Squealing humming pipes in first floor flat - help needed!
I am currently experiencing some serious ‘pipe noise’ in my first floor flat and really need some advice! Basically, there is a loud whining / whirring / screaming sound coming from the water pipes in the wall (I think in the bathroom - but can’t locate it exactly and it sounds throughout the flat!). It starts every morning at around 6am. Goes on for several hours almost continuously until around 9-10am. And then intermittently throughout the day - though to a lesser severity. What is confusing is that the noise starts when no water is being used in the property and nothing I do in the flat eg opening taps etc..will make it stop. We have communal tanks on the roof that feed the cold water in the bathrooms and I have a combi boiler (all working fine and recently serviced) which supplies the flat. Does anyone know what this noise could be? Whether it could be being caused by neighbouring flats? And most of all - how to fix it!? It is driving us mad!! We have had the kitchen taps and the shower valves replaced but this hasn’t helped. Weirdly it did this last year for several months - then appeared to improve and all noises stopped for 4/5 months - only to return now with a vengeance. Any help/advice or suggestions much appreciated. Thanks!
Advice from 3 local tradespeople
This could be cause by excessive water and flow speed what we could do is a pressure test to see what's going on.
Whatever the mains feed arrangement to the communal tank, after any of the flats have drawn off water, the ball valve opens & allows mains water to fill the tank back up.
The noise is probably due the ball valve failing or limited flow into the communal tank and starts to subside when the ball valve starts closing off.
If the flow through the ball valve is less than normal, the final closing off stages, could be over an extended period.
The shower & taps problem could be related, if that water is being drawn off quicker than the ball valve is filling the tank up, and the tank has emptied causing air to enter the pipes. Replacing the ball valve should solve this
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