Running Water in Ceiling.. Please help!

Hello, I have a huge problem and I'm hopin someone can help. About 5 days ago, I started hearing running water in the ceiling. It starts in my bedroom and runs all the way across my apartment to the porch on the other side. It is non stop, at times it is incredibly loud and other times it is quieter, but it is always running. I've lived here for 3 years, and this is the first time this has happened. Also, there is no sign of water coming anywhere. I live on the second floor, and there is an apartment above me, so I'm not sure whats inbetween me and the upper apartment. I have called my landlord but have heard nothing about what they are doing.

You've done your due diligence, you reported it to your landlord. It could be a toilet that is constantly running (bad flapper valve), or something similar that is draining. Unless the apartment has concrete slabs, after that time, if it was leaking into the actual ceiling, it would likely be leaking through.

Hopefully the landlord is paying the water bill and not you....

Without a sign of water its probably something that is dumping water right down the drain like a toilet, or water heater T&P plumbed to a drain....

noise

Are you mad at the person who lives above you? If not knock on his door and ask him if he has a leaky toilet.

Okay, so finally after a week of this the maintenance guy finally came. He said he thinks it is the heating pipes? So, I walked down to my storage where I can see the pipes I believe for heating, and I can hear it in those pipes too. However, I left for work just as he was getting here, and when I got home tonight of course it isn't fixed. So, does anyone know how I could fix this myself? It's a long ways until Monday when they get back in, and I can't stand this noise much longer.

If it is the hot water heating pipes, if you can hear the water flow, it is probably air in the lines. The system may have a gunked up air extraction device. That normally keeps air out of the system. If it isn't working, then whatever is done won't last forever. The quick thing is to bleed the air out, but without access to the high point and the boiler fill valve, you shouldn't touch! If you did, you might end up with a low-pressure situation, and the heat would shut down.

I talked to the tenant that lives above me last night, and she said that the maintanence guy was going to come back today to bleed the water heater lines. Will that fix the problem or is that just a temporary fix until they can actually fix the air extraction device? The water noise seems to intensify everday it's left untreated.

rzimmerman30 said:

I talked to the tenant that lives above me last night, and she said that the maintanence guy was going to come back today to bleed the water heater lines. Will that fix the problem or is that just a temporary fix until they can actually fix the air extraction device? The water noise seems to intensify everday it's left untreated.

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If they're getting THAT much air in to the system they have other issues to worry about. IE like not letting air into the system. If you are hearing that hydronic lines and it is air in the system my guess would be they have a leak on their system somewhere and fresh water/air is being introduced into the system constantly. If the air scoop has failed then yes they system will not automatically purge the air out.

I just want to say thanks all to everyone's replies! So it's been 2 months since this has started, my landlord keeps claiming they are working on it and they belive air is in the pipe somewhere. Yet, the maintence guy has never once come up into my apartment nor have I seen him here. So, if I can at least get pointed in the right direction as to what the problem is that might help. So after he bled the system, you can still hear the air pass through the pipes in the celing all the way across my apartment. But what has started is this almost like low frequency, rumbling, humming, bassy sound that goes up and down in intensity. It is non stop. If I put 20db ear plugs in, I can still hear it. So the frequency of the resonating noise must be pretty low (yet it almost sounds high pitched) It is so hard to explain in words, but it makes it impossible to sleep (even with ear plugs!) The sound level varies but it can always be heard. Does anyone know what that in combination with the sound of water/air running through the pipes could be?

It's unusual to have air pockets in water supply pipes for very long after the system is filled up...normally, they get purged out (sometimes with a lot of fanfare!) immediately after you turn the water back on then open each valve until the water flows smoothly. Unless there is a booster pump or some other thing that is injecting air under pressure into the pipes, it just normally doesn't happen.

Now, excessive flow velocity through too small pipes could make some sound at any restrictions. A valve not fully opened could cause this. Also, if there is a loose washer in the path where water is flowing, it can vibrate. This can be quite vigorous, and could telegraph down the pipes. A pressure reduction valve could make some sounds, if there's one installed. A booster pump could cause sounds to propagate a long ways. Toilet fill valves are known to cause some nasty sounds when they start to wear out and this can be much worse if the flapper valve leaks and they need to run more often than normal.

If the system uses high velocity air in the ducts, that can make some weird sounds.