Perhaps the most valuable use was washing our kids when they were young and had managed to get remarkably filthy outdoors

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I’ve never seen another house with a feature I installed at my place more than 30 years ago, but it’s something I’d reinstall immediately if I ever had to live in another house: hot and cold running water outdoors. 

Most houses have an outdoor tap, but it delivers cold water only. My setup uses an industrial-style faucet with a swivelling spout and two lever handles that mix hot and cold water. It behaves like a regular indoor faucet, except it opens up possibilities that work much better outdoors. 

I can’t count how many skunked dogs I’ve washed at that tap over the years. Slightly warm water is also great for washing soil off vegetables coming in from the garden, cleaning large greasy objects you don’t want in the house, and all sorts of other messy jobs. 

Perhaps the most valuable use was washing our kids when they were young and had managed to get remarkably filthy outdoors. Our house is very private, and the faucet is on the back side, where it’s even more secluded. During warmer months, it was wonderful to be able to wash muddy children outdoors and send them into the house squeaky clean and ready for pyjamas. I even turned it into a game called “slippery piggy”. I’d pretend to be losing my grip on each damp kid as I carried them inside in a towel. Every little person looked forward to being the piggy. 

To make hot and cold outdoor running water a reality at your place, you need a convenient location for the faucet and a reasonably easy way to connect to existing hot and cold water pipes inside. 

My installation is a little unusual because the supply pipes have to travel beneath a seven-foot-wide veranda before reaching the faucet. For this reason, I used an ordinary faucet that has to be shut off, drained and put out of commission each fall, then brought back into service in spring. This isn’t much of a hardship because there’s rarely much need for warm outdoor water during winter anyway. 

If I were installing a faucet directly on an exterior wall today, I’d use one of the freeze-proof hot-and-cold outdoor faucets now available. They’re not especially common, but they’re clever. The actual valve mechanism sits well inside the heated part of the house where freezing isn’t an issue, while a long body extends through the wall to the outside controls. You can adjust both temperature and flow from outdoors. 

Truth be told, I sometimes use my hot and cold outdoor faucet for showering myself, too. Not because I’m too dirty to come into the house, but because there’s something particularly refreshing about an outdoor shower. No matter how warm you make the water, even the slightest breeze creates a cooling effect on wet skin. I can honestly say that my outdoor showers are the most refreshing showers I ever take. 

My arrangement is simple. I keep a six-foot length of garden hose connected to the faucet, which lets a valve on the end of the hose function somewhat like a handheld shower head. Once I’ve adjusted the water to the temperature I want, the shutoff valve on the end of the hose lets me stop the water while soaping up, then turn it back on for rinsing. It’s simple, economical and surprisingly pleasant. 

After more than three decades of living with hot and cold water outdoors, I’m still puzzled that I’ve never seen it on other houses. It’s inexpensive compared with many home improvements, it doesn’t take up any space, and once it’s there you keep finding new uses for it. Install one and I suspect you’ll wonder why outdoor taps ever came with cold water only. Just be careful not to barge into my backyard on a summer evening. I might be getting refreshed back there. 

Steve Maxwell sometimes even extends his outdoor showering season into late November. Visit him online at BaileyLineRoad.com for Canadian-made articles and videos on home improvements, woodworking and practical hands-on living.