Outside tap - angle/water-tightness

[longdogs]

I had this once, I made the mistake of cramming the tap to get that last fraction of a turn and all seemed OK.

Until 5am the next morning, we were awoken to a noise outside. I looked out of the window and my garden was literally like a paddy field with water gushing out like a fire hydrant. The tap had obviously been weakened and eventually blew off.

It's a 90-year-old Bungalow with the tap connected before the house, so no stop-cock except the supply main and there was I trying to water-tight the connection with odds and ends of connectors before I went to work to enable the Wife to have some water during the day.

All outside taps should have an isolation valve INSIDE the property. Would have saved you a lot of hassle there .

I always fit an isolation valve but no one ever bothers to turn it off (me included).