Banging pipes after new boiler

cam101

Hi,

We bought our house in March and had major works before moving in in May. We had lots of electrical work and a new combi boiler and new radiators/heated towel rails throughout. The plumbing cost £3400.

We did a test run of heating to check all radiators warmed up but due to time of year it then stayed off all summer. Fast forward to October and there are loud banging noises coming from under the upstairs floors whenever the heating is on. It's loud enough that it wakes us up in the morning, my 2yr old says "noisy" as it's worst in his room.

It's driving me insane, I've debated whether I can put up with it but it's too bad. The plumber has been back once to check all the trvs are installed correctly (one was backwards, he swapped it round but it's made no difference)

I texted him a week ago and I'm still waiting for a reply. Where do we stand? I know he had floorboards up during the work, so should have checked pipes were all secured down I guess? Problem is, now we have carpets fitted and all of our furniture down.

I'm fearing massive upheaval, not to mention further cost to get this sorted. Would home insurance help? We have home emergency cover too. I feel like he should sort it as we paid him £3400 but fixing down pipes wasn't in his quote- it was new boiler, radiators and towel rails.

Please help me, it woke us all up again today and I'm so miserable about it. :-(

JJ_Egan

(so should have checked pipes were all secured down I guess? )

No not unless he installed them or moved then during working .
Hardly going to take every floorboard up in the house and check every pipe .
Isolate the noise to an area then either pack the pipes or pay your plumber to .Or just ask him to look at the one area it is noisy/ alter the pump settings if its a variable pump .

Insurance wont help its not damage .

cam101

Thanks for your reply, he did have the floorboards up when connecting the radiators etc, also he capped off some spare pipes as we went from a boiler with a tank in loft to a combi. So he definitely did some things to the pipes.
Our problem is because we don't know if the heating was already noisy I suppose. The noise is throughout the house between the floors, although it's definitely louder at the front.

tomtontom

Sounds like trapped air in the system - although I would hope any competent engineer would have checked that. Time for a second opinion?

bris

It's not trapped air it's too much pressure from the new boiler going through old under secured pipes.


I am going to assume the bulk of the pipework was already present and it wasn't a total replacement, is that right?

sheramber

Is it there all the time the heating is on or is it intermittent.

We had a banging noise when the heating first switched on.

It was due to a valve closing too quickly rsulting in the banging.

My husband changed the valve and all's well now.

cam101

It's not trapped air, husband has bled radiators and it's too loud for that. It's intermittent The whole time the heatings on, every 2-5 minutes like someone's tapping the pipes with a hammer.

Thanks for reply so far, at my wits end

unclebulgaria

There are a number of reasons this banging noise is happening.
He could have squeezed the pipes into a notch in the joists that was too small to take two pipes and they're expanding and rubbing against each other or the wooden joist.
The pipes could be sitting tight against wooden joist and haven't got room to move so "tick" loudly.
Sometimes thermostatic radiator valves start to close down when they have reached temperature and vibrate loudly, this is due to them being on a system with no automatic bypass or cheap rad valves that you cant really put on the return or flow. Modern thermostatic rad valves are sold as bi-directional but the cheaper ones sometimes bang.
If the plumber you employed installed new piping then its his problem to sort never mind being charged to put things right. Your problems are that you probably didn't test the system enough from new, you now have carpet/furniture down and you're now living in the house.
Oh and he's got his money now so he may just tell you to do one then the only options open to you are to get someone else in and then charge him if its found he's at fault.
Try turning off all the thermostatic rad valves then put the heating on and open them one at a time and see if its a specific radiator valve?

Ray_Alexander

I'm glad you've got the problem all sorted out now !