Absence of Proof Proof

[gillumhouse]

We know we have a rattle in one of the hot water pipes. We've tried to fix it but it requires ripping up carpet to get it from above or tearing down ceiling to get it from below. We HOPE it doesn't bother anyone, no one has ever said anything about it. Until today. Guest called to book and wanted to know if we'd fixed the problem with the water pipe? It's worse in the winter when it's very dry, less noticeable in the summer when everything is 'damp' and wood is 'swollen' so the rattle abates somewhat.
So, all this time we were hoping only WE heard the noise because no one ever mentioned it. Wrong..

We know we have a rattle in one of the hot water pipes. We've tried to fix it but it requires ripping up carpet to get it from above or tearing down ceiling to get it from below.

Is the rattle from "water hammer" where it rattles when someone shuts off the water or is it from heat expansion where it rattles as the pipe heats or contracts when hot or cold water are going through it? Water hammer would sound like a thud, while heat expansion would sound like tick...tick...tick
Water hammer you could fix by putting an arrestor under the sink that is inline with that particular line. They don't take up much room and are a pretty easy install. If it is thermal movement you may be able to try a relatively unobtrusive fix. It may not work, but if it did you could save yourself tearing into carpet or ceiling.
Get a can or expanding foam (GreatStuff) you want the kind with maximum expansion. It comes with a small plastic tube. Get a drill bit to match the size of the tube. You could drill down from above or through the ceiling (I'd go with whichever I thought the pipe was closest to...you may not be able to tell. Put blue or green painters tape on the spot before you drill. The expanding foam is very sticky and darn near permanent if you get it on anything, so the tape will keep it from getting on the ceiling or the carpet. If you go through the carpet, try to part the fibers before you put the tape on. Drill the hole, then insert the tube from the expanding foam and put a bunch into the cavity. It will expand and very likely secure the pipe as it does. Wait at least 8 hrs before removing the tape. If your carpet has a bit of knap to it at all, it will hide the hole. The ceiling may require just a dab of paint to hide it if you go in that way.
.

Tick, tick, tick once the hot water hits. Once the pipe is warmed up the noise stops immediately but it's annoying for about 20 seconds, apparently enough time to wake someone up.
My thought was to do exactly what you said, only in a much larger way. I want to insulate the whole floor area as I want to pull up the carpet but don't want the guest noise to keep ME awake at night when we put in the wood floors. So, next year when we do our floors, we'll have the carpet out and can do the kind of insulating you mention. But, maybe we can try to hit those 2 spots where the noise seems to originate this year.
.

Tick, tick, tick once the hot water hits. Once the pipe is warmed up the noise stops immediately but it's annoying for about 20 seconds, apparently enough time to wake someone up.
My thought was to do exactly what you said, only in a much larger way. I want to insulate the whole floor area as I want to pull up the carpet but don't want the guest noise to keep ME awake at night when we put in the wood floors. So, next year when we do our floors, we'll have the carpet out and can do the kind of insulating you mention. But, maybe we can try to hit those 2 spots where the noise seems to originate this year.

It could be the drain or the incoming line. If you run the hot water until the ticking stops, then run the cold water (to cool the drain) then run the hot water again. If the ticking starts again, it is the drain. If it doesn't, then it is the incoming line. To really get rid of it, you want the pipe to freely slide. The ticking is usually as it rubs where it passes through the floor joist. They make plastic clips/grommets that solve the problem so if you tear up the floor, that would be the better choice. Like I said, the expanding foam may solve it without too much trouble and if it doesn't then you haven't wasted much time or money.
.

I think we're pulling up the carpet and going at it from that side. Hubs figures that while the carpet is up it's no more difficult to cut a big hole in the floor and either make the hole the pipe goes thru bigger or to affix the pipe so it can't move at all. Oh joy. Just what I want- a ginormous hole in my bedroom floor. Of course if ONE hole is larger, my guess is that the pipe will then rub on the next smaller hole it goes thru.
We hadn't done the hot water-cold water-hot water test. It takes so dang long for the hot water to reach the point where the ticking starts and once the water is hot enough, the cold water pipes are close enough that THAT water is now warm, if not hot itself.
I think the water is the one thing that was not done the best in this house.
.

Be AWARE of water lines that may be rubbing on a joist. We had one in the original bathroom. About a year after we had the deconstruction done I happened to look at my dining room wall and about 2 feet below the ceiling there was a very brown, wet mark on the wall. Fortunately we have a lowered ceiling in the dining room and there was a trap door in the ceilking of the kitchen from a previous water problem. Turns out the copper water line had developed a "pinhole" from rubbing on the joist and the water dripping down had hit a piece of wood in the wall and went SPLAT onto the plaster making the lovely brown mark. The plumbers were able to access the pipe from the abovementioned sides of the problem and splice in a new piece of copper. It was thought that the vibrations of traffic (plus the jouncing of the deconstruction) had caused the rubbing against the joist.

