What makes pipes clang

If your home was built before , this could be a very easy problem to solve. Older homes come with air chambers installed that can become filled with water. By shutting off your water, and running all your faucets at once, you can drain the excess water from your pipes, stopping the water hammer. Newer homes come with water hammer arrestors which act as shock absorbers for your pipes.

Knocking noises in your plumbing are rarely as bad as they sound. Our Team Breast Cancer Donation. Atlanta Tampa Sarasota St. Petersburg Clearwater. Skip to main content Skip to footer. But if you hear banging water pipes, this could be a sign of a serious plumbing problem.

The top three causes of banging plumbing pipes are because of a water hammer, copper pipes or too high of water pressure. These sounds can be heard after a water supply is shut off, while the water is running and randomly throughout the day or night.

Here are more in-depth reasons why your plumbing pipes are banging and remedies for those noises. When running water and is suddenly shut off, the rushing water has no place to go and slams against the shut-off valve. The sound you hear is called a water hammer. It may not sound like a big deal but a water hammer can potentially damage joints and connections in the pipes. The air chamber is the vertical pipe located near your faucet and is often in the wall cavity that holds the plumbing connected to your sink or tub.

The purpose of the chamber is to absorb the shock of fast-moving water that is suddenly stopped. Once the lines are cleared, feel free to turn your main valve back on. It is important to do this slowly so that the air chambers between and around your pipes have time to refill before the water courses back into them.

However, now that the pipes were fully emptied, the knocking sound should be completely gone. It is as simple as that. In most cases, you should not need to call a plumber to help, but if you have any problems finding your main valve or shutting it off, a plumber can be helpful with the proper tools and the know how for various kinds of shutoff valves.

Additionally, if you live in an apartment building or a shared space, you may not be able to perform this fix. Rather, you should contact your superintendent or landlord and make sure they know exactly what is happening — with any experience, they should recognize the problem and be able to make similar fixes to your pipes.

Knocking pipes can be incredibly frustrating if not dealt with as soon as they start. Now that you know how simple it is to make the fix, make a habit of regularly flushing your lines and the knocking likely will not start up again.