My apartment neighbor has a shower with a noisy valve. The rushing noise of the water is very loud in my apartment, and it wakes me up. It sounds just like the noise my shower valve makes if I turn it on only halfway.
I need to do something. My neighbor gets up much earlier than me, and I can't sleep through it, even with ear plugs.
We got one plumber to take a look, and as soon as he heard it, he said that any shower will make that amount of noise, and there's nothing he could do. He suggested getting someone to put blown-in insulation in the wall.
Is there anything else we can try? Could the valve be restricted by sediment? Would replacing the valve or any of the piping help? Are there any noise standards for residential plumbing? Are there other interior wall soundproofing techniques I could look into?
I had a 10 year old Kohler "Rite-Temp" shower valve which became much more noisy as it aged. I eventually replaced it both because it was so noisy and also because it no longer maintained the set-point for the temperature I chose.
When I opened the damaged, older valve up after replacing it with a new one, it was obvious why it was so noisy. A rubber diaphragm inside had worn-out / ruptured, allowing the torn pieces to flap back and forth, making the water flow very turbulent.
The new valve solved the problem.
Perhaps a valve replacement is all you need? Can your landlord be contacted with a complaint?
I don't take many showers but afaicr my showers make no more noise than the running water. I don't have one piece valves, just a hot faucet and a cold faucent.
With your neibhbor's consent, I would turn the water on to its maximum noise-making and place my finger tips on the sprayer head to see if that is vibrating. Then on the valve, at various places, including almost as close to the wall as possible (too close and maybe the wall will dampen the vibrations if any.) and see if you can feel the vibration there.
Does he have an access panel for his shower pipes, in a closet maybe? Take the cover off and put your finger tips on each pipe. (We had that in the first two houses I lived in, but this one has the bathrooms back to back with easy access to neither. OTOH, so far nothing has broken.)
I can also imagine that a pipe is vibrating but I'm not there to hear the noise. You want some more tangible evidence than just looking and listening, because if you get someone to do this work, with the money and mess it involves, if you're wrong, you'll look stupid to say the least. Well I guess you know that and that's why you're asking.
What happens if it's all hot or all cold, at various water volumes? That might be a test of vibrating pipes, or give other evidence of something
What happens when he varies the volume of water, or the temperature. Maybe you can get him to avoid some volume range that makes the most noise. If that means he uses more water, pay him 10 or 20 bucks a year for teh difference. Try to calculate the difference. With his permission, paint a red or black bar on the portion of the range he should avoid. If you smile and are really appreciative and nice, you can get a lot of people to things for you.
Thanks. That's the kind of thing I suspect might be the problem. (By the way, if it's the same as my apartment, it's an American Standard single-handle valve, about 25 years old.)
It's condos. I'd be happy to pay for a new valve even though it's my neighbor's pipes. But part of the problem is his early schedule. He had to be several hours late to work to be there for the plumber's first appointment of the day. It took several months for us to arrange that meeting.
And now that this plumber said there's nothing that can be done, I might have trouble convincing him to have us get a second opinion.
re: "And now that this plumber said there's nothing that can be done, I might have trouble convincing him to have us get a second opinion."
If the valve is truly as noisy as you make it sound, and this guy has ever lived anywhere else (or even stayed overnight) where the noise of a shower didn't wake him up, then he should realize that any plumber that says "any shower will make that amount of noise" is probably a lousy/lazy plumber.
The only noise I hear from the opposite side of the walls from both of my single-valve showers is the water hitting the floor of the tub. There is no sound of "rushing water" even with the access panels open and the pipes exposed.
Can't really be sure if your neighbor's issue is the same as mine, and worse yet, it may cost hundreds of dollars to replace the valve, only to find that the new valve is as noisy as the original. Sound deadening insulation may, as was previously suggested, be a much safer and more effective solution.
What about just replacing the cartridge? I have a feeling that would accomplish just as much as replacing the entire valve, and I could do it myself for the cost of the part.
How would I identify which model faucet or cartridge it is?
I'm pretty sure it's an American Standard, and it's the type of handle that moves in two dimensions (lift to increase the volume, and rotate to change the temperature). Does that mean it's the R120 type, or are there others from 25 years ago that move that way?
You might have to remove the escutcheon plate to see if the name is stamped on the body. I recently had to do that in order to get parts for a laundry tub faucet.
The "fancy plate" covered up the fact that it was a Gerber.
I wonder what marketing genius thought it was good idea to hide the company name.
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