Water hammer problem?

[DavidSWP]

Hi,

I moved into a house about 1 year ago, it is about 12 years old and since I've lived here there has been lots of thumping noises from the pipe work which happens when any of the faucets are open and also when the dishwasher, washing machine or showers are using water.

It's a continuous thump thump thump tump noise that happens while the water is flowing not just a single thump. The sound seems to be synchronised with clicking noises coming from the water meter and I had the water board out who have said that they replaced the meter but it has made no difference.

While the thumping is happening, if I turn the tap off and on again 1 second later the sound stops but will most likely be back again the next time any tap etc is used. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? I can feel the pipes vibrating to the sound in the garage all the way up from the water meter but the rest of the pipes are hidden. I recently had a plumber round who fitted a new boiler and he said he'd never heard anything like it and also though it was the water meter.

Thanks for any help

 

[45yearsagasman]

To have the noise when water is flowing indicates a faulty valve, maybe the main stopcock inside the house? In this case a shock arrestor may not help. Try opening and closing the stopcock at different positions and see if it has any affect. Just to mention, we have taps over here, faucets are from Americaland.

 

[DavidSWP]

Hi, yuk sorry for Americanism!

There is no stopcock inside the house. When I need to turn the water off I have to turn it off at the water meter on the outside wall.

 

[landyandy]

Water hammer can be a tricky thing to cure.

Personally I have had varying degrees of success.

I find shock arrestors don't work. The same with turning down the internal stop tap.

What I've found is turning the the external stop tap down a good few turns can be a cure.

Hope this helps.

Andy.