How to silence noisey CH pipes?

How to silence noisey CH pipes?

Author
Discussion

Atlas 12v

Original Poster:

345 posts

208 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
Since the weathers started to get colder and the CH has gone on the cooper pipes under the floor of my sons bedroom are making a right racket, leading to him waking in the night when the pipes heat up.

I've bled the system and there was very little air expelled so it's not air causing the noise. Definitely more expanding and contracting type of noise.

Short of lifting the carpets and floor and lagging the pipes and making sure they pass through decent sized holes in the joists are there any options to silence the things?

Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Monday 24th October 2016
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Might need more clipping

Countdown

39,688 posts

195 months

Monday 24th October 2016
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It depends on the type of noises. If they're kettling then nothing short of lifting the floorboards and making the holes bigger will fix them.

Atlas 12v

Original Poster:

345 posts

208 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
It definitely sounds like expansion. More ticking than actual banging or air noise.

dingg

3,974 posts

218 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
probably easier to silence the kid

tell him if he keeps complaining you're going to put him in a childrens home


getmecoat

2lefthands

400 posts

138 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
dingg said:
probably easier to silence the kid

tell him if he keeps complaining you're going to put him in a childrens home


getmecoat
This.

Or, get a heating engineer in, but chances are carpets and boards up is more appealing than ceiling below down??

Bad install is usually to blame, or if you've had a leak that has expanded joists/boards. Is this the first year in the house that it has been noticed?

peterperkins

3,148 posts

241 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
Sometimes caused because the central heating pump is cranked up to warp factor ten by default causing any slightly lose pipes to rattle....

Check and if on 3, drop it to 2 for a bit..

Andehh

7,107 posts

205 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
As has been said to properly cure it you need to get to the pipes. Carpets and boards up! Not a big job tbh, only an afternoons work.

Can try turning the water temp down, might help to try it first?

guindilias

5,245 posts

119 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
Aye, I'd start by turning the pump and water temp down. If not, if you can get to ONE joist where the pipe passes, and pad the pipe all round, it can fix it.
Or, last easy fix - hang something heavy (like a diving belt weight heavy) from the pipe where you can get to it - I had to resort to that when my living room started cracking, creaking, and generally being annoying.
Worked a treat, but I only had one weight (due to not being a diver), so the bedroom got padded at the joist where I could easily lift a board.

Chris Jay

243 posts

128 months

Monday 24th October 2016
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Faulty TRV's can cause pipes to hammer. I had this at my old house, the TRV was sticking on heating up causing the pipes to make a right racket. Fitted a new one and the problem went away.

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 25th October 2016
quotequote all
rofl

Some of these responses are brilliant!

Op, either sleeve pipe through joists or get over noise... Easy as.

Some Gump

12,671 posts

185 months

skinnyman

1,632 posts

92 months

Tuesday 25th October 2016
quotequote all
My heating is pretty quiet apart from a single pipe that runs to the rad in the study next to our bedroom, I think the pipework is expanding and hitting the underside of the floorboards, as when you walk into the study the radiator makes some nice creaking and banging sounds.

Foolishly, I didn't fix this before the carpets went down last week.

I'm just going to suck it up though, its a 70's build with retrospective CH, it could have been a lot worse.

Hol

8,356 posts

199 months

Tuesday 25th October 2016
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We have bad kettling at the moment occasionally forcing the overheating circuit to trip, but our boiler is getting on 15years and a replacement heat exchanger is over £500.00 due to a lack of parts out there.


So I am going to have to bite the bullett and have a full system powerflush at £800, that will either fix it, or result in BG Homecare fitting a £500 exchanger anyway.

Hopefully, you get away with £100 of labour and lagging.



I would say houses are expensive, but Audi and Mercedes charge over £400 for a first year service (read oil change), and both cars is worth considerably less than the house.







Atlas 12v

Original Poster:

345 posts

208 months

Tuesday 25th October 2016
quotequote all
dingg said:
probably easier to silence the kid

tell him if he keeps complaining you're going to put him in a childrens home


getmecoat
It's an idea but he's very small so I doubt it would go down well with his mother.

