Outside Tap Installation in Cambridge
Cambridge gardens run from small courtyard spaces behind the conservation-street townhouses to substantial back plots in Trumpington and Grantchester, and the right outside-tap configuration depends entirely on which you've got. An outside tap is one of those things you don't think about until you haven't got one. Washing the car with a bucket, dragging a hose through the kitchen, filling the paddling pool from the bathroom tap — it's a hassle. Getting one fitted is a quick job that makes life easier all year round.
Cambridge's typical housing mix means your plumber tees off everything from lead-and-copper period supplies in conservation-area properties to modern push-fit plastic in Eddington new-builds, depending on the property. Your plumber tees off your internal cold supply, drills through the wall, and fits the tap with a double check valve (backflow prevention — it's a water regulations requirement). It's a tidy job that doesn't disrupt your day.
Most Cambridge outside-tap jobs end up on a kitchen wall or garage side, but the larger plots around Grantchester and Girton often want longer runs to reach vegetable patches, potting sheds, or allotment borders. Most Cambridge properties suit an outside tap on the kitchen wall or garage side. For bigger gardens, we can run the pipe further to a tap on a boundary wall or outbuilding. An indoor isolation valve is always fitted so you can shut off and drain the run before winter, plus pipe lagging where it crosses any unheated voids inside the property.
Cambridge winters are milder than further north, but the city's exposed chalk-ridge position still means outside taps that haven't been properly drained down can split in a cold snap. Cambridgeshire winters aren't the harshest in the country, but cold snaps still catch out outside taps that haven't been properly drained down. Water sitting in the spout can freeze, expand, and split the brass body or the copper pipe behind the wall — usually first noticed when the next thaw produces a leak inside the kitchen wall. Your plumber always fits an isolation valve on the indoor side of the run so you can shut off and drain the supply before December, plus pipe lagging on the indoor run where it crosses unheated voids.
For larger Cambridge gardens around Trumpington Meadows or Cherry Hinton, we can run the supply further down the side of the property to put the tap closer to where it's actually needed — near a vegetable patch, greenhouse, or boundary wall. We can also fit a hose union connector on the spout so a garden hose clips on without an adaptor, and double-tap blocks for properties that want one tap for the hose and a separate one for filling watering cans.
