3 Ways To Quiet Noisy Home Plumbing

Working plumbing allows you to enjoy the full usage of your home and live your daily life in comfort. But working plumbing isn't always quiet plumbing, especially in older homes. There are a few tips for quieting your plumbing and adjacent fixtures so that you can rest easy without annoying rattling.

And, remember, it's always best to call in a plumber even if you find a noise solution. The sound could indicate a deep problem that needs fixing before catastrophe strikes.

Loud Pipes? Use Adhesive Felt

Loud pipes can be caused by a lack of proper anchoring, so when you first start to hear a rattle, check the end of the pipe if possible to make sure it isn't hanging free of its mounts. If that all checks out and it's a copper pipe, then it's likely just a case of the metal expanding and contracting due to the presence of hot and cold water.

You can cushion the sound of expanding copper by wrapping the pipe with adhesive-backed felt. This comes in sheets or rolls at your local hardware store and the package should have instructions, though its fairly self-explanatory. Wrap your pipe snugly in the felt and the material should help muffle the sound.

If the sound is persisting, or the pipe is in one of your walls, call in a plumber to make sure something more serious isn't going on.

Loud Sinks? Check the Shutoff Valve

A dripping tap is often the complaint with sinks, but sometimes there's a hammering noise that happens any time you turn the sink on. This can be a result of your home's water pressure being too high. But if that doesn't seem like the issue, turn your attention to the shutoff valve, which is located along the pipe under the sink.

The shutoff valve is likely a three-way valve, which helps it regulate hot and cold water. Test which side is giving you the issue by running the hot water for a minute, listening for the sound, turning the hot water off and then repeating with the cold. If the sound only happens on one side, make sure that the valve is fully open. You can use a wrench to gently twist the valve until it's open.

Test to see if the noise is still occurring with only one temperature of water. If it's gone, you fixed the problem. If it's still persisting, you may need to replace the valve. And that's a job best left to a plumber like Clarke Bill Plumbing & Heating.

Loud Toilet? Check the Chain

A running toilet might be the second most annoying sound behind a dripping faucet. But a running toilet is usually easy to fix yourself. You simply need to lift off the lid of the tank and take a look inside.

There's an extended arm attached to a chain that leads to a rubber stopper at the bottom of the tank. When you push the handle to flush, that arm lifts the rubber thing – formally called the flapper – and allows water to pass through to refill the tank. The flapper should then fall back into place to plug the hole and stop the water.

If the chain isn't the right length, the flapper can't function properly. If it's too short of a chain, the flapper can't fully close; if it's too long, the chain can get trapped under the flapper. All you need to do is by a chain that's the right length.