# Banging Pipes



## brasilmom (Jan 22, 2012)

Greetings,

We live in a ranch style home with a fully finished basement. We always hear the pipes banging while opening faucets and this is particularly bad if we are using the faucet in the bathroom located in the basement. After a bit of search I found that draining all the pipes could be the easy solution we have long been looking for. So we did that. However, the pipe continue to bang. So, I come to you to ask for further advice. What do you all suggest?
Thanks. Be well
Miriam


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## joecaption (Jan 22, 2012)

Not sure where you heard about draining the pipes, that would do nothing but put air in the lines and make it worst.
What you have is called water hammer a hammer arrest should take care of it.
If you do a key word search on it there's lot's of diffearnt models to choise from. Lowes and Home Depot carry them.


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## Redwood (Jan 22, 2012)

If the pipes are banging when you turn on the water and while the water is running it is a different problem. This problem is most likely caused by a loose faucet washer. Probably at the faucet you are turning on or, at the angle stop below. It is quite loud sounding like a jackhammer...

Draining the pipes is for water hammer which happens when you turn off the water.


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## brasilmom (Jan 22, 2012)

Thank you for the replies. The noise is heard at opening and at shutting the faucet. Nothing is heard while water is running. As for the draining the pipes, it indeed made it worse, but I read it right in this forum. Here is a copy of the text:

"You can make your own knock valve. All it consists of is a dead end piece of pipe oriented vertically so air stays trapped in it. It acts like a spring to cushion the shock of the water suddenly stopping. It should be located near the end of the run (near shut off valves). Before you go to all the work of installing these, try shutting off all the water in the house and drain all the pipes. Doing this allows air back into any anti knock valves that may be there. When you turn the water back on, the faucets will hiss for awhile, until the air is expelled."

So, I will research about the water hammer and hammer arrest to see what people are doing about this. Thanks for the replies.
Be well
Miriam


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## Redwood (Jan 23, 2012)

Okay, those Dead end pipes referred to as air chambers are old school and they don't work. The air in the chambers is rapidly absorbed by the water and the chambers end up just full of water not doing anything. Water Hammer Arrestors have a piston which keeps the air and water separate.

Because of the fact that you are getting noise both on opening and closing I suspect your pipes are not hung very well and will need to have additional hangers securing them in place for the noise to be stopped.


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## schlegelplumbing (Jan 27, 2012)

I see you have a basement. I assume it's finished. And are your potable water lines run in the flooring system between 1st floor and the basement? And is that where the noise is? Or are your pipes run in an attic then drop down in either exterior or interior walls? You need to locate where are your water lines  Then locate the noise affected area  Then determine how your gonna gain access to that area. Most causes of noisy pipes is the plumber or installer did not properly secure the pipes with isolators, clamps or hangers. So just installing a hammer arrester to 60' of unsupported copper pipe will not solve the problem. Hammer arresters were not designed to silence banging pipes. You have to find the unsupported section and then properly anchor the pipe. Period. No special devices. Just good ole search n fix. But I asked all those questions in the beginning because if they are run in between the floors and you have that basement and your sure the banging is at that location, just open up the sheetrock and support the lines  I think when a sink was installed down there someone probably tapped into the hot n cold lines and didn't support it then buttoned it up and then noisy pipes occurred. So please don't go down to the local hardware store n buy a hammer arrester that won't work. Find the loose pipe n support it. FYI hammer arresters are installed in potable water lines that the PSI is so great that due to the configuration of the potable water piping system that when high pressure water reaches an appurtenance I.e. shower valve, washer box, etc  that force of the blast of water screaming through the pipes when all of the sudden either turned off or open that pressure has nowhere to go, so even properly supported pipes would become noisy. The arrester absorbs that shock like shocks on your car. It dampens the force (psi) of that water all of the sudden being turned off. Especially if your home has a double check assigned to the water main. 




brasilmom said:


> Greetings,
> 
> We live in a ranch style home with a fully finished basement. We always hear the pipes banging while opening faucets and this is particularly bad if we are using the faucet in the bathroom located in the basement. After a bit of search I found that draining all the pipes could be the easy solution we have long been looking for. So we did that. However, the pipe continue to bang. So, I come to you to ask for further advice. What do you all suggest?
> Thanks. Be well
> Miriam


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