How do i approach taking part of ceiling down to trace & clip water hammer pipe work?.

Hi all,

Your help will be greatly appreciated. I have water hammer from unclipped hot & cold water pipe work to upstairs bathroom and ensuite. The rooms were newly built as part of an extension 2 years ago but has only started since an en external expansion was fitted to pipes work to make up for failed Megaflo internal air gap diaphragm. The extension room flooring is large boards placed over the floor joists. Suspect pipe work could be between the bathroom and ensuite rooms that are next to each other but within the tiled stud wall and so no access to it from these rooms is possible.

So I need to take down parts of downstairs ceiling to trace any loose pipe work. Newbie questions I know, but How do I best approach this please? Pilot holes then hack saw blade to take section out, or is there any other way? How large a section to remove at a time?

Thanks in advance.

Mutley56

Depends on how much of the pipe needs to be clipped. Smallest piece would be baton to baton/joist to joist distance. Use a nail to find the battons/joists. Easy to fill after. If it's plasterboard then use a pointed drywall saw, then a stanley to cut to the centre.

You can use a strong magnet (search for rare earth magnet on ebay) to find the screw/nail heads. Once you've found them, you know where the joists are go ahead and cut. Or use a large hole saw to cut a circular hole and then plug with a patch as per the guidance on youtube. If you know which joist the pipe is adjacent to, then using a hole saw will be adequate. Obviously needs to be big enough to get both hands through.

Note there is a possible asbestos hazard if your ceiling is artexed.

Nozzle

Thanks Madrab and Nozzle,

Standard painted plasterboard ceiling, so no asbestos. Trouble is, I don’t know how much pipe work needs to be clipped, so I’ll clip a section and then test it and so on.

Thanks again

Mutley56

Don`t forget the dust mask and googles Mutley. Hopefully no cables above resting on the plasterboard.

Will do