we hear continuous dripping noise

My three story townhouse in Chicago have a plumbing problem in our third floor drainage pipe from the sink and the bathtub.

When we turn on the water in the sink and the bathtub, the plumbing pipe will have dripping noise. It will contiune for some not very short of time. One plumber told me it might be caused by the hair or sth in the pipe.

Is this true? What is your opinions? i have tried three plumbers to see what is the problem, but no one can give me a very clear idea what is going on there.
This really sucks. Hope someone can help me.

Water will stick to pipe for a while.
Often, when a shower is taken in the tub/bath combo, the riser to the shower head can take 35 minutes to drain down.

The sound of water dripping for 35 minutes can be annoying.

So it's best not to think about it.

There is also something called Capillary action by water that also causes grief.
Water will go uphill when in contact with a porous material. They call that "wicking".

To add to Terry's statement......do you have PVC piping?

If so, run cold only and let us know if the noise stops. Sometimes thermal expansion/contraction can cause a noise of the same.

My home do use pvc pipe. I will run Cold only and tell you guys what I heard.

drip

You are describing an expansion noise when the pipe heats up. If you could cool it down as quickly as you heated it up, you would probably hear the same sound as it contracted, but normally it happens so slowly that you either don't hear the noise or the "drips" are so far apart or faint, that you do not associate it with the original sound.

If my pipe still produce the noise, can I rent a camera( specific name in plumbing?) and put it into the pipe to see by myself? Or Can I rent something like viberator ( again, I am not sure the right name, help me please)and put it into the pipe?

There are companies that can run cameras through drains and vents, but it is pointless. What you are hearing is normal sounds from PVC pipe, there's nothing wrong with your drain and nothing to fix. If the pipes are accessable, you might muffle the sound with insulation. Outside of that, learn to live with it.

If you were camping in the outdoors, you would hear plenty of "noise" too.

Wind through the trees, branches rubbing against other branches, bird calls, deer tramping around your tent at night, water in a stream, rocks rolling from hillslides and small snow slides.

The house when left alone even will make it's own sounds.
When you use water, it heats and then looses heat in the pipes. This causes expansion and contraction.

The only solution I see here is a concrete padded room.

sound file

Lots of talk about this on the internet, but no sound clips. Well, I've just made a sound recording so that we can start narrrowing it down. Please listen to this clip. What do you think it is?

dripsound mp3

There are a few possibilities:

1. Expansion/contraction knocking sound, perhaps a broken strapping.

2. Gravity water drips from upper floor to downstairs.

3. Issue with anti-knock chamber / valve.


One of the water valves either upstairs or next door, can create this drip sound at will by on/off action. And yet, the sound can also start/stop by itself at random times. At night, in the afternoon, in the early morning, in summetime or wintertime. I am not sure what I am hearing, but need this information first before I start asking around.

PVC and ABS drain pipes expand and contract a lot with temperature changes...nothing you can do about that. This is more noticable in long runs in multi-story buildings (i.e., longer distances traveled, bigger change in length). If they are the source of the 'ticking' sounds, it is because when installed, they didn't allow for that expansion properly. Often, this is the result of a rubbing on a tight hole or along some other stationary structure. A properly used strap allows the pipe to slide, so that isn't a big deal.

If there is a fixture that is actually leaking, that could continue forever. A fairly common one is a toilet with a leaking flapper valve. It could also be any faucet that needs a new cartridge or washer.

Cast iron drain pipes aren't used that much anymore because they take more skill and therefore time to install, plus, the material costs more. They ARE much quieter than plastic, though.

I just had a similar situation with a client and the dripping noise was from the water upstairs dripping down the drain pipe and hitting a 45 degree bend in the pipe in the wall. We opened the wall and put the bend in the drain pipe up higher so the water wouldn't drop so far. Problem solved. It was a humbug detail, but the owner was happy.