Calgary is well known for its really cold, long winters and it’s hot and dry summers and, like the rest of Canada, taking care of your plumbing is very important. The most important parts that we’re going to talk about in this article is the plumbing that sits out outside of your house – outdoor garden taps and hose bibs in the garage or outside.
Hose bibs and outdoor garden taps are notorious for getting frozen over the winter because water gets easily trapped inside the line. As we all learned in school, water expands when it freezes, and can crack the pipe. Calgary Winters are harsh, and often you won’t know if there is a break in the line until spring and summer rolls in and you hook up your hose to find no water pressure and a puddle in your basement.
Enter the ever-popular frost-free hose bib. Frost-free hose bibs are fantastic and can be an excellent investment to prevent any issues down the line. But they are not a hundred percent, Nothing in life is. If you have lived in the Calgary area for a long time you will know that you get to use your hose bibs for a very short time of the year. It’s important to have a good garden tap in the backyard as well as the front of the house to make washing the car and watering the plants in filling the pool that much easier.

Calgary is a fantastic city to live in but the summer is short and it’s garden taps get a lot of use. Whether you’re washing the car, filling the pool, watering those newly planted landscape shrubs or just watering your flowers, a good functioning hose bib on both the front and back of your house essential to any Calgary homeowner.
Learning to take good care of your plumbing, whether you’ve been in the house for a long time or in a new house to you, is good practice and can usually save you a lot of money in the long run. Know where those shut offs are and understanding the basic concepts so you can empty the water out in the fall and not have any frozen water stuck in there in the winter will go a long way to ensuring that your outdoor garden taps or hose bib will last for many years