hot water pipe rattle

[reluctant-homeowner]

Hello, we are about to put our house on the market, so of course a number of problems are surfacing last minute. Just recently, when we turn the hot water tap off anywhere in the house, we hear a soft rattle that seems to be coming from one area in the house; of course within a wall. This happens if you turn the tap off fast, turning it off slowly there is no rattle.

I did the usual - opened the relief valve on the water heater, turned on outside taps until there was no air in them and stood under pipes in basement trying to locate sound...no luck.

Do I need to take the drastic step and call in a plumber? Time is agianst us here...thanks for any help!

[hj]

What you did had nothing to do with the curing rattle. You have to have one person open and close a faucet while the other one tries to pin down the source of the noise. But finding it does not mean it will be easy to fix, especially if it is inside a wall, since where you hear it may not be the exact place where the rattle is occurring.