Jacuzzi Duncan, Shower pipes banging

[Carol Esposito]

Living in my house 4 months. It was a flip.
There is a continuous jackhammer banging in my shower pipes while the shower is running.

It can in both showers that are adjacent, but it happens the most easily in my shower.
The kids tub does not bang when waters going into the tub. Only happens when the shower is on. We can stop it by turning on the bathroom sink water and showering with the sink running. It is a single handle lever (Jacuzzi Duncan) and when the banging starts we can turn the shower off or lower and VERY VERY SLOWLY move the lever back up. That may or may not stop the banging. If there is no banging at all it might start if someone flushed either toilet.

I had someone come and put something on the pipe in my bathroom sink. That stopped the banging for 4 months. NOW ITS BACK!! We just drained all the water lines in the house. That stopped it for a day. Last night took off the shower head in my bathroom and removed the water restrictor in the head and I think there was one in the pipe from the wall. Whatever that washer in the pipe was I removed it. The banging still happened.

Nothing else in the house bangs. Only the showers. We are on a slab ranch. The bathrooms are on the other side of the house from the hot water heater. We can only access one set of pipes if we have to cut into my closet.

I do not have a hot water heater expansion tank. I do not think we have a pressure valve anywhere that I can see. We tried taking off the handle to look at the cartridge but couldn’t get to the cartridge and get it out.

I’ve read and researched and am trying to figure this out. Please help! It’s driving me crazy!

 

[Sylvan]

Loose WASHER is most likely the problem

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Carol Esposito]

Loose WASHER is most likely the problem

Where is the washer I should be looking at?

 

[Brian94]

That's a scary looking picture with the purple gwb behind the tile. How did they do the tub flange?

 

[Carol Esposito]

That's a scary looking picture with the purple gwb behind the tile. How did they do the tub flange?

This pic is of tiled shower walls and floor.
I don’t know how they did anything on this house! Been here 4 months and have a few things we noticed were done incorrectly.

 

[WorthFlorida]

Could be the cartridge for the shower valve body. There is a requirement that it must have balancing spool to prevent extreme temperature swing when using the shower. That is you have water that is comfortable and someone flushed a toilet. Now the cold water pressure drops and inside the cartridge a part moves to block off some of the hot water to prevent scalding. If you You Tube search "Anti-Scald Pressure Balancer" there is plenty of information how it works and repairs.

What Sylvan referred to is old fashion valve with a washer at the bottom of the stem will deteriorate or loosen. As water passes it it will vibrate like a reed instrument and as the water slows up it might suddenly close off the water and cause a bang noise. Your valve body has stops. You can see them one on each side of the cartridge. You can close off the the water supply to change the cartridge or a valve seat on one of these is vibrating, but some brands do not use washers but O rings. Some are 1/4 turn off and other takes a few turns.