[brecksville]

I moved into a 20 yr. old house about 1-1/2 yrs. Ago and I have an issue that is driving me crazy. Every time a toilet is flushed or the shower is running in one bathroom (hot and cold) upstairs I hear a rush of water in my wall on the main floor and in the basement followed by a dripping sound that stops about 1 minute after the water is done draining. I don't have any evidence of a leak and it doesn't occur when the sinks are running or with the other two bathrooms upstairs. Please comment. Thank you.
Carol from Ohio

[Milo Dolezal]

Hello Brecksville,
What you hear is waste water rushing down the drain pipe from your upstairs bathroom. This drain pipe is installed inside your (most likely) 2"x 4"wall. If that pipe is ABS or PVC than the noise is even more audible than if the pipe is Cast Iron. It is common problem with houses with bathrooms on the 2nd story. The drip sound you hear is just water slowly emptying from the pipe.

To eliminate this kind of problem, we always use Cast Iron pipe during construction and drop it down through 2"x 6" wall. Then, we pack wall insulation around the pipe to muff the sound. If we have the luxury of a chase than we run our waste lines through the chase. Chase usually has more space and accepts several layers of insulation muffing the unwanted sounds in the process.

Sorry to say, but at this point, there is really nothing you can do do about it.