Before the first freeze, Cedar Mill Property Repair shuts off and drains outdoor faucets and fits insulated covers, swaps leaky old spigots for frost-free hose bibs, and wraps bare water pipes in crawl spaces and garages. Homes we cover: Cedar Mill, Bethany, Beaverton and the streets around them. Going by November 2026 market figures for the Portland area, the faucet job runs $100-$250, labour only ; the full price list has more. For a quote, text a picture of each outdoor faucet.
Slava brings 7 years of his own hands-on experience to this work.
What does winterizing a house include, and which parts do we handle?
Our part of winter prep is the water that sits in cold places. On a fall visit we:
- close the inside valve that feeds each outdoor faucet, drain the line and put on an insulated cover;
- replace a dripping or cracked spigot with a frost-free hose bib;
- sleeve exposed supply pipes with foam and tape the joints;
- walk the house with you to find other cold water lines: near crawl space vents, on a garage wall, under a sink on an outside wall.
Book it for a dry day before a hard freeze is forecast.
What does winterizing faucets and pipes cost around Portland?
| Work | Market range | Usually | Charged | What it covers | Hours on site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outdoor faucet shut-off, drain and insulated covers | $100-$250 | $150 | per visit | labour only | 1 |
| Frost-free hose bib in place of an old spigot | $250-$650 | $400 | per visit | labour only | 3 |
| Pipe insulation in the crawl space and garage | $200-$800 | $400 | per visit | labour only | 3.5 |
Those figures are what the local market charged in November 2026; they aren't our quotes. The cover, the new hose bib and the foam cost extra .
The price moves with the number of outdoor faucets, whether each has a working inside valve, and how we reach the pipe behind an old spigot: quick from an open crawl space, slower through a finished wall. For insulation it's the feet of pipe and the room to crawl. Most people have all three done on one trip.
How can I protect my outdoor faucet from freezing?
Start with the hose: left screwed on, it keeps water in the spout. Then find the valve inside that feeds the faucet, usually in the crawl space, a utility room or under a nearby sink, and close it. Open the outside tap so the short pipe between them can empty . Last, push a foam cover over the tap and cinch it tight against the siding.
Plenty of older houses never got a separate valve for each outside tap. Then the cover and foam carry the load, or the spigot gets swapped. A towel or a grocery bag buys you a night, nothing more.
Here, a cold snap tends to show up after weeks of mild rain, so the hoses are often still out when the forecast changes.
What is a frost-free hose bib, and is it worth replacing an old spigot?
From outside it looks like any spigot. Inside, the part that shuts off the water is at the tip of a long stem, back in the heated part of the house, and the tube slopes outward so leftover water drains when you turn it off. A hose left on holds water in the tube, and the tube can still split.
It's time to swap an old spigot when it drips at the spout or around the handle, when you find water in the wall or the crawl space after the first cold night, or when it cracked last winter .
A lot of west-side homes built in the 1960s-80s still wear their short original spigots, while Bethany's 1990s-2000s houses often came with frost-free ones .
Which pipes freeze first in a west-side house, and how are they insulated?
The pipes in danger run through unheated space: crawl space supply lines, worst near the foundation vents and the access hatch, then pipes on garage walls, the short run behind each outdoor faucet, and pipes in an outside wall under a sink.
The usual fix is foam sleeves sized to the pipe, with the seams taped and the elbows and valves covered so no bare copper shows. Where a pipe passes through the rim joist we seal the gap, because that's where cold air pours in . A few houses have a run that can't be kept warm any other way, and heat cable is an option some of them need .
Many 1960s-80s houses in Cedar Mill, Cedar Hills and Beaverton sit on vented crawl spaces with the water lines right under the floor. Pair the foam with winter covers on the crawl space vents closest to the pipes.
What should you do during a hard freeze, or if a pipe freezes anyway?
Know where your main water shut-off is before you need it. We can point it out during the visit . Keep the heat on. On the coldest night, open the cabinets under sinks on outside walls and let a faucet drip slowly.
If a pipe bursts, close the main first and call a plumber to fix the pipe. Once it's dry, we can close up the ceiling or wall that had to be opened. Don't thaw a pipe with an open flame.
What else belongs on a winter checklist, and who does it?
- Gutters and downspouts: we do it. Douglas fir needles keep filling them all fall, so a late gutter cleaning pays off.
- Drafts at doors and windows: we do it, with new weatherstripping.
- Furnace, heat pump and ducts: an HVAC company.
- Gas lines: a gas fitter or the utility.
- Sprinkler blow-out: an irrigation or landscape company.
- Trees leaning over the roof: an arborist.
- A vacant house drained down for winter: a plumber . If you manage an empty rental, the notes for rental owners and managers apply.
Attic insulation is a separate question . A full list of the jobs we send elsewhere sits on its own page. We don't sell a yearly plan; call us each fall if you want the faucets done again.