If you have ever lived in an apartment building, you must have heard how loud and disgusting the water pipes sometimes hum. In some cases, the hum is heard when several apartments are connected to the same water supply, in others, the hum of the pipes gets on the nerves of all the inhabitants of the house at the same time. Sometimes this sound can appear and disappear over time, and sometimes the noise from the plumbing is heard all the time.
Why are the water pipes in the apartment buzzing at night? There may be several reasons for this. Let's look at them in detail below.
Causes of sounds from the water pipes, or Why water pipes hum
The most common cause of unpleasant sounds in pipes is bad gaskets installed in plumbing. The sound appears as a result of the resonance of the vibrations of the gaskets and the water running through the pipes. Resonance amplifies the sound and spreads it throughout the house. In this case, it can be extremely difficult to identify which of the tenants in the house has problematic plumbing.
If the pipes in the house are not constantly buzzing, then the cause of the noise is, as a rule, the filling of water in the drain tank of one of the apartments or the opening by the tenantfaucet.
If the buzz is constantly observed, then its cause is the difference in pressure in the risers of cold and hot water. Liquid is squeezed from one riser to another through a broken faucet in one of the apartments. Sometimes valves can be broken at the same time in several different apartments.
Why do water pipes hum when you turn on the faucet? Probably, the problem lies in a poor-quality or deformed gasket. Plumbers with many years of experience recommend starting the fight against an unpleasant phenomenon by finding and replacing a poor-quality gasket to eliminate noise from water pipes.
Methods for finding a faulty crane
To identify an apartment with faulty taps, you need to turn them off one by one from the hot and cold water pipes and listen to whether the unpleasant sound has disappeared or not. As soon as the hum in the pipes stopped, an apartment with faulty plumbing was found.
If you have checked each of the apartments in the house as described above, but the problem has not been solved, it is likely that the sound is caused by the gasket of the valve blocking the riser. You can test this hypothesis by turning off the taps that supply water to this riser. If the sound is gone, the problem is with the riser valve.
Remember also that if you have a branched water supply in your basement, containing a lot of valves and valves, any shutoff valves can cause a buzz. Determining the cause of unpleasant sounds without an experienced plumber in this case can be very difficult.difficult and not as soon as we would like.
If you still managed to localize the cause, consider yourself lucky. With a simple repair, it can be easily fixed.
What should I do to eliminate the hum?
Not all valves provoke hum. The reason for the noise may be mixers or faucets of outdated designs, with valves, as well as half-turn crane boxes.
Modern ball valves or joystick mixers do not have gaskets in their design. Therefore, they cannot enter into resonance with water pipes.
To get rid of noise, sometimes it is not necessary to buy a new faucet. Often it is enough to dismantle the crane box, remove the gasket and correct it or replace it. Such elements often hang freely on the stem or have tapered edges.
Loose hanging gasket should be replaced. A deformed, irregular shape can be cut with scissors. Then the faucet box should be assembled and installed in the water supply. If the repair is done correctly, then there should be no more noise.
The simplest solution for an obsolete valve design is to replace it with a newer model ball valve. High-quality ball structures cause fewer problems in the operation of the water supply.
The same advice can be given for obsolete faucets. Replacing an old faucet with a new model with one lever is the best solution to the problem.
Why houses are buzzingwater pipes: other reasons
Breakdowns of valves and faucets of the water supply are the most common, but not all, causes that can cause noise. In some cases, humming in the pipes is caused by factors that are much more expensive and require more effort to eliminate.
Clogged pipes
When the pipe diameter decreases, reactive water flows occur. They make the pipes vibrate, which is the reason for the noise in the apartment.
This problem can only be solved by replacing the clogged section of the water main.
To check if there is a blockage in the pipe, just turn off one of the mixers and look at what is happening in the pipe. If everything is covered with a thick layer of dirt from the inside, then it's time to change the communication system.
In rare cases, dirt in pipes can accumulate only at the ends of the mains. If you cut off the pipes and try to clean their ends, then there is a chance that the noise problem will disappear. If it does not disappear, the only way out is to replace part of the water line.
It is worth noting that not only metal, but also plastic and polypropylene pipes are prone to clogging. The reason for the accumulation of dirt is the difference in the diameters of the pipe and hoses of the mixers.
Poorly anchored pipes
Vibration can be caused not only by dirt and deposits inside pipes. If during installation the water supply was not properly fixed to the walls, then when the tap is suddenly opened, water hammer and, as a result, vibration may occur.plumbing.
That is why it is so important to monitor the quality of installation even at the stage of installing a new water supply system. Construction companies that value their reputation always make sure that the installation of water pipes, even in small things, is carried out in accordance with all technical rules.
The method to eliminate the problem of noise due to poorly fixed pipes is to install special fasteners on the water pipe, fixing it in the correct position.
Why do water pipes hum when the faucet is turned off?
If, regardless of whether the taps in your house are closed or open, the hum of the water supply is heard in the apartment, you need to start fixing the problem from the basement.
In the basement, find the riser from which your water supply is powered. This is easy to do if you compare the location of the risers with the layout of your entrance. You can also navigate by stairs.
If you find a water leak in the basement, then you can hardly do without calling a plumber. Contact the organization servicing your home and call a specialist. He will have all the necessary tools with him, and he will certainly be familiar with the plumbing diagram in your basement.
Besides, this way you will not leave the tenants of the entrance without water, twisting something wrong or accidentally damaging some valve. It is also important to remember that in the winter season, hot water in the mains can be very high in temperature. Repair of such a line requires special care, as it is fraught with burns.
If the water in the basement as a result of the inspectionwas not detected, then it is necessary to ask the neighbors if they have something leaking.
It's easy to spot a bad gasket in a kitchen faucet. Damage to the gasket causes hot water to enter the cold water faucet because the pressure in the hot liquid riser is almost always higher.
If a poll of neighbors did not bring results, then you can walk along the highway and try to determine by ear the blockage in the bottlenecks of the pipe. Most often, pebbles fall into valve bodies or at the junctions of two pipes. To check the valve, you can also try to see if anything is preventing it from fully opening and closing.
Periodic noise
The answer to the question of why water pipes buzz when the water is turned on in a neighboring apartment often lies on the surface. When you inspect the plumbing of your neighbors, you will surely find outdated valves and faucets, or faucets with poor-quality gaskets, or a section of a water pipe that has not changed for a long time.
Not every neighbor will agree to start repairing the plumbing at your first request. People may have their own view of the plumbing noise problem, or they may not want to spend their time and money fixing a problem that they don't see as such.
Knocking on highways
How to find the source of knocking in pipes? To do this, you need a keen ear. If strong blows are heard from time to time, then the best solution would be to replace the valve that blocks the riser. Plumbers from housing and communal services are required to replace such units upon requestresidents.
Knocking in the pipe may be associated with a change in the temperature of the water in the riser or with the hot water supply. To identify the problem in such cases, it is necessary to inspect the main and outline the places where the water supply is in contact with other stationary objects.
Poorly fixed sections of the water line are fixed with brackets, anchors or welded to eliminate knocking.
You can also eliminate the contact of two pipes by creating a gap between them, and thus get rid of knocking in the lines.
