Background: I live in a condo, second floor. After taking a shower I noticed a very loud noise coming from within the wall (or floor?), usually happened 4-5 minutes later. Neighbor reported same issue and agreed with me, it sounds like a rifle shot.
After two years of this I came home one evening to find a letter from my HOA stating that the neighbors ceiling directly below my shower stall was leaking water. The second plumber I hired located the problem, it was the pipe behind my shower head (about 3 feet above my floor). It had a hairline crack and was leaking. He cut out a section (about 6â€) and glued in a new one. This is 1/2†PVC pipe and as far as I can tell about 10’ of it is hanging vertically unsecured.
The plumber seemed confident that the “banging†didn’t cause the damage and it was a defective pipe but I am not so sure. Other units in this development (which is only 5 years old) have this problem.
This is costing a great deal of money and though I’m aware that an arrester may be the best solution it would require yet another visit by a plumber (already two and a third coming tomorrow as the water shutoff valve he turned is now leaking).
As the pipe is still exposed what can I do to help with the banging? Should I cover it in some insulation to pad it?
I have a banging in my other bathroom as well. Would it help to turn off the water very slowly from all the bathroom fixtures (or turn on slowly as well?) to delay the onset of this issue?
Thanks for your replies in advance. This is my first time as an owner and I had expected a new development not to have these kinds of problems but apparently the builder skirted the more rigorous requirements by constructing it as apartments (lower state code requirements) then flipping to a condo (more rigorous building codes IF it starts out as a condo dev.) development the next year. Live and learn…
After two years of this I came home one evening to find a letter from my HOA stating that the neighbors ceiling directly below my shower stall was leaking water. The second plumber I hired located the problem, it was the pipe behind my shower head (about 3 feet above my floor). It had a hairline crack and was leaking. He cut out a section (about 6â€) and glued in a new one. This is 1/2†PVC pipe and as far as I can tell about 10’ of it is hanging vertically unsecured.
The plumber seemed confident that the “banging†didn’t cause the damage and it was a defective pipe but I am not so sure. Other units in this development (which is only 5 years old) have this problem.
This is costing a great deal of money and though I’m aware that an arrester may be the best solution it would require yet another visit by a plumber (already two and a third coming tomorrow as the water shutoff valve he turned is now leaking).
As the pipe is still exposed what can I do to help with the banging? Should I cover it in some insulation to pad it?
I have a banging in my other bathroom as well. Would it help to turn off the water very slowly from all the bathroom fixtures (or turn on slowly as well?) to delay the onset of this issue?
Thanks for your replies in advance. This is my first time as an owner and I had expected a new development not to have these kinds of problems but apparently the builder skirted the more rigorous requirements by constructing it as apartments (lower state code requirements) then flipping to a condo (more rigorous building codes IF it starts out as a condo dev.) development the next year. Live and learn…