Kevin, I know nothing about plumbing. I think we have what you have described. We just went through a week of -45 temperatures with windchill in the -50s.

Our outside horse waterer functioned the entire time, as it has every winter and the only prep we do to outside spigots is remove the hose. And this is 20 year old plumbing.

We don’t heat our garage because of something about condensation in the gasline in vehicles. Again, I know nothing about it. 🙂 But it all seems to work.

We put four spigots with frostproof valves on our house when we built. It's a 2900 sq ft footprint. Three of these get regular use. We have a sprinkler system, too. I'm *so done* hauling hoses!

In addition, there is a spigot in the garage, but not near the garage door, where I wanted it!

No, I don't have one in the garage but have wished I did or that I had a sink out there. Nice too would have been one in the garden shed, a small building that matches the house and has power but no water. There is a line to the sprinkling system right outside that building but no spigot or faucet.

I have 4 outside faucets and with the long narrow shape to our house I could almost use one more on the back side of the garage. Cement patio there where I have some pots, patio furniture and I'm dragging a hose then having to coil it again. Even our smaller former house had three only that house had just one outside outlet and plug in to use and I'm so grateful this one has more, and conveniently located. 1955 house so its newer than the 1926 was but hardly a new house by any stretch of imagination.

DH is constantly using hoses. He will grab a hose before a broom every time. Many windows that he does not mind keeping clean, lots of trees to blow debris and clog gutters, a truck to wash, garbage and recycle cans to wash, and on, and on.

His favorite hose right now is a 100' 5/8" Flexzilla (sp?). Years ago I'd bought a Flexogen Soft and Supple that I still have and he wanted a couple of those. It had been splurge when I bought it, worked out so well for so many years then I couldn't find any more made.

As far as hosing the garage inside...we have not. It's swept often, shop vac'd, and has been mopped. But my brother was getting ready to list his lovely craftsmen with attached garage and hosed it out. Built on a hillside with main living spaces, garage above at street level with daylight basement below. Water ran down into a carpeted storage room downstairs and the utilities room where the hot water tank and one of two heat pumps were located. With those doors closed, they didn't notice right away and it was wet long enough to get moldy. They had to replace some flooring and paint right as they were moving - about 5 years ago.

I installed a mixer with hot/cold soft water plus a single spigot with city water. Great for pet and car washing or hand watering plants. All were freezeless though the garage was heated.

Our home only had 2 exterior spigots on opposite sides of the house. Added these plus two city water spigots on the patio. Convenience.

Oh, I didn't even think about the car washing aspect of things. DH would like, right now he pulls the truck around back, hooks up to the spigot back there and washes it on the lawn. I'm sure he'd love to be able pull out and wash it on the driveway.

3 garages at two different houses have them. 2 of the garages have drain holes in the middle of the garages. Our primary home has two exterior spigots on two sides of the house, and there are 3 free standing faucets in the yard, 1 is next to a kennel, 2 are near each other, we built a pavilion next to them. But we haven’t had time to figure out how to turn them on yet. We are still new to this property.

@mxk3 z5b_MI - note the retractable hose reel too. Held 50 feet of non-kink hose.

fnmroberts, what kind of garage floor do you have? Ours is painted concrete which isn't in great shape, and we're investigating different ways to deal with it. Your floor looks great.

I didn't notice it until you pointed it out!

We have one. The previous owner built the house and had it put in because he butchered deer in the garage. We found it a PITB and tapped it off. The only other spigot is in the back of the house and that's no great thing either. We wish he had put it in front NOT in the garage!!! They aren't an item that's added after the house is built. Plenty of people keep their garage floor spotless. Our outdoor spigots do not freeze--not even at -20.

@bookwoman - the floor is vinyl tile made especially for a garage. There are several brands, mine is Racedeck. Easy to install and keep clean. Used a string mop periidically during sloppy winter conditions and periodically coated with Mop & Glow. Garage was my space!

@arcy_gw "We found it a PITB..."

Why?

Our previous home built in 1958 had one. I've never seen one in the garage before and thought it was odd. I turned it on once to see if it actually worked (it did) and then never again.

Most houses I lived in have had them. But I haven’t found them useful as they never felt firmly mounted, and they came right out of the drywall, so I was concerned about getting the drywall wet. In our current house, it backs up to the laundry room, so we hope to install a utility sink there that can maybe tie in to the laundry sink drain (I have no idea if that is even possible). At the same time, we plan to add a spigot on the other side of the kitchen sink, which faces the front porch.

We wish we had more spigots on the outside than just the one in the back yard, so that we can run the sprinkler or rinse tools etc without running extension hoses all the way around the house.

My father specified plenty of outside spigots on his custom build, including two on the lower tiers of the terraces. They were so useful for not just sprinkling, but powerwashing, washing windows and the roof, and more.

