mystery of running water in pipes! can anyone help.

For some time (week) water could be heard flowing in the pipes when in the bathroom when nothing was in use. Over the last few weeks this has got worse.

Plumbling in house is quite simple. Iron pipe from cellar straight up to under bath (feeds bath, toilet, sink via copper), then across to back of house where it goes to copper to feed the combi, downstairs sink, and toilet.

No sound is heard downstairs, but can be heard in the boxing where the pipe passes to the rear bedroom towards the boiler and downstairs. There appears to be no flow after the pipe goes back downstairs.

Heating/all taps etc are off. As combi is fitted there are no tanks at all.

Can anyone suggest what is causing this noise? Is there is a sound there MUST be a flow? where could it be going.

Reply to
Pete
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Have the loo cisterns got internal overflows? Is there a weeping pressure relief vent? Is the pump running at the time?

Reply to
Dave

Look for leaks. Look for damp ceilings, floors and walls. Look for overflows. Tie plastic bags over overflows as a tell tale. The actual expulsion of water may be intermittent, even if the leak itself is continuous.

Turn off the mains water isolator at the combi. If it stops, the problem is either in the hot water pipework, or within the combi itself, possibly a leaky heat exchanger, causing mains water to leak into the central heating circuit.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Have you tried turning off the water main in the street? Maybe it's burst underground. Where you hear the sound is not necessarily much indication of the source. Could try pressing your ear up against the incoming water main.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Use a sounding rod. This is a length of dowel, cane, steel rod, or what-have-you. Press one end up against the pipe. Press your ear to the other end, so that the little flap at the front of the actual ear hole is pressed flat (make sure the end of the rod is nice and flat and not jagged!). This acts like a stethescope, and is quite effective. You can use similar things (or even a screwdriver) to listen to engines to find out where the rattle is. But, I digress...

Reply to
Chris Bacon

I had exactly the same problem when we first moved in, and it took ages to locate the source. The first toilet cistern had the overflow going sideways, through an internal wall into a boxed in vertical soil pipe. This had been replaced with a low-level cistern, with the overflow going directly out through the external wall. The pipe to the soil stack had been cut short & plugged, and the hole in the internal wall papered over. Over the years whatever had plugged the pipe stub worked loose & fell into the soil pipe, and what we were hearing was water flowing through the horizontal sewer serving the terrace, the sound piped right into our bathroom by the open soil pipe.

Is it possible that the basin/bath waste trap is dry, the water maybe siphoned out?

Keith

Reply to
Jeanette

Central heating running? Cistern ball valve on loo gone?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

If you have a water meter:- turn off all taps and check the meter. It will tell you if you are losing water

Reply to
mmzz

FWIW Several months ago I heard running water - from the ball valve - in the middle of the night. We hadn't been having as much hot water as usual. Couldn't find dampness anywhere. Eventually surmised that it was caused by leak in piping buried in concrete floor - so dug it up. Found a small hole in the copper pipe - expansion and contraction of the hot water pipe combined with a small bit of grit over many years had rubbed a hole. Water had been leaking into the soil with no evidence to be seen elsewhere. I don't know if any of this applies in your case but good luck anyhow.

Reply to
wb

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