2lefthands

400 posts

138 months

Tuesday 25th October 2016
quotequote all
Hol said:
We have bad kettling at the moment occasionally forcing the overheating circuit to trip, but our boiler is getting on 15years and a replacement heat exchanger is over £500.00 due to a lack of parts out there.


So I am going to have to bite the bullett and have a full system powerflush at £800, that will either fix it, or result in BG Homecare fitting a £500 exchanger anyway.

Hopefully, you get away with £100 of labour and lagging.



I would say houses are expensive, but Audi and Mercedes charge over £400 for a first year service (read oil change), and both cars is worth considerably less than the house.
If you're forking that out for a flush to solve the issue, can I interest you in some magic beans or snake oil - same price and guaranteed to help!

Andehh

7,107 posts

205 months

Tuesday 25th October 2016
quotequote all
Yeah, fundamentally the problem is hot pipes against the joist, unsecured pipes moving with the pump of water or plain old expansions/contracting. Nothing short of drastically reducing the water temp or cutting into The flooring and wrapping insulation round the pipe will really solve it I'm afraid! Flushes /inhibitors etc won't do it.

Last house i had it on warm-up, current house has it on cool down. A particularly annoying large knock every several minute for an hour is what I put up with.

During our kitchen renovation I took pics of whilst the ceiling as down, so the frustrating thing is I know the pipe, know the joist and know the location of the expansion of the joists.... I just haven't got the balls to start cutting for fear of the wife's wraith!!

Hol

8,356 posts

199 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
2lefthands said:
Hol said:
We have bad kettling at the moment occasionally forcing the overheating circuit to trip, but our boiler is getting on 15years and a replacement heat exchanger is over £500.00 due to a lack of parts out there.


So I am going to have to bite the bullett and have a full system powerflush at £800, that will either fix it, or result in BG Homecare fitting a £500 exchanger anyway.

Hopefully, you get away with £100 of labour and lagging.



I would say houses are expensive, but Audi and Mercedes charge over £400 for a first year service (read oil change), and both cars is worth considerably less than the house.
If you're forking that out for a flush to solve the issue, can I interest you in some magic beans or snake oil - same price and guaranteed to help!
I don't want to say on an open forum, but there is method in paying BG that much to do it.
It's also 16 rads, so that's reflected also.

Bobhon

1,057 posts

178 months

Thursday 27th October 2016
quotequote all
I had the cracking on heat up and cool down on the 22mm pipes running the length of the house, front to back. Caused by expansion and contraction on such a long length of pipe.

I tried packing out the joists, which worked to a degree for a short while, but it wasn't a fix.

So I cut out the lengths of copper along the landing, where there were no T's off to any radiators, and replaced it with plastic. This separated the two copper end pipes, reducing the amount of expansion movement that they needed. The plastic won't expand like the copper does, and if it does then it will just sag down more.

Never heard the cracking pipes since.

If you go this route then run an earth cable alongside the plastic pipes and connect it to the 2 copper pipes at each end to ensure earth continuity.

HTH

Bob

2lefthands

400 posts

138 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Hol said:
2lefthands said:
Hol said:
We have bad kettling at the moment occasionally forcing the overheating circuit to trip, but our boiler is getting on 15years and a replacement heat exchanger is over £500.00 due to a lack of parts out there.


So I am going to have to bite the bullett and have a full system powerflush at £800, that will either fix it, or result in BG Homecare fitting a £500 exchanger anyway.

Hopefully, you get away with £100 of labour and lagging.



I would say houses are expensive, but Audi and Mercedes charge over £400 for a first year service (read oil change), and both cars is worth considerably less than the house.
If you're forking that out for a flush to solve the issue, can I interest you in some magic beans or snake oil - same price and guaranteed to help!
I don't want to say on an open forum, but there is method in paying BG that much to do it.
It's also 16 rads, so that's reflected also.
Happy to tell you on an open forum, for the issue you are suffering, you are spunking £800 up the wall.