How To Quiet Down Noisy Pipes
You're fast asleep in your bed when you hear a large bang and clatter. Startled, you throw on your robe and move as quickly down the stairs as you possibly can. Is a family member in trouble? Is there a burglar in your home? Thankfully not. This is just another case of noisy pipes waking you up in the middle of the night. There's not much more in the world of home owning more annoying than dealing with noisy pipes. Never fear, however. There are things you can do to rectify this startling situation. This brief article will serve as the perfect starting point as a guide to tell you how to quiet down those noisy pipes.
Prevent Water Hammers
A water hammer occurs when a fast moving stream of water is moving down a narrow pipe. At an immense speed, however, the water comes to a cross joint. Where it originally had a straight path to move, it now has nowhere else to go. The water basically must come to a screeching halt by crashing against the joint. The resultant noise is called a water hammer, as it is basically akin to someone taking a hammer and beating against the joints of your pipes. It is very loud and can serve to awaken you from even the deepest of slumbers.
Not only is this problem annoying and can deprive you of the rest you need, this problem can be incredibly bad for the joints of your pipes. Your pipes are outfitted with what are called air chambers. These air chambers serve to cushion the blow for your pipes and greatly muffle the sound that water hammers create. In fact, so long as these air chambers are working correctly, you won't have to worry about the substantive problems that water hammers create at all.
However, air chambers do need to be refilled with air periodically. This involves shutting off the water to your home's main, opening up the highest faucet available in your home, finding the lowest faucet in your home and turning it on so all of the water is drained from it, then, turning on the main again. This should ensure air is pushed out of the vertical and horizontal lines but remains present in the air chambers. This should also ensure a lack of water hammers.
Tighten Loose Mounting Straps
Mounting straps are the vinyl coated nail-in hooks or hangers that attach piping to the framing of your home. Take a look to see if these are properly screwed into the framing. If they are loose, your pipes may tend to rattle whenever water is turned off or on. When properly screwed into the framing, they should be relatively quiet. Although this is nowhere near the annoyance level of a water hammer, this noise can still cause relatively small levels of annoyance and this is a fix that should only take a few moments.
Lower Too High Pressure
Another cause for your water pipes causing loud banging noises is due to too high water pressure. This is an easy fix in modern homes. In almost every modern home, a water pressure valve exists with a monitor that tells you how high the pressure is and also if that pressure is either too high or too low. This valve usually exists right next to your water main. Adjust this accordingly. If you do not have a water pressure valve and monitor installed, it is highly recommended that you purchase and install one.
Loud banging on your pipes in the middle of the night is – thankfully – not caused by ghosts. It is just some problems with how the water is traveling through those pipes. Hopefully, this article has given you some insight on how to rectify those problems. If these solutions don't work, call a local plumber for assistance.
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