutoff valve (196).

When the Leak Is a Cracked Frost-Free Bib Inside the Wall (Stop and Call a Plumber)

Here is the one diagnosis most homeowners miss, and it is the line where this stops being a DIY repair. If water shows up inside the wall, under the siding, or on a basement or crawlspace ceiling only when the faucet is running, and stays dry when it is off, do not look for a washer. The frost-free bib has very likely split internally, and that is a plumber’s repair.

This happens because of how a frost-free faucet is built. Its shutoff valve sits deep inside the warm wall, and the long barrel between that valve and the outside is supposed to drain empty every time you close it. If a hose was left attached over a freeze, water gets trapped in that barrel, freezes, and expands. Water expands by roughly nine percent as it turns to ice, and that expansion puts intense pressure on whatever contains it, which can fracture the barrel where you cannot see it. The American Red Cross notes this same expansion is what bursts pipes in freezing weather. The crack often does not show until spring, when you open the faucet and the now-pressurized water sprays inside the wall instead of out the spout. The EPA and emergency-preparedness guidance both stress removing and draining hoses from outside faucets before a freeze for exactly this reason.

Why this is not a homeowner fix: confirming and replacing a split frost-free bib means opening the wall to reach a barrel that is commonly a foot or more long, then cutting it out and joining a new one to the supply pipe behind the siding. That is structural and pressurized work behind a finished surface, and getting the new bib seated with the correct downward pitch so it self-drains is part of doing it right. A licensed plumber should handle a frost-free bib that leaks inside the wall, any repair that requires opening the wall, and any internal frost-free cartridge replacement. If you are not certain whether the wall leak is the bib or a separate pipe, that uncertainty alone is a reason to call rather than start cutting.

One related safety note while you are at the spigot: because a hose can sit in a bucket, a pool, or a tank of lawn chemicals, an unprotected hose bib is a spot where dirty water could be drawn back toward your drinking supply if pressure drops. A simple brass hose-bib vacuum breaker that threads onto the spout helps prevent that backflow and is unrelated to the leak repairs above. Why an outdoor hose connection ranks among the worst offenders, and what the anti-siphon cap on newer faucets does, is covered in our guide on backflow and water contamination (156).

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my outdoor faucet leak only when the water is on?

A leak that appears only while the faucet runs, and stops when it is off, is a pressure-side leak rather than a shutoff failure. If the water shows up around the handle, the stem packing has dried out and needs snugging or repacking. If the water shows up inside the wall and not at the visible faucet, treat it as a likely cracked frost-free bib behind the siding, which is a plumber’s repair, not a washer swap.

Can I fix a hose bib that won’t shut off myself?

On a standard hose bib, yes. A faucet that keeps trickling usually has a worn washer or a damaged seat, and replacing the washer after shutting off the supply is a safe homeowner repair. The exception is a frost-free model whose internal stem or seat has failed deep in the wall, or any leak that requires opening the wall to reach. Those are not DIY, and you should call a licensed plumber.

This article is general information, not professional advice. When a repair involves work inside a wall, a gas line, or a code-regulated installation, consult a licensed plumber.

Sources

EPA, Cross-Connection Control Best Practices Guide (garden/washdown hoses as common cross-connection points): https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=2000ZZB8.TXT
EPA, Cross-Connection Control Manual (hose-bib cross-connections and backflow prevention): https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/epa816r03002_0.pdf
American Red Cross, Preventing and Thawing Frozen Pipes (water expands when it freezes; remove and drain outdoor hoses): https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/winter-storm/frozen-pipes.html
State of Michigan (MIReady), Preventing Frozen Pipes (disconnect garden hoses; drain water from pipes leading to outside faucets): https://www.michigan.gov/miready/be-informed/winter-prep/preventing-frozen-pipes