The handle on my outside faucet falls off almost every time I use the faucet, which is mildly annoying. As far as I know, there are no leaks or any problems with the sillcock itself.
My basement has an unfinished part and a finished part. I found the water line that goes to from the main to the sillcock in the unfinished part and followed it to where it goes above the ceiling of the finished part of the basement, shown on the left side of the diagram. I know nothing about the plumbing in the orange highlighted part of the diagram.
About two feet before the water line goes above the duct work and ceiling, there is a small water line that goes up to the water unit on my fridge, highlighted in yellow in the diagram.
Freezing in the winter is my number one concern. There is another faucet on the backside of the house, which has a shutoff valve a couple feet in from where the water line exits the house. That is all in the unfinished part of the basement so I close the valve and drain the line in the winter. However, for the faucet shown in the diagram, even if there is a shutoff valve, it must be above the ceiling as there aren't any in the unfinished part of the basement.
If I wanted to add a shutoff valve, could it be added in the yellow highlighted area of the diagram?
If I wanted to replace the sillcock with a new frost-proof sillcock (that would take care of the handle falling off annoyance too), what options do I have?
I'm not a plumber, nor a very handy guy so I assume there is other information I am not considering. Please let me know if I've left out some crucial information or there are options I need to consider.
Thanks!
EDIT: For what it's worth the handle on faucet is not at a 45-degree angle, so it gives me some hope that it may be frost-free already, but I do not know.
Best Answer
You can put a shutoff in the yellow area if there's nothing ELSE feeding off the hidden part of the waterline. If there was a shutoff above the ceiling it should have an access panel, but code violations are a dime a dozen with things like this.
Given the "handle-fall-off" situation I'd suggest overcoming whatever fear of drywall repair may be holding you back and opening up the ceiling to replace the sillcock with a frost-free unit, though I am also of the "and put an inside shutoff on there anyway" camp. Most houses are constructed such that drywall repair is a given for any plumbing or electrical work to get done, so it's a good thing to learn.
However, if you want to check if it's frost free first, and see if you can fix the handle, shut off the water at the main, and unscrew the entire valve-cap-nut assembly to remove the valve from the sillcock - if it's 2" long, it's not frost free - if it's 10-12" long, it presumably is. Then you get to have fun trying whatever you haven't tried yet, and perhaps some things you have, to hold the handle on - thread-locking compound or the like.