Outside tap installation for London homes
Outside tap installation is a couple of hours’ work, and few additions are as handy around the house. Done properly, it comes with three things: a check valve that stops garden water being drawn back into your drinking supply, an indoor isolation valve so you can shut off and drain the tap every winter, and a neat run through the wall.
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What the job involves
- New outside taps, front or back of the house
- A double check valve, as water regulations require
- Indoor isolation valve for shutting off in winter
- Frost-proof taps for exposed spots
- Standpipes for gardens and patios further from the house
- Replacing old taps that leak or have seized
A few things to check
A quick look might sort it without us. We’re happy to say so.
The check valve is the law, not an extra
Picture a hose left in a water butt, or sitting in a bucket of garden chemicals. Without backflow protection, that water could siphon back into your drinking supply. That’s why water regulations require it on an outside tap, and a tap without it isn’t compliant.
Your winter routine: valve off, tap open
Each winter, close the valve indoors and leave the outside tap open. Otherwise, water sitting in the exposed pipe can freeze, expand and split it, and the damage usually shows up in spring, hidden behind the wall.
The wall is the real work
The tap takes no time. The care goes into the hole: drilling a solid wall in exactly the right place, clear of the cables and pipes on the other side.
Flats may need permission first
In a leasehold flat, or a listed building or conservation area, drilling through an outside wall may need consent from the freeholder or the council. Check before we visit.
Questions we get a lot
Do I need permission for an outside tap?
In a freehold house, usually not. Drilling through the outside wall is the bit that may need consent, so in a leasehold flat, or a listed or conservation-area building, check with the freeholder or the council first.
Could I connect a hose reel or irrigation to it?
Yes. Let us know what it will feed, because an irrigation system that stays connected needs stronger backflow protection than a hose you use now and then.
Will my outside tap freeze?
Not if it’s isolated and drained, which is exactly what the indoor valve is for. Where the pipe is very exposed, a frost-proof tap adds extra protection.
I want the tap at the far end of the garden. Is that possible?
It can, as a standpipe with the pipe buried underground. Because of the trench and the depth needed to stay below the frost, it’s more work than a tap on the wall of the house. We get asked for it a lot, though.
More of our water supply & quality work
Not a new fit after all? If something needs mending instead, start here.
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General Plumbing
Taps, toilets, radiators and pipes. All those little jobs that keep getting put off.
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Emergency Plumbing
Burst pipe, bad leak or no water at all? Ring us any hour and we’ll get an engineer on the way.
Read about Emergency Plumbing
More things we fit and fix
Outside Tap Installation in London, sorted
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