What might cause a chirping shower drain?

[Cali_John]

Hi,

In the master bathroom of my friend's house, there is a "chirp" noise that comes from the shower drain. It seems to ratchet up in frequency after a shower is taken. It seems to take about 24-48 hours before the sound subsides. The frequency of the sound slows down the longer the intervals between showers.

What might be some causes for this and what is a long term fix?

For some added notes, my friend recently had a sewer inspection done with a camera and there is some slight blockage in the main line connecting the house to the street due to some tree roots. The house was built in 1960 and has a slab foundation I believe.

 

[Terry]

Chirping or knocking is normally pipe expansion in a binding hole. You take a shower, the pipe expands. As it cools it contracts and as it gets shorter it pulls against whatever is causing the bind. After doing service work, I started drilling larger holes for my shower drains. Or at least made sure they were straight and not angled.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Cali_John]

Thank you Terry, it sounds like it would be fairly expensive to try and fix it then? I'd have to rip up the tile, make the hole larger, and then patch it all back.

 

[Jadnashua]

Sound will travel a long ways along a pipe, so it may not be directly under the shower. Then, if it's a wooden subfloor, you may be able to remove some ceiling beneath and check. Drywall is generally fairly easy and cheap to repair unless it's textured, then it's more of an art form.