Attic tank noise, please help!

Miss Informed

Hi guys,

I live in the attic room of a three story townhouse, I've been in the room for two years and in the past 8 weeks or so the noise from the pipes in the attic has suddenly become much louder. It goes on for ages (very variable, sometime 10 mins, sometimes 40, sometimes 90) throughout the night and I haven't had a full night's sleep in way too long!

We've had two plumbers out, three visits total, and I have great confidence in the guy who was there yesterday, he's been at it for decades and is very professional/knowledgeable/trustworthy. The ballcock had been replaced by the guy before him so he checked that and it was fine, and he also reduced the water pressure coming into the house a bit, but said that because the house is three stories high it needs a good amount of pressure. He was extremely thorough, we ran every tap, shower and flushed all of the toilets - we have 3 bathrooms so it was a lengthy process - to diagnose the issue, and he said that it's just normal sounds of the tank refilling.

I don't know exactly what brings it on, there are some regular noises and then there's the extra loud and long lasting whooshing noises at different pitches and chugging/grinding noises that go on for ages. It seems much louder at night than during the day because everything else is so much quieter, and the plumber left yesterday having looked at everything saying that these are just the noises caused by water running in the house and theres nothing that can be done to stop it except stop running water - maybe new housemates are flushing the toilet or using the showers more at night and that's why it's more noticeable now.

Then again last night the noise came back for 40 minutes or more, around 1.30am, whooshing and chugging type noises. I got up and checked every bathroom but nobody had had a shower, and if they'd flushed the toilet or run a tap, I don't think (?) it should have gone on for so long.

As I said, I have full confidence in the plumber, and he reiterated the same thing that the first plumber did, but this noise never happened before and I'm at my wits end with it! I've got three months left of a masters to do on top of regular work and there's a rental crisis in Galway at the moment so moving out is not easy. Don't know what to do, I thought I'd get used to sleeping with it but after 2 months I see that I won't.

BoatMad

Replace the ball cock filler with a silent type , even these are not code approved now

Either that or acoustically insulate the tank which is s big job

Not much more you can do. I have quite high mains pressure and I get a lot of refilling noise in the attic , we sleep in the roof space

You get used to it after a while , normal house sounds

Miss Informed

I'll ask about the silent ball cock thing, thanks!

See I don't know if it's coming from the tank or just the pipes or what. I assume its the tank. Spoke to the plumber again and he's told me to play detective for a few days, which I'll try to do, but I share with 4 others and we have three bathrooms, no easy task! I'll be right down there throats - 'Did you have a shower? DID YOU?'..

I asked everyone in the house what they were doing within those hours, and turns out one of the guys had a shower from 8am til 9am, which doesn't explain why it started at 7.15, so I assume he just got the times wrong. I thought he'd mistyped, and I asked him if he meant to say he had a shower that lasted for an entire hour, and he said 'I dunno, I was really tired at that time'... so the one hour showers could explain the morning noise maybe? If so, that's half the issue solved!

Plumber said to switch off the heating for the water for a few days and to see if it stops, if the noise stops it could be caused by pitching, he said.

Still waiting to make a big discovery here, so I'll update this post with any more info, and maybe in the meantime more suggestions will appear as the plumbing experts of boards cast their gaze upon my thread..!