I own a house with vinyl sidding. I have to change a hose bibb that's already sweated . How do I protect the sidding from being damaged?



Thanks tony s

Hey Tony,
When I'm faced with that problem I take a piece of tin ,(a flattened can will do) and cut a slot and hole just big enough to fit around the pipe. Hold the flattened can as close to your joint as possible and try not to point the flame at the wall. The can will stop the flame from hitting the vinyl. If the vinyl's touching the copper pipe the wrap a damp rag around the pipe behind the flattened shield. Of course all this hinges on the amount of space you have to work in. Good luck, Tom

i own a house with vinyl sidding. i have to change a hose bibb thats already sweated . how do i protect the sidding from being damaged?



thanks tony s

Are you sure this isn't a frost free hose bibb threaded into a drop ear 90 fastened to a stud inside of a stem wall?

Just to be sure, remove the stem and see if it is longer than 6 or 12 inches.

You should also consider whether you could remove the piece of siding. There is a little tool for unhooking the piece of siding above the one you want to remove. Then pull a few small nails and remove. Putting it back is even easier, just put the nails back and hit the top piece with the palm of your hand and it snaps back in place.

If you are removing a regular sillcock and not a frost proof and you have enough room to do what Tom said you could always cut the copper off just behind the sweat joint and then you could use one of the new slip on adapters that have an O-ring and a stainless steel clamping ring to hold it on, then use a threaded sillcock to go back with. This would eliminate any heating and the posibility of melting the siding.

Hey all:

I have one more idea for you!

Could always cut 6"x6" hole on the inside wall.. cut out the old outside faucet, and replace using new copper, coupling, elbow and new outside faucet (presolder everything but the coupling). Then solder the coupling inside the wall (carefully) and also no worries of burning the siding.

Then just "snap" a spring loaded access panel in place (sold at home supply store everywhere) for future access to outside faucet if ever need it again... ;) .

Hey! Just another way to do it... ;) Good luck!