Builder's standard tank and bowl toilet on second floor of condo. Drain runs from toilet down a vertical line between uninsulated walls in lower condo unit. When flushed it sound in the lower unit is quite loud like a waterfall.
Short of wholesale changes in rerouting drain any suggestions to cut down on noise?
Seems to me:
- a lower flow toilet might help
- blowing in insulation between the two bys might help
Any other logical and useful ideas?
Thanks
A lower flow toilet won't help as all the water is going to let loose at once anyway. Insulating the walls should help.
Noise is nothing more than pressure waves in the air caused by something moving. The further and more rapidly something moves, the louder the noise it creates because the stronger the air pressure wave it creates with each movement. You can prove this to yourself by setting off your smoke alarm intentionally, and finding containers to keep it in to reduce the noise. You will find that a pyrex casserole pot works really well because pyrex is a dense heavy glass that is very strong and stiff. It moves very little in response to the sound waves from the smoke detector hitting it, and so the only noise you hear is the result of the pyrex moving, and that's very little. The result is that you hear very little noise with the smoke detector in the pyrex casserole dish because the walls and top of the pyrex casserole dish are hardly moving at all.
That is, you can have a tempest in a tea pot, but if the walls of the tea pot don't move, then no one can hear the tempest inside.
Cast iron vent stacks were the standard for decades. Cast iron is much heavier than ABS or PVC, and so cast iron moves LESS when it vibrates as a result of water plunging through it, and the smaller movement means a quieter flush heard downstairs.
You can eliminate the noise if you can eliminate the movement of the plastic Vent stack in your wall.
I would use something inexpensive like wall paper or masking tape to cover the stud cavity where the vent stack is, and then fill that stud cavity with expanding foam. That way, you can eliminate it completely should you ever want to by simply removing most of it with a knife, and then peeling the wallpaper or masking tape off.
Blown in cellulose is suppose to work good, compared to fiberglass.
Greg
the noise is te water falling down the sewer line, extremely common with PVC pipe.
Cast iron didnt conduct sound well.PVC is a excellent sound conductor:(
the best most effective fix iis replacing the offending section of line with hubless cast iron line.
No doubt every unit in your condo has the same issue:(
If yyour home is new go after the builder while its under warranty.
Some people are very sensitive to noise that others will likely ignore
LET ME OUT!!!!
From the description, it's the unit *below* that's getting the noise. Plus, I've never heard a noisy vent. Plenty of noise from a plastic toilet drain line though.
OMG? Remove drywall in a condo, replace it with wallpaper? Have you been drinking?
About the only part you have here right is that cast iron pipe makes a lot noise than PVC, ABS. He could try insulation. Not sure blowing in is going to work. Who knows how that pipe is routed and where the blown-in can or can't get to. If he wants to try that approach, I'd rip out the drywall, fully expose the problem and then figure out how to get it covered with insulation, expanding foam perhaps.
+1, but not easy or cheap.
Good luck with that. People typically can't get the warranty to honor foundations that are falling down. I would bet it's virtually impossible to get a warranty claim on noise from a toilet flushing paid off.
That's what the warranty company is going to say.
My initial misunderstasnding also, the reply was not detailed enough.
If you want a 100% fix replace the PVCwith hubless cast iron, in the offending area.
Hubless cast iron is easy to work with, it uses ferncos to connect. no oakum, no molten lead. etc etc.
if your ging to be removing sections of drywall you might as well do it right, do it once then forget about it.
maybe 20 years ago my GF at the time wanted to stay on site at disney world..
We stayed at port orleans it was a brand new on site hotel complex...nice BUT.
any time anyone flushed a toilet every other nearby room knew what was going on, the flushing sounds went on all nite.. we did not sleep well.
when we got back I wrote a nice letter of complaint, and disney responded with a discount on a future stay, and said the noise issue was being corrected by replacing much of the plumbing in what was a brand new resort.
not long after that they appeared to have re named the resort, it had issues....
ection is active.
If you can minimize the points where the pvc pipe contacts the wall framing the noise will be reduced. Depending on your situation that may require r emoving wall board. Use plastic straps to hold the pipe in place without p ulling it against the wood frame lumber.
the only real solution is replacing the offeng area with cast iron, or special PVC pipe that diminishes noise.
if our opening the wall cast iron is the better choice
I think you have a valid point. Once you have to open the wall, might as well go for what is known to reduce noise a lot. The only issue would be how accessible the pipe is so you can replace it. I'm not real keen on using Ferncos in inaccessible places, where you can't see them, etc, but for this, given the choices, I'd use them.
I went from cast iron and copper to PVC. Definitely startling.
Wrapping the PVC with auto sound wrap will help. Adding interior insulation will help. Using special sound drywall will help.
Greg
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