Best of luck with your repairs.
It depends on where they are leaking. If you crank the handle open and water sprays out away from the handle itself, it is a relatively easy fix. Behind the handle is a packing nut; some are small, others quite large. Tighten the packing nut in small steps (1/8 to 1/4 of a turn at a time) until the leak stops. Resist the urge to just give the packing nut a couple of full turns. Doing it in small steps will leave you room for adjustments down the road.
If the faucets are dripping from the hose spigot, the bibb seat washers most likely need to be replaced. Frost-free (or frost-proof) faucets are generally 8,10, or 12 inches long. They extend into an interior wall, and seal the water at the end of the faucet body. Generally they are attached to 1/2" copper tubing by a nut that is soldered onto the copper tubing itself. It is this nut that must be held in place with a wrench when removing the entire faucet assembly. Access to the end of the faucet body is gained by cutting an access panel into the sheet rock. Alternatively, you can remove the faucet stem itself, and just replace the bibb seat washers, by screwing the stem out of the faucet body. This does require shutting off the water to the faucet(s). If you could provide a pic or two of your faucet(s) it might help me to better understand what you're up against.
I really appreciate your comments . . . they've been very helpful. I'll try to get pictures some time tomorrow when the suns out.
Thank you.
@mightymouse Here is a picture of the outside faucets I'm dealing with . . . they used a shorter faucet than they should've in my opinion and didn't account for how the bricks were laid on the corners of our house. Both were installed like this . . .
My last house was like that. Chiseled the mortar around them but went ahead and cut a hole in the inside so I could keep an eye on it. It’s a good thing I did because it was not anchored correctly. I would have twisted it off. I was contracting at the time so the sheetrock and paint repair was nothing.
I had to do that with one at our last house in Stillwater. This one is in our closet so it's not an issue to cut the access hole and be safe. I'll probably do that for both of them anyway.
Wow! What a mess.... You have the right idea--chisel the mortar away on the outside, open an access hole on the inside wall, secure the nut on the inside with a wrench and screw both faucets out, replacing them with ones of the proper length. I would suggest buying the Prier brand of frost-free faucets. Prier stems are well made and repair parts are readily available when needed. Good luck!
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