@bpath - I hear you regarding drywall. Mine are installed thru a large piece of PVC mounted to the garage wall. Holes drilled are filled with expansive foam and caulked. Additionally a sheetmetal deflector redirects any drips away from the foundation and onto the floor.

When I turned ours on the drywall was soaked. I felt like an idiot for not seeing that coming.

@bpath As far as more spigots outside on our new build we have 2, one out front and one outback. I've added more off of our sprinklers. I have 4 in the garden area, a drinking fountain plus spigot, and a foot wash/garden produce wash/anything else wash station. Made the sprinkler system x4s as awesome.

Mxk3, the mudroom and kitchen run along the backside of that wall will work with the right kind of spigot. A sealcock valve and frostproof valve Chisue mentioned are the same thing and must be used in cold climates or the spigot would freeze and break. You live in MI and what I've read a majority of homes have basements, does yours? If so It's half the battle adding another spigot, and if it's not finished you're almost done. It's rare for a house not to have a basement in Minnesota and sealcock spigots are usually installed through the exterior wall between the floor joists.

When I lived in Texas it was rare to find a house with a basement and none in my town. Most had crawl spaces (hated them) with water pipes running through them. People wrapped the pipes with insulation but during hard freezes many pipes would burst, but it wasn't hard fixing them or adding spigots in these houses. The PITA came with slab homes, and never tried. One winter in Texas we had a hard freeze, and the meat processing plant I worked at had all the plumbing in the ceilings and they froze. My helper and I fixed broken pipes for 30 hours straight to get the plant running again. Such fun I had when young.

I learn so much from these threads!

I couldn’t understand how drywall gets wet from washing down a garage floor. I’ve looked at photos of garage interiors and see that some garages have drywall to the floor. My garage has an 18 inch concrete wall all around the perimeter, and the drywall and insulation sits above it.

fnmroberts, that’s a beautiful space!

We have 3 outside spigots including one just outside the garage door. We do drain and open them in before it freezes and put them on again in the spring. Whenever I think of a tap, I think of a drain...one reason I will never have a pot filler. With outside spigots, drains aren't a problem. We also have a plug for our central vac in the garage which is great for car cleaning. But to clean the garage floor, DH just uses the leaf blower.

@User - Thank you.

We sold that house last spring and moved south and downsized while upgrading the garage to a 3-car. Really liked that space with great organization, lighting and functionality Now I get to do everything over!

We do!

This is a townhouse. There is also a utility sink in the garage and right next to it is the hose spigot.

This is the only "outside" spigot for the front of the house. We do have one in the back, ( outside).

It's pretty handy. I don't think I would have ever thought of it, but I like having it. I very much like having a utility sink in the garage.

I think because our laundry room is on the upstairs level, this may be why they added it. I appreciate not having to muck up the house to watsh hands or clean something ( or dog) off and can do it outside or in the garage.

“I learn so much from these threads!”

Me too! Never heard of freeze proof spigots before. Fortunately I googled to learn what they are and how they work, before making a stupid comment. 🙂

@fmroberts....I think I'm going to copy your tiled garage floor! It's fantastic!!!!!!! 💕

"You live in MI and what I've read a majority of homes have basements, does yours? "

That part of the house has a basement underneath. I have a large addition which is on a crawlspace, but that's a different part of the house.

"I very much like having a utility sink in the garage."

I think I would find that handy, too. But we only have a two-car garage, and even with nothing stored on the floor other than a couple of lockers up by the door in the elevated area and teh garbage/recycling, it's tight in there, especially with DH's truck. I don't know where I'd fit it.

"But to clean the garage floor, DH just uses the leaf blower. "

I wish it were that easy. Leaf blowers won't clean mud, wet or dry. I regularly sweep the debris out, but it's that dang mud!

@nicole - You’ll love it. Self draining too. Had mine for about 15 years. They’re now available in several colors to create designs - below is a friends garage.

I have a tiled garage floor as well, installed by a prior owner. Not nearly as nice looking as fnm’s, but I really like it. If were starting from scratch I’d also consider a poured/painted product like epoxy or polyaspartic in order to avoid seams. Pros and cons to all I suppose, but I'd look into it.

My husband says our floor doesn't drain. It has issues. Oh! Back to painting it with epoxy....boo...............I wish we could instll a tile foor...maybe the next house. We'll have to sand it before we paint it. Monday our NEW 60" electric fireplace arrives. We'll have our hands full for a couple of days....it goes in the master bedroom. When temps got into the minus digits we needed more heat.....and....I have a HUGE empty wall....so...why not....

When we bought the fifties ranch that became a teardown, our seller had a big gas heater in the garage... and a half bath! She claimed it was for landscapers, etc., but I'm wondering if the garage had been her late husband's retreat. The existing plumbing was handy to create a powder room in what became our back hall.

