Help please, noisy water pipes

[StripyPixieSocks]

Hi

Please help before I go completely insane...

I live in a house conversion in Plumstead, London and the main water pipe that feeds both flats which splits in the attic one half comes down to feed all our water systems (mains pressure) and the other half splits again to feed a water tank and cold drinking water (mains pressure) for the flat downstairs.

For the past several days it has been vibrating noisily and humming so badly it keeps us awake all night. It is so bad tonight the whole floor is vibrating and it's really driving us insane as we've had around 3 hours sleep.

This noise stops when any water is moved through the pipes such as turning a tap on or flushing the toilet but then soon starts up again and we can't leave water running all night long just to get some sleep.

We had the stop cock downstairs replaced last year as we had the exact same problem and the Engineer said it might be the stop cock in the street that needs replacing but to be honest didn't have a clue what was causing the problem in the first place.

At the time the main water pipes were being replaced by the council in the area and as far as I know they still are... somewhere.

We were wondering if anyone anywhere could help us or know of similar problems in the area because we can't carry on like this

 

[plumbnuts]

Do you have a clod water storage tank in the loft? If so it's most likely the ball valve on the tank that needs replacing.

 

[StripyPixieSocks]

Nah mate... the guy downstairs has but we haven't.

I should add it is only us that can hear the problem which seems to go away at 7am in the morning and we were wondering if it could be some kind of build up of pressure from the mains?

The last plumber replaced the stopcock downstairs which is the one for the whole flat and it still made the noise and it wasn't until he turned off the main stopcock in the street that the noise stopped but since then it's been quiet (it was in January it happened last).

I'm just bemused seeing as only we can hear it and not the people next door or in the flat downstairs... it's like a fog horn from 3am until 7am so much so we haven't slept between those hours for two days now!

 

[gigz]

Is there any overflows dripping ? check water level in toilets as well. Next time its making the noise draw some water out of the taps, hot first then cold to narrow it down. I suspect its a ball valve problem as well (either tank or toilet)