Best to add shut off valves to hose bibs in Texas

[slickrock22]

Over the last few years in Austin Texas we have had freezing weather and I have had a few exterior pipes break int winter. I would like to add some shutoff valves in the garage where the city waters enters the house. I have found the termination point near the water softener. There are 4 hard water pipes that feed the exterior hose bibs of the main before the softener. Ideally there would be one shutoff valve but I think it would be easier to add 4 on each copper line vs rebuilding the entire branch off of the main. I was thinking about using PEX becuase the copper looks like it needed to be bent/forced into the current configuration and I might have some difficulty getting copper to fit proerly. I was thinking that I could use a copper to PEX soldered connector on the copper coming up from the floor (goes to outdoor hose bibs) and down from the branch off the main. I would then create a PEX line with a ball valve in the middle of each of the 4 pex lines. Does this seem like a good way to do this? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I think I will need some type of door to access each winter and spring.

 

[RS]

It might be almost cheaper to just change to frostproof silcock's, that's all we use up north, but they're probably a lot longer than what you have. As long as the hoses are disconnected they're fine. Most of the newer ones are anti-siphon, they will drain out if the end of the hose is open.

 

[slickrock22]

It might be almost cheaper to just change to frostproof silcock's, that's all we use up north, but they're probably a lot longer than what you have. As long as the hoses are disconnected they're fine. Most of the newer ones are anti-siphon, they will drain out if the end of the hose is open.

Thanks for the response. I have 5 silcocks around the home. We are built on a slab. Some of the copper to the silcocks run down between the stone exterior wall and the 1 story tall foundation wall as the back of the house is built on a 1 story foundation due to down sloping backyard. In the freeze 2 years ago I had 2 different copper pipes freeze in the middle of the run 5-8 feet from the silcock. I dont think these homes were built with extreme weather in mind. I think I will need to find a way to keep the water out of the system for the winter.

 

[slickrock22]

I just discovered 4 loop copper manifold 1" / 3/4" with valves. Seems like a potential solution for my situation.

 

[Steve Kohn]

"I would like to add some shutoff valves in the garage."
We live a few miles south of you in San Antonio and what a joy it was to find the builder did it for us. See attached. (The box cover is removed.)

 

[slickrock22]

That is fantastic. I come from the north where the turn off valves were in the basement. That’s really great that they did that for you.