Ask Experts Questions for FREE Help !
Ask

Very Loud pipe vibration in wall

Asked Feb 12, 2007, 02:09 PM — 5 Answers
Hello,
We have a townhouse that we've lived in for about 1 and 1/2 years. Over the past few weeks, there's been a very loud vibration coming from the wall that supplies water for both the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs bathroom. You can actually feel the shower head vibrating. It's extremely loud and will fade in and out. It is random, and will occur when no water has been used. It seems to be increasing daily and happening during the day, and in the middle of the night. When it occurred the other day for a long period, we went to the basement to see if we could isolate a pipe. When we grabbed the hot water pipe in the basement, you could also feel the vibration in your hand. What could be causing this, especially when no one is using any water and nothing is running (hot water tank, water softener, etc.) This is driving us nuts! It's soulds like the whole house is vibrating. Thanks!

Search this Thread
Share |
5 Answers
iamgrowler's Avatar
iamgrowler Posts: 1,421, Reputation: 561
Ultra Member
  
#2

Feb 12, 2007, 06:41 PM
Sounds like water passing over a worn rubber washer.

I'm guessing it's likely a worn out flapper valve in a toilet that is causing a toilet to refill periodically past a worn out angle stop or gate valve.
Helpful
doug238's Avatar
doug238 Posts: 1,556, Reputation: 353
Ultra Member
  
#3

Feb 12, 2007, 08:58 PM
In most areas of florida, there is constant water pressure of about 60 pounds, when I moved to atlanta 6 years ago I discovered what a prv was. It is a pressure reducing valve. The average pressure in the atlanta metro area is 146 psi. By code it must be under 85 psi. However, of the calls I have serviced with your symptoms I have by far found a toilet that was leaking through a bad flapper or a flapper chain too tight or the small tube going into the overflow was too far down the overflow and causing the tank to syphon out. Next time this happens go take the lid off each toilet and see which one is refilling at the high water level. The float is vibrating on the water and it is refilling as fast as it is draining and stuck on 'almost full'. The washer at the top of the fill valve is fluttering. I usually simply replace it with a fluidmaster 400 and maybe replace the flapper and make sure I have no syphonage.
Helpful
oldbgood's Avatar
oldbgood Posts: 7, Reputation: -1
New Member
  
#4

Mar 25, 2007, 04:06 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by deemeister
Hello,
We have a townhouse that we've lived in for about 1 and 1/2 years. Over the past few weeks, there's been a very loud vibration coming from the wall that supplies water for both the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs bathroom. You can actually feel the shower head vibrating. It's extremely loud and will fade in and out. It is random, and will occur when no water has been used. It seems to be increasing daily and happening during the day, and in the middle of the night. When it occurred the other day for a long period, we went to the basement to see if we could isolate a pipe. When we grabbed the hot water pipe in the basement, you could also feel the vibration in your hand. What could be causing this, especially when no one is using any water and nothing is running (hot water tank, water softener, etc.) This is driving us nuts! It's soulds like the whole house is vibrating. Thanks!
Check the hot water heater ,possible hot water heater pressure release valve get a plumber,for safty reasons
Helpful
skme_fan's Avatar
skme_fan Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
New Member
  
#5

Mar 30, 2008, 05:58 AM
Excellent solution!
Helpful
speedball1's Avatar
speedball1 Posts: 27,674, Reputation: 9541
Senior Plumbing Expert
  
#6

Mar 30, 2008, 06:29 AM


Quote:
When we grabbed the hot water pipe in the basement, you could also feel the vibration in your hand. What could be causing this
Could this be a faulty heat trap nipple on the hot water inlet? Regards, Tom
Helpful
Not your question? Ask your question View similar questions
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Add your answer here.

Remove Text Formatting
 

Undo
Redo
  
Decrease Size
Increase Size
Bold
Italic
Underline
Align Left
Align Center
Align Right
Ordered List
Unordered List
Decrease Indent
Increase Indent
Insert Email Link
Wrap [QUOTE] tags around selected text
Wrap [CODE] tags around selected text
Wrap [HTML] tags around selected text
Wrap [PHP] tags around selected text
Wrap [YOUTUBE] tags around selected text
Notification Type:



Check out some similar questions!

Loud Bangs Coming from PVC waste pipe and Hot Water Copper Line [ 6 Answers ]

A year ago I had a crack and leak in our PVC waste pipe just behind our family room wall close to the first story floor. The plumber opened up the drywall and cut out the cracked portion (2 feet) which exended from just behind the family room wall down to the basement and replaced it with a new...

Loud Vibrating Shower Pipe [ 3 Answers ]

When turning on the hot water in the upstairs shower of my 4 year old property, there is a loud vibrating sound like a harley davidson or jackhammer coming from through the wall. If the pressure is turned up high it goes away, but that is a lot of (hot) water being wasted. This only affects the hot...

LOUD gurgling from sink vent pipe [ 2 Answers ]

Just moved into 2nd floor apt in 4 story townhouse (built circa 1900). The bathroom sink vent pipe gurgles and splashes LOUDLY (wakes me up every time) when upstairs neighbors use sink. My plumber tells me the vent pipe is blocked somewhere above us, and as the water comes down the pipe it is using...

Bathroom sink wall pipe drain pipe [ 2 Answers ]

My house was built in early 70's..No plastic..I'm putting in a new sink and had to remove the wall pipe that goes into the wall..I needed a longer one. It seem where it goes in behind the wall into the plumbing there was some type of gasket as pieces of it fell out when I removed the pipe..I can...

View more Plumbing questions Search