 

[Morticia]

We know we have a rattle in one of the hot water pipes. We've tried to fix it but it requires ripping up carpet to get it from above or tearing down ceiling to get it from below. We HOPE it doesn't bother anyone, no one has ever said anything about it. Until today. Guest called to book and wanted to know if we'd fixed the problem with the water pipe? It's worse in the winter when it's very dry, less noticeable in the summer when everything is 'damp' and wood is 'swollen' so the rattle abates somewhat.
So, all this time we were hoping only WE heard the noise because no one ever mentioned it. Wrong..

We know we have a rattle in one of the hot water pipes. We've tried to fix it but it requires ripping up carpet to get it from above or tearing down ceiling to get it from below.

Is the rattle from "water hammer" where it rattles when someone shuts off the water or is it from heat expansion where it rattles as the pipe heats or contracts when hot or cold water are going through it? Water hammer would sound like a thud, while heat expansion would sound like tick...tick...tick
Water hammer you could fix by putting an arrestor under the sink that is inline with that particular line. They don't take up much room and are a pretty easy install. If it is thermal movement you may be able to try a relatively unobtrusive fix. It may not work, but if it did you could save yourself tearing into carpet or ceiling.
Get a can or expanding foam (GreatStuff) you want the kind with maximum expansion. It comes with a small plastic tube. Get a drill bit to match the size of the tube. You could drill down from above or through the ceiling (I'd go with whichever I thought the pipe was closest to...you may not be able to tell. Put blue or green painters tape on the spot before you drill. The expanding foam is very sticky and darn near permanent if you get it on anything, so the tape will keep it from getting on the ceiling or the carpet. If you go through the carpet, try to part the fibers before you put the tape on. Drill the hole, then insert the tube from the expanding foam and put a bunch into the cavity. It will expand and very likely secure the pipe as it does. Wait at least 8 hrs before removing the tape. If your carpet has a bit of knap to it at all, it will hide the hole. The ceiling may require just a dab of paint to hide it if you go in that way.
.

Tick, tick, tick once the hot water hits. Once the pipe is warmed up the noise stops immediately but it's annoying for about 20 seconds, apparently enough time to wake someone up.
My thought was to do exactly what you said, only in a much larger way. I want to insulate the whole floor area as I want to pull up the carpet but don't want the guest noise to keep ME awake at night when we put in the wood floors. So, next year when we do our floors, we'll have the carpet out and can do the kind of insulating you mention. But, maybe we can try to hit those 2 spots where the noise seems to originate this year.
.

Tick, tick, tick once the hot water hits. Once the pipe is warmed up the noise stops immediately but it's annoying for about 20 seconds, apparently enough time to wake someone up.
My thought was to do exactly what you said, only in a much larger way. I want to insulate the whole floor area as I want to pull up the carpet but don't want the guest noise to keep ME awake at night when we put in the wood floors. So, next year when we do our floors, we'll have the carpet out and can do the kind of insulating you mention. But, maybe we can try to hit those 2 spots where the noise seems to originate this year.

It could be the drain or the incoming line. If you run the hot water until the ticking stops, then run the cold water (to cool the drain) then run the hot water again. If the ticking starts again, it is the drain. If it doesn't, then it is the incoming line. To really get rid of it, you want the pipe to freely slide. The ticking is usually as it rubs where it passes through the floor joist. They make plastic clips/grommets that solve the problem so if you tear up the floor, that would be the better choice. Like I said, the expanding foam may solve it without too much trouble and if it doesn't then you haven't wasted much time or money.
.

I think we're pulling up the carpet and going at it from that side. Hubs figures that while the carpet is up it's no more difficult to cut a big hole in the floor and either make the hole the pipe goes thru bigger or to affix the pipe so it can't move at all. Oh joy. Just what I want- a ginormous hole in my bedroom floor. Of course if ONE hole is larger, my guess is that the pipe will then rub on the next smaller hole it goes thru.
We hadn't done the hot water-cold water-hot water test. It takes so dang long for the hot water to reach the point where the ticking starts and once the water is hot enough, the cold water pipes are close enough that THAT water is now warm, if not hot itself.
I think the water is the one thing that was not done the best in this house.
.

Be AWARE of water lines that may be rubbing on a joist. We had one in the original bathroom. About a year after we had the deconstruction done I happened to look at my dining room wall and about 2 feet below the ceiling there was a very brown, wet mark on the wall. Fortunately we have a lowered ceiling in the dining room and there was a trap door in the ceilking of the kitchen from a previous water problem. Turns out the copper water line had developed a "pinhole" from rubbing on the joist and the water dripping down had hit a piece of wood in the wall and went SPLAT onto the plaster making the lovely brown mark. The plumbers were able to access the pipe from the abovementioned sides of the problem and splice in a new piece of copper. It was thought that the vibrations of traffic (plus the jouncing of the deconstruction) had caused the rubbing against the joist.
.

Hubs is all set to pull up the carpet tomorrow. He wanted to know how I felt about that. My opinion is that once he starts, I would be wuite happy if when he finished ALL of the carpet was GONE. I'd live with plywood floors at this point, just to be done with the carpet.