The Sweet Sound of Radiator Silence
After two winter seasons of banging pipes, our steam heating system is (knock on wood) basically noise-free now. After ruling out (with the help of Master Plumber) the possibility that the problem was related to water in the pipes, we isolated the banging to an area at the back of the house in the floor…
After two winter seasons of banging pipes, our steam heating system is (knock on wood) basically noise-free now. After ruling out (with the help of Master Plumber) the possibility that the problem was related to water in the pipes, we isolated the banging to an area at the back of the house in the floor between the cellar and garden apartment. After opening up the ceiling from below (which wasn’t too hard to do given the age and condition of the boiler room ceiling), we discovered that our contractor had installed a pair of two-by-four cross supports for the new wood floor on either side of the pipe. As a result, whenever the pipe expanded with each heating cycle it would push against the wood, causing the banging. By putting an extension on our power drill, we were just able to reach one of the two-by-fours and hack away enough of it to put a stop to the noise. It ain’t pretty but it does seem to have worked.
We have 80-year-old 2-story row house in Bay Ridge with a single-pipe steam radiator system. When we moved in almost 20 years ago, we had a lot of trouble with banging pipes, especially on very cold days when the heat was first coming on in the morning.
I did two things that eliminated the problem: (1) I installed a programmable electronic thermostat and kept the “swing” between day-time and night-time temperatures to a maximum of 4 degrees; and (2) I drain and flush the system at least 3X at the start of the heating season, and flush the system regularly during the winter (4-6 weeks).
Peace, it’s wonderful.
victory!
That’s great that you were able to fix this problem. I know people that live for decades with this noise.
Now that’s a great post. Wonder if Master Plvmber would care to write a bit about knocking, clanging radiator pipes?
Are there common causes that could be generally discussed, or is it always random and case-by-case, as it was here?
Our steam system is generally pretty quiet, except for gentle, pleasant hissing and gurgling. But when it got cold for those two or three days last week, we got some clanging.
“Hammer to fit, paint to match”