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water util./pipe hammering?

17 years ago

After we bought our new home last winter, we learned there were some pretty loud hammering noises that the builder's plumber attempted to silence with strapping in several locations plus a hammer arrester on the washing machine fill pipes.

This morning, I heard very loud hammering as the washing machine went through its cycles as well as when other fixtures were used. (The initial WM noise literally shook the house.) I happened to notice two water utility trucks & men working at an empty lot across the street. The water co.'s CSR says they were repairing a broken main and that any air in the pipes should be gone within 24 to 36 hours. If the pipe hammering persists beyond 36 hrs., they will send someone to "flush the lines." Since what I know about plumbing could barely fill a thimble, I'd like to ask if this sounds reasonable to you experts? Might the violent hammering do any damage? Also, the CSR offered to credit our account if our bill seems abnormally high next cycle, but she couldn't explain what would cause our usage to increase. Any thoughts on that? Thank you.

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Comments (2)

jake2007
17 years ago
Water hammering comes from water flowing rapidly through a pipe and then coming to a sudden stop. Since liquids donÂt compress, the hammering sound are the pipes and such moving and flexing from the impact of the water coming to a sudden stop. It is often seen as a result of an electric valve that closes (such as on a dishwasher, or washing machine).
Pipes that are not well secured can make additional noise if they slap against the wall or framing member when they move.

To answer your question, yes, this can be damaging to your plumbing. It can damage the valve itself and it can stress all of the pipes and joints up to that valve that is closing. Not to be alarmist, but it in severe cases, it can cause the pipes to fail. In less severe cases the constant moving of the pipe can cause a failure.

If there is air in the line from the work on the water main that can cause the hammering that you heard. What the water company said sounds reasonable to me. What your builder did to limit the hammering also seems reasonable. However, if the hammering persists, I would have the builder or a plumber check the water pressure to see if it is too high and also take additional steps to relieve the hammering.
otmsheffield
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks. The hammering isn't as bad today, so I will give it another day or so to see if things continue to improve. In checking the basement, I found a half dozen or so metal straps that are attached to floor joists but don't loop around the pipes. If all the builder's plumber will do is to remove & reattach those straps so that they are actually holding something, then dh may just take care of it.
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Here are some ideas: 1. temporary, but might help or alleviate the problem. If you have an outside water spigot attach a reliable leak-free standard garden hose with a shut-off nozzle to the spigot. Turn the spigot on half way or more. Run your automated sprinkler system. When the valves turn off, the pressure shock that causes the hammer will be absorbed by the hose. It is more effective if the spigot is close to the valves. This may be a temporary solution depending on the degree of the problem. Some people leave pressure on their garden hoses all the time, but I think it is better if you don't. 2. A more permanent fix is to install a pressure regulator before your arrestor. Higher water pressure will accentuate water hammer. After installing a pressure regulator, you may still need to add more surge arrestors. If you can't install a pressure regulator, or if you need the pressure, you'll just have to add more surge arrestors or larger arrestors (make your own using a 4 ft capped copper pipe). hope this helps,
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As an example, in the master-bath line, my apartment is the only one on our side with a flushometer. When we flush, and only when we flush, there is big banging up on the top floor. The plumber called from the top floor and had my DH flush our toilet while he was listening, so there's no question but that it's the flushometer. And it doesn't happen for the other toilets. So it's the large volume of water from the flushometer. I'm assuming water hammer. Would it be anything else? Apparently the noise of other toilets filling isn't really an issue. The walls are pretty solid; you'd have to be IN the bathroom to hear your own toilet filling, so I would imagine you'd have trouble hearing other people's toilets in our building. Hence the proposal of making us replace our entire toilet w/ a tank should our flushometer break. breaks. Brickeyee, about the arrestors: Can I put one above my toilet, on the cold-water supply line? Or does it have to go all the way on the top floor? I can get into my wall above the tile without a lot of pain, but the top-floor tenant can't do that without messing up her floor-to-ceiling limestone-covered walls. I would have assumed that in her renovation, her architect & plumber would have put the arrestors in along with all the new pipes. I haven't been able to find out for sure when this got bad enough to become an issue; she would probably tell me it has always been like this. Whether it has or not.
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We just washed dishes with running water from our sink for the first time since last winter. Joed, you were absolutely correct. I suspect we had a faulty tank from the factory because we have had a problem with a small leak since we installed the pump and pressure tank. I ordered a new pressure tank (which was only about $14) last spring to see if I could get the leak to stop, but didn't have time to install it before we left for the summer. Today, we removed the old pressure tank and replaced it, and as soon as we reconnected the lines and turned on the pump, it pressurized, then kicked off. We turned on the sink faucet and it flowed in a clean, beautiful stream of water with the tank maintaining utter silence for nearly a minute before it kicked on again. It is so nice to have running water again. Thank you so much for your excellent suggestions. We did not have a super accurate tire gauge (2 out of three were stuck and one did not go high enough) but we think we got it ballpark and will double check with a new gauge. The manufacturer's suggestion was 28 psi, so we aimed for that and everything seems to be working dandy. Thanks a ton, we really appreciate it!!! sagebrushsally and her sethsquatch
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