Outside tap

Ric2013 · Mar 14, 2016

Hi there,

I am looking to quote on fitting a new outside tap for a customer and just want to run this by those with more experience before I quote on something stupid and send a notice to the water board that then gets declined.

Ideally, the pipework would be nearly all internal, but due to the design of the house and the garden, that would mean an extensive pipe run through the lounge and it would end up being a messy installation unless I take up floors or similar.

Running through the kitchen wall does not take the outside tap to a useful position.

The downstair toilet is a better position and is where I could fit an isolator, double check valve, draincock, and then run the pipe through the outside wall and roughly horizontally along the garden boundary wall to a convenient location for the tap itself. Obviously no amount of lagging will totally protect the pipe, but my intention would be to put a slight fall down to the outside tap - this way, the external pipe run could be mostly drained just by isolating and leaving the outside tap open. I'll fit a draincock to the lowest point inside, but I bet no one will ever use it.

Is this a mad idea, or am I thinking along the right lines?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Ric

Best · Mar 14, 2016

No pipe showing outside for me.
Only exception is a tap away from a house, which I would do with plastic pipe, (insulated and cased), but still isolated from source.

plumben · Mar 14, 2016

As above no pipe outside for me or very little, less that 500mm, however if you can not fit the tap in a sensible location, fit a outside tap on the other side of the toilet wall then run a hose pipe to the desired location and either put another tap there or just the end of the hose to connect a hose to or spray

Stu Davis · Mar 14, 2016

The longer the external run the more potential for freezing. I would keep anything outside as short as you can. A new estate near hear has all the taps fitted on the front under the kitchen window, people don't seem to mind and just connect a hose pipe.

Ric2013 · Mar 14, 2016

Sorry - I should explain the layout better.

Garden has lounge extension that leaves a narrow passageway on one side of it. There is no water supply in the lounge. Bathroom is at the house end of the passageway behind a porch. The pipe would have to run through the porch, but that's not a problem. The intention was to have the tap on the garden side boundary wall at the garden end of the passageway, with the pipe running along the boundary wall down the length of the alleyway.

The kitchen is to the side of the house and going through the wall does not lead to the garden.

Possibly the best bet is to fit the tap to the outside of the porch, but I think they want to be able to fill a watering can from the tap and there would not be space as the porch is hardly wider than the door.

So would general agreement be with Best - i.e. avoid the external run if possible, but, if not, run it in Hep, insulate, and box it in?