Accoustic lagging of a cold water pipe

[Ben]

Hi, I have a cold water pipe, 15mm copper, going through my bedroom. When there is much water use elsewhere in the building I can hear rushing water through this pipe. It is not that bad, but is a bit annoying. The pipe itself runs through an airing cupboard with three brick walls on each of its sides and a flimsy door.

I was wondering if there was much I could reasonably do to cut down on the noise? Wrapping it is nome kind of absorbant lagging, or insulating the door of the cupboard itself?

Cheers,

Ben

[The Natural Philosopher]

That sort of sound is probably being transmitted by air, especially if the cupboard is brick walled.

One way would be to build a brick enclosure for the pipe..but a heavy hermetically sealed door is probably just as good.

[FKruger]

Could you box it in with plasterboard? You could build a frame from bits of wood and screw the boards to that or if its a small enigh run just glue it all together with gripfill.

[baxter basics]

could just try thick foam lagging initially - might be enough.

[Ben]

I might try that - wrap it in foam lagging, then box the thing in with plasterboard. The door is a cavity design - two hardboard panels on a wooden frame. If I assume the brick walls are quite solid, then this is probably the weak point. I could presumably stuff it full of mineral wool or something also.

Cheers,

Ben

[The Natural Philosopher]

won;t make a lot of difference while it isn't hermetically sealed.

If you have double glazed windows..open them JUST a mm or two and listen to the difference in what you can hear from outside. Then consider..

[Ben]

I have seen rockwool pipe lagging in buildings before, which would (I suspect) be ideal for acoustic insulation if I can find it is diamaeters small enough for a 15mm pipe - it normally has a silver outer jacket, but I can't find it in the shops. Does anybody know the trade name of this stuff and where I might look for it?

Cheers,

Ben

[Ben]

Unfortunately I suspect I can't hermetically seal the door to my airing cupboard :-)

The best I can do is wrap up the pipe, put draft excluder felt strips around the edge of the door, and insulate the door itself I think...

Ben

[robert]

Try:

[meow2222]

wrap the pipes with (pref) felt lagging Mount the pipe clips on rubber box the pipes in put a rubber mat on the door draughtproof the door fit a heavier door lag the noisy pipes on the floors above or below where the pipe is a problem, this will also add damping In some cases you can happily turn down the water flow rate

[meow2222]

Baffles for the airpath is the next best bet. Making the noise zigzag back and forth a couple of times makes a remarkable difference. You cant really do that much with a door, but you can make it go round a corner at least twice, which helps.

NT

[Ben]

I think I'm going to try the pipes first, then the door, and finally the ceiling, in order of difficuly to acheive. Its hard to tell where the noise path is - some of it may be straight through the ceiling, but the pipes are certainly the worst culprit. I may be able to put an airtight seal around the door -I've seen a few products online that are very simple and easy to fit. The door itself is very flimsy - a 2x2 frame with hardboard front and back. It would probably be a good idea to fill it with mineral wool or replace the door, I'm thinking. I could also stiuck some foam to the inside walls to stop the cupboard acting as a sounding box. As for the pipe itself I'm still not sure what to wrap it in - I guess mineral wool in the shape of pipe lagging would be the best, but I can't find it :-)

Ben

[Ben]

Oops -that last post was a bit out of date, I've just seen some of the replys that appeared before it. Thanks for the advice :-)

Ben

[Chris Hodges]

no, but even foam druaght excluder might help quite a bit. Rubber underlay is quite good for absorbing noise if you do want to line the walls/door, it cut doen the noise from our CH pump when I lined the false bottom of the airing cupboard at put a pad of it between the pump and the wall.

[Ben]

I'll try that. I notice that the pipe in question runs down through my airing cupboard, then through the wall into the bathroom, along the floor (behind the bath) and then down to the next floor. I need to somehow damp the pipe along its length as well I suspect - I've found some companies selling "damping tape", I may try it, but I don't know how effective it is as surely it can't have a mass anywhere near that of the pipe...?