Ghastly Plumbing Noises & Their Hidden Meanings
Are loud plumbing noises in your home, like banging, knocking, whistling, or gurgling annoying you? If the answer is yes, then chances are you’ve got a plumbing problem on your hands that should be addressed sooner rather than later.
The good news though, is that Jim Wagner Plumbing Inc. has the tools and knowledge to help you solve those pesky plumbing problems!
Give us a call today to get a technician out to your home for a full plumbing inspection, to detect exactly where the problem is located, and how best to address it.
Whistling Sounds
One common plumbing sound people encounter is a high-pitched shrieking or whistling sound. If You hear this sound only when you’re running water, the sound is probably coming from a blockage somewhere in the water line.
When grease and dirt accumulate inside pipes, they can form a gunky mound that blocks the path that water is trying to flow through. The whistling sound you are hearing is caused by a large volume of water or a high-pressure stream of water attempting to squeeze through the reduced opening in the pipe.
This problem should be addressed immediately. Ignoring that whistling sound could lead to a build up behind the blockage in the pipe, eventually causing it to burst!
Video camera inspection can help your plumber to locate the blockage, and decide how best to clear it, to get your water flowing freely again and stop that whistling sound!
Knocking or Banging
Loud knocking or banging sounds in your walls are probably coming from something called “hydrostatic shock.” This problem usually stems from one of two things:
- Your water pressure is too high.
- You have a loose valve that is closing or opening too quickly.
When your water pressure is turned up too high, it can slam into things like pipe elbows, shut valves, or even the inner walls of the pipe itself as it travels through the lines. When this happens, the force of the water causes the entire pipe to move and hit the inside of the wall, producing the banging sound you hear.
If there is a loose valve in the system that closes suddenly, it causes something called “water hammer,” which is when a valve suddenly shuts off, and the rapidly flowing water that was passing through suddenly gets cut off, causing hydrostatic shock.
Gurgling or Water Running
Common bathroom plumbing noises include gurgling drains and leaky fixtures. If you hear a glug-glug-glug sound from your drains, it’s probably being caused by a waste pipe blockage.
Sometimes when a blockage forms in a pipe, the air in the pipe has no way of getting out (especially if the drain vents in the line are also clogged) so the gurgling sound you hear is the air trying to escape.
To find out if the problem is stemming from your waste pipe or an outside sewer line, have a trusted plumber inspect the system. Running or dripping water sounds, on the other hand, usually indicate some kind of leak related to the fixture.
Whether that leak is occurring outside of the fixture (in the water supply line, for example) or within it (like a leak in your toilets water tank), it should be inspected and fixed immediately to avoid a dramatic spike in your monthly water bill.
