Noise from main sewer drain

[Niels L Ellegaard]

I live in the bottom floor of a 5 story house, and we just got a new main sewer drain pipe (a vertical pipe for bringing waste water out of the house). That s very nice but somebody on the upper floors uses water, then I get a lot of noise in my appartment. The pipe is vertical, but it has a kink in my appartment, and I think this kink is the reason for the noise. Sometimes the water falls down several stories before hitting the kink.

I mailed the consulting engineer about it and he said that it is normal for new drain pipes to be noisy, because they are clean on the inside. Is that true? Is there anything the plumbers could have done to reduce the noise?

I write here, because I don't know whether I should be pationt or complain about the work. If I want complain it is a good time to do it now, because the plumbers have not been paid yet,

Thanks in advance

Niels

[Speedy Jim]

A kink or offset can indeed produce a lot of noise with a fall of 5 stories, especially if it is a 90 deg offset rather than 45 deg.

More important though is the pipe material. Cast iron stacks produce far less noise than PVC or ABS plastic piping. What was used?

But it may not be the plumbers' fault. Did they comply with the job specs? If so, the consulting engineer may be to blame.

Rather than redesign the piping, it may be practical to apply soundproofing material, such as:

Will the noise lessen as the pipes get used? HaHaHaHa!

Jim

[hallerb]

=EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD Niels

PVC is NOISEY, probably 100 times noisier than cast iron.

thewres a PVC with noise control too.

best wishes someone should nof warned you.

might replace the PVC with hubless cast iron to quiet things

[Niels L Ellegaard]

Thank you for the answer.

The pipes are made from metal, and the kink is only 45 degrees, but the metal appears to be significantly thinner than the metal in the pipe I had before. If I hit them with a metal object they sound a bit like a bell. The previous pipe was also better attached to the wall, so perhaps a part of the problem is lack of damping.

Anyway, I am not sure if there were detailed specs, and it is further complicated by the fact that the house is owned by a cooperative society, so if I want the pipes to be replaced I need to convince other people complain on my behalf, and that may not be easy.

I will look into the sound proofing materials and see what I can find.

Niels

[John Grabowski]

*I would complain about the work now before the plumber gets paid. He is more likely to see that the customers are satisfied now than later. As others mentioned it may not be the plumber's fault, but let him tell you that.

[Niels L Ellegaard]

For the sake of google: They entrepreneur ended up building a wooden box around the pipe. I talked to several people and in my country wooden boxes seem to the the standard approach to sound isolating this kind of sewer pipes. All the sound has gone, so I am happy.

Regarding sound isolating lead tape I was told that this tape could only dampen the high frequency noise. So the deeper tones would still be hearable through the tape. I haven't tested if this is true.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Niels