I recently bought a house that was built in 1978, and it has a couple of garden faucets. These are not frost-free faucets, and that's not a huge concern for me because the house is located just south of Houston, TX.
What does concern me is that the one faucet needs some attention. The problems are:
- The valve seat is leaking, causing the faucet to drip
- The packing nut is leaking, causing the valve shaft to drip when the water is on
I've considered just replacing the faucet, which would be relatively easy, but after cutting a rag loose that was tied on with a shoelace, I found that the galvanized pipe feeding the faucet is pretty rusty.
I'm concerned that if I were to try to remove the faucet, the pipe would break or it may not come loose at all. I'm not too excited about attempting to replace the pipe, because it's also mortared into the brick, and I don't know how difficult it will be to get to the 90° elbow inside the wall either.
Should I decide to replace it, and assuming I'd need to replace the mortared pipe, how should I go about it?
Alternatively, should I decide to repair it, where can I get the parts I need to rebuild this faucet? The local Home Depot was of no use, and my Google searches don't seem to be specific enough.