How to Install a Frost-Proof Faucet with PEX Piping

In this video, This Old House plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey shows how to plumb a new hose faucet using flexible plastic water pipe.

Steps:

1. Turn off the water, then drill a 1-inch-diameter hole through the house wall and into the basement.

2. Feed a length of PEX piping from the basement out the hole in the wall to the outdoors.

3. Wrap Teflon tape around the male threads on the end of the frost-proof sill cock. Then, use pliers to tighten a brass transition fitting onto the sill cock.

4. Attach the sill cock to the PEX piping with an expansion tool.

5. Apply silicone sealant around the hole drilled in the house wall.

6. Press the frost-proof sill cock tight to the wall and secure with two 1 ⅝-inch stainless steel screws.

7. From inside the basement, connect the PEX piping to an existing copper water pipe.

8. Clean the copper pipe end with emery cloth, then apply flux before soldering on a copper PEX connector fitting.

9. Secure the PEX piping to the overhead floor joist with 1-inch PEX clips. Nail one clip to every other joist.

10. Cut the PEX piping to length with a PEX cutter.

11. Use the expansion tool to join the PEX piping to the copper connector soldered onto the end of the water pipe.

12. Turn the water back on and test the sill cock.