Yard (technically a barn) Hydrant

[ktrubright]

Hey. I'm in need of a little help/guidance!


We currently rent the house that we live in. There is a "yard hydrant" in our barn but we can't figure out how to make water come out of it. Now, I'm from the south and have never lived on a farm or anything as "country" as this so I have no clue about any of this stuff. The handle pulls up, but no water comes out. Yes, we do have a well. My neighbor said that there should be a lever of some sort in the basement maybe that turns the hydrant on and off. I have NO clue what I'm looking for.

It would be great if someone could help me out a little bit because right now we are carrying a plant watering can from our house (which we fill up in the sink) down to our barn and the only other spigot we have is on the back side of our house (farther away from the barn). I'd love to be able to fill up our girls water from inside the barn. It would make things so much easier.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It's possible it's not hooked up to a water source anymore. It's possible it's rusted shut or broke. It's possible it's frozen if you are in a colder climate. Did you so the people you are renting from about it?

When we bought our place there was a yard hydrant in the barn too, but it never worked either. We did run a new line and put in a new hydrant.

 

[ktrubright]

It might not be connected to a water source any more, but how do you check that? It's not frozen because over the last week (well month) it has not been cold enough here for the ground to freeze. It's been almost 70 for the past week. I have not asked the homeowner yet and I didn't know the people who lived here before us. But I know that they had horses and chickens. I can't imagine that they brought enough water down from the house for multiple horses and chickens. That would be insane.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If there isn't concrete around the yard hydrant you could dig down to check things out, otherwise asking the owners would be a better idea because everything else usually involves investigative digging.

We had a line come off our well and go directly to the barn, which we didn't know about until a fitting broke loose under ground and our yard sprang a leak, so if yours comes directly off the well the only when to figure it out is to dig it up. Our new line comes out of the house with a shut off valve in the basement.

Here our frost line is 6 feet, so water lines are about 7 feet down. Yours may be less deep. Is it possible the last people just ran a hose out to the barn?

 

[ktrubright]

It's mounted and ran through concrete. I called the owner but the problem with that is that she is like 80-90 years old and lives in Arizona so she doesn't really know anything about it. They may have, but I can't imagine that they would want an eye sore like that because the spigot is a pretty good ways from the barn and it would be constantly getting run over by vehicles. My neighbor was saying that she thinks there is a shut off valve like you are talking about, but I have no idea what to look for or where it would be at. Any suggestions on where to look for it?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Do you have a house basement or milkhouse on you barn?

 

[ktrubright]

Do you have a house basement or milkhouse on you barn?

A house basement.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Can you see where pipes are coming into the basement? If there was a shut off or on it probably would be somewhere inside if things ever freeze where you are.

You could take apart the hydrant to to see if there plunger is working, but without some sort of shut off you would be in trouble if the water starts flowing. We have a breaker that runs our pump which we shut off to totally shut of the water coming in.

Sorry I'm not much help. Another option is to call a plumber and see what they think as far as if it's hooked up yet or not.

 

[ktrubright]

I'm not sure where they come in because of there actually is a shut off in the basement, the pipes are buried and we have a lot of pipes downstairs. There is a box that looks like a breaker but it says air conditioning which I'm not sure what it goes to since we don't have a/c!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Pipes should come up from the floor or come through the basement wall, which would be coming from your well. Probably hooked up to a pressure tank if you have an in well pump, or hooked up to a pump in the basement. So if you locate where they come in you may find a pipe that also goes out the same way and it should have a shut off valve before it goes out.