@nicole_ - What a shame your garage floor doesn’t drain. Are there settling cracks which ought to be mud-jacked into position or is it just graded incorrectly? Most municipalities have forbidden actual garage drains for many years claiming petroleum floats on water and becomes a fire hazard in the trap.

As to Epoxy, make certain you have it professionally installed by a qualified contractor. I’m not generally a fan of Epoxy on old concrete because of bonding issues.

Oh, yes yes, garage floor drains. No longer allowed here. My dad put them in his two houses. In the second house there was also a garage heater. In winter, the garage was a balmy”above freezing enough to melt the snow and slush off the cars”, and it went right down the drain in each bay. Boy, do I miss having that.

We put one in for washing cars. My husband had grand aspirations. We still use it for hosing down the floor. We got ours epoxied. Not much stored on the floor and what is gets moved when we clean.

I would say it's not unheard of in our area. No one would balk at the idea.

If your garage doesn’t come with a drain, the floor is leveled, if you wash the floor, where would the water go?

Older houses here are slab-on-grade with terrazzo floors (no attics, no basements, no crawlspace underneath) - and our neighbor had a pipe break under her bathroom floor. She said it was a nightmare to repair.

If your garage doesn’t come with a drain, the floor is leveled, if you wash the floor, where would the water go?

Some are poured with a slight slope towards the door.

@fnmroberts....DH squeegees out the garage every time we pull a car in. It's graded wrong. It's a nice garage. We epoxied the upstairs of the garage in grey, then put carpet tiles on top. THAT was a success. It has a 720sq ft wood shop above the garage with high ceilings & lots of windows...it's ALL heated...upstairs and downstairs,with hydronic radiant floor heat. There's a welding shop behind the parking spaces, it's extra deep.

our new build we have hot and cold water and a floor drain. water is handy for car washing or hosing something down in the driveway. Drain is fantastic during the snowy months. All the slush melts off car and flows right down into drain

Nicole, the wood shop sounds a wonderful place for a home gym! 😁

Thanks Roxsol!

It's not unusual in my area to have the house "laundry" area in the garage, with a sink, but I've never heard of having a plain spigot. There's normally one on the outside wall near the garage opening, but I've never heard of having one inside.

Our outside spigots are located on the sides of our house. We have a spigot in the garage that's about 36" off the floor, as well as a drain. My husband attached a 24" piece of hose that I use to fill watering cans so water doesn't splash all over. The one in the garage gets used all the time for cleaning the floor and washing the vehicles.

We have a water spigot in our garage with both hot and cold water. It comes in very handy! We are in Michigan where it gets very cold, but our garage is attached and water/dryer are on the other side of the wall. I only use it maybe 2X/year, to hose down the garage floor. We do have a ton of stuff stored in the garage, but it does get really dusty and dirty, so every spring and fall I move stuff out, sweep and then hose the remaining stuff off the floor. There is a floor drain on each side. The walls are drywall, so I don't spray them with water. We are fortunate to have two outdoor spigots, one on the front of the house and one on the back, but I agree it would be nice to have one on each side!!

Yes, we have two garages and have hose spigots in each of them. Works well to wash a vehicle in the garage or hose down the floor. Comes in handy.

Yes. I have a hose spigot in my attached garage.

We are the 3rd owner of a home where the builder put one in our attached garage (I am not sure why) -but I love it - albeit my situation is probably unique - I do fused glass and my tools there (a flat grinder and a wet tile saw) are diamond blades/discs that require water to cool them. My flat grinder is attached directly to the spigot and I have a hose attached to the other side of the “Y” to fill the wet saw. I also use it to attach a longer hose to water the new trees… you never know when you’ll love something!! (He also put a bathroom with a shower in a detached garage - and oh boy, I’ll never have a garage without one! So convenient when you’re outside working and dirty!)

We have a hot and cold spigot in our attached heated garage. Love it in a cold climate! In the spring when the kids are ready for outdoor water play, DSIL uses the warm water for DGS’’s bounce house amd all the neighborhoods kids love it. I use it for plantings in the spring, cleaning off muddy boots and other messy things when too cold for outside use.

If you live in a cold climate, how do you keep the spigots from freezing (assume your garage in unheated)?

@mtvhike - providing the supply comes from a heated space (basement or interior), a freezless silcock is the solution.

If the sillcock is in the wall between the basement and the garage, then you're right. But if a pipe has to run any distance in the garage before it gets to the sillcock, that's another story.

We live in Minnesota. Our garage is insulated (not heated) and doesn't get below freezing. Regardless we winterize our garage sillcock just like we do for our outside ones. We don't really need it during the winter.