Downpipe Noise from Appartment (Please Help!)

[David Armitage]

Hello,

I rent a Taylor Wimpey appartment in the UK and need help desparately. I have complained for 6 months about a noisy downpipe with no help.

I am on the 2nd floor (but the 2 floors below me are car parking) and the downpipe for me and from the 9 floors above me turns at 90 degrees below my bathroom)

EVERY night until midnight and from 6am I am kept awake by a dripping noise through the flat that sounds like pebbles dropping into the shower, punctuated occasionally by a loud banging noise.

Taylor Wimpey filled the cavity area in my bathroom around the pipe with come concrete type materia but (as I told them) it made no difference (it sounds like the noise is coming from under the floor)

I can access the 90 degree ubend by going into the carpark and can hear the “pebble noise” but from here it sounds like tiny little stones hitting the UBend so I can only assume its being amplified by an echo.

There is a 1-2cm gap around the pipe (shouldn’t this be concreted in?)

Taylor Wimpey now do nothing about this problem (never buy from these people!!!) and I work in IT so I have no clue. Anyway sorry about the long post but…

1. What can I demand that Taylor Wimpey do?

2. Should the gap around the pipe be concreted in? Or some kind of expanding noise reducing foam??

3. Can the ubend be replaced by something rubber? Or is there a rubber inner that can be fitted?

Any help MUCH appreciated!

Regards,

David Homer[email protected]2008-09-19 18:02:46

[TheLocalPlumberParticipant]

David,

It sounds as if the waste piping is abs plastic, if so have them change this fitting to cast iron.

Good Luck,

Bill

DUNBAR2010-10-06 15:24:04

[nicktheplumberParticipant]

TheLocalPlumber wrote:

David,

It sounds as if the waste piping is abs plastic, if so have them change this fitting to cast iron.

Good Luck,

Bill

Agreed. Noise control is the main reason to use CI waste pipe. If they can’t replace the plastic with CI, they could try to insulate the pipe in the pipe chases…good luck. DUNBAR2010-10-06 15:24:25

[joemelParticipant]

Steam heating systems for buildings may also be vulnerable to water hammer. In a steam system, water hammer most often occurs when some of the steam condenses into water in a horizontal section of the steam piping. Subsequently, steam picks up the water, forms a “slug” and hurls it at high velocity into a pipe elbow, creating a loud hammering noise and greatly stressing the pipe. This condition is usually caused by a poor condensate drainage strategy.

Where air filled traps are used, these sometimes become depleted of their trapped air over a long period of time through absorption into the water. This can be cured by shutting off the supply and draining the system by opening taps at the highest and lowest locations, which restores the air to the traps and then closing the taps and opening the supply.

DUNBAR2010-10-06 15:23:46

[vegaschkParticipant]

If all else fails, can find a new place to rent?

[Author]

Posts