I noticed several posts about dripping sounds, but mine is a little different, so I wanted to ask. My husband and I bought a townhouse a year ago (it was a year old at the time, making it two years old now). We rent it out to a couple who in the past several days have noticed (what they call) a "dripping" noise in the downstairs bathroom behind the wall (this wall has nothing against it - the toilet and sink are on opposing walls). The townhouse is actually a duplex and the wall that seems to be delivering this noise is the inside wall (shared with the other half of the duplex). It is a two-story unit, and if you flush the toilets, run the sinks, or showers from upstairs, there is a very short delay and then you hear the dripping sound in the downstairs bathroom. You also hear this if you run the sink in the downstairs bathroom and sometimes even the kitchen sink (also downstairs). However, the drip does not occur every time, just most times. Also, it seems to appear at random times during the day when no water has been running at all. And the drip is not a consistent one (it may go "drip, drip....drip" or just "drip" or "drip.......drip.....drip")---not consistent at all. Honestly, I went over to the townhouse this evening to hear it for myself, and it almost sounds more like a creaking noise, like a house settling. However, our renters have never noticed this before, so it seems weird that it would just now come up if it were "settling." There is no wetness in the bathroom (walls or floor) and no water stains. It seems like stains would show up or the floorboards would be wet if this were a water leak..? Also, the townhouse is built on a slab, so there is no way to check for wetness underneath.

I just don't want to hire a plumber to go tear apart the walls in the 2yr old townhouse just on the possibility of a water leak. Are there any sure signs that it would or would not be a water leak? I would hate the tear up the wall just to find out it is noisy pipes (but then again, why would they all of sudden become noisy?).

Thanks for any help on this---

Bryanne

Set you mind at ease, if no water is showing up it ain't leaking.

I am currently working through the same problem, its cold outside and when the kids use the bathroom upstairs you can hear first a creaking noise from the mainfloor wall and then a drip drip drip.

When I lost cold water to this same bathroom just a week ago, I said enough I am going to tear down this wall and see what's going on behind the walls.

One thing that struck me as very odd was it was extremely cold, and there seemed to be a down draft. This would explain why the cold water line would freeze (actually I think it was more just slushy, because 2mins with a blow dryer was enough to free the line).

But the main 3" pvc drain was ok, no sign of water leakage at all behind the wall.

To alleviate the pipes freezing, i insulated both the cold and hot line, and i took some copper strapping and just attached it from the hot to the cold line (I figured there would be enough heat transfer from when the hot water was running that if in the future if the cold were to freeze up again..that the connecting strap would free it up). In the next cavity over where the main drain line was coming down i didn't do much, just insulated both wall joist cavities.

Well confident that i had fixed things, i closed up the wall.

Holy crap if i don't hear the creaking worse now, and the drip in the wall is still there.

I am sitting on the fence here as to weather i cut out that new piece of drywall i put in (32"x40") not that big that it is such a big deal to put back in.

I can't do much for the drip, but as for the creak... what should I do? All I can think of doing is just strap it down better so that the contraction does not put pressure on the drywall backing.

Does this sound right?

Any Thoughts.

Hope you find the "drip" but as for the creaking? DO NOT strap it down tighter! I Guarantee you will have even MORE creaking!