Water line Vibrates when neighbors use water - Townhouse community

[Ada2022]

Hi everyone!
I live in a townhouse and a few months ago I noticed that my main water line in my crawl space would start vibrating at random. It never vibrates when I run water. One day, the vibration was so bad, that it woke me up in the middle of the night. I discovered the vibration is coming from both mine and my next door neighbor’s water meters. We have separate meters, but they are side by side.

When talking to the city, they believe that my neighbor is at fault and something in their plumbing is causing vibrations to transmit to my meter. My neighbor has been willing to work with me and we even had a plumber come out and look at both of our homes. The plumber noticed that there was a valve not fully opened in my neighbor’s house and proceeded to fully open it. Unfortunately that didn’t fix the issue we are having.

I’m pretty torn as to which party is at fault. The meters are the cities responsibility however, my neighbor admitted that the vibrations occur when she showers. I really don’t want to have my neighbor spend all of this money at the risk of it being a city problem, but at the same time, I’m very worried that this can damage my plumbing if we don’t get this resolved. Any thoughts or ideas on what may be causing this? Unfortunately, most of the plumbers are stumped because the noise never occurs when I’m running water, so they believe the cause of the issue isn’t within my home.

Thanks in advance!

 

[LLigetfa]

My guess is a pressure regulating valve is the source.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Terry]

If it vibrates when showering, I would check that out. Sometimes a loose rubber washer on a stem will vibrate.
Can she take a picture of her faucet?

 

[Jeff H Young]

Investigate as Terry pointed out and the prv if one is there. yea hourly rate adds up . i think its all on the neighbor to fix or the both of you to live with

 

[Ada2022]

If it vibrates when showering, I would check that out. Sometimes a loose rubber washer on a stem will vibrate.
Can she take a picture of her faucet?

Unfortunately it’s not just when she showers. Sometimes it’s when she flushes toilets or runs sinks.

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

Sounds like its the water main / PRV (Pressure Reducing Valve if present / Meter... Something in the main line. Maybe even their main shut off valve could have an issue.

 

[Jeff H Young]

Turn your water off if problem exists then its neighbors fault. If you turn his off and problem persists its your problem.
If both meters are turned of and problem persists its neither of your faults. I assume each unit has their own PRV but no Idea how the water distribution is at your place Could be large PRV for multiple units I've never seen it (with separate meters) but condos and town homes and different localities I don't know it all

 

[WorthFlorida]

Ada, depending on when your condo was built you may have a shutoff valves with a washer. That is #8 in the picture. What Terry suggest that this washer can deteriorate and vibrate when it is loose and even when the valve is not fully open. Other suggest if there is a PRV, pressure reducing valve. Below is a simplified diagram and it can be seen there is a washer like part that can vibrate. If you see a device that looks like a cone, it would be a PRV. Somewhere past the meter inside the crawl space or basement. If you have a boiler for hot water radiators for heating, you should see one at the boiler. This would not cause your issue.

Hope this helps you understand what might be going on. If it seems to only happen at night or early mornings, it means the water pressure is building up from the city supply. All normal when water use drops. What you'll need to do is try running the water at your neighbors and turn on faucets a little at a time until the vibration occurs. Then feel the pipes or valves, if possible, and you might just find the part that is vibrating. The vibration as what I think it is will not do any damage.

.

 

[Ada2022]

Ada, depending on when your condo was built you may have a shutoff valves with a washer. That is #8 in the picture. What Terry suggest that this washer can deteriorate and vibrate when it is loose and even when the valve is not fully open. Other suggest if there is a PRV, pressure reducing valve. Below is a simplified diagram and it can be seen there is a washer like part that can vibrate. If you see a device that looks like a cone, it would be a PRV. Somewhere past the meter inside the crawl space or basement. If you have a boiler for hot water radiators for heating, you should see one at the boiler. This would not cause your issue.

Hope this helps you understand what might be going on. If it seems to only happen at night or early mornings, it means the water pressure is building up from the city supply. All normal when water use drops. What you'll need to do is try running the water at your neighbors and turn on faucets a little at a time until the vibration occurs. Then feel the pipes or valves, if possible, and you might just find the part that is vibrating. The vibration as what I think it is will not do any damage.


View attachment 89894. View attachment 89896

View attachment 89897

Thanks for this explanation. We actually do have PRVs in our crawl space. The vibration is actually the worse at the PRV but then echoes to my other pipes. Our homes were built in 2005.

 

[Ada2022]

turn your water off if problem exists then its neighbors fault. if you turn his off and problem persists its your problem.
If both meters are turned of and problem persists its neither of your faults. I assume each unit has thierown PRV but no Idea how the water distribution is at your place Could be large PRV for multiple units Ive never seen it (with seperate meters) but condos and town homes and differant localitys I dont know it all

Thanks for the explanation. When my water is turned off, the issue persists. The noise only happens when my neighbors run water. We each have a PRV in our crawl space. The vibration is worse at the PRV and then echoes to the rest of my pipes depending on how long my neighbor runs the water for.

 

[Jeff H Young]

I vibrations are like noise he makes noise you hear it. he slams door you pictures can move. a few examples . so at this point I believe his plumbing problem effects you

 

[Terry]

I think it's time for the neighbor to replace his PRV valve. They do go bad, and vibrating is one of the issues.

 

[JohnDIY]

We had a similar problem, woke us up in the middle of the night, high pitch squeal, inconsistent as to the day, but only occurring at around 5am, it was almost funny how it could be the exact same time, and the noise came from the 1/4 ball toilet shutoff valve, because you could feel it in the handle BUT, that was not the cause. The cause was a broken water supply to the house, and now here goes my theory. The theory is that there was a pressure change occurring, whether neighborhood sprinklers, people waking up, etc, the pressure change must have caused the leak pressure to change and the house pressure had to also change and equalize, and when it did the equalization manifested it self in the shutoff handle. Went on for weeks, because we didn’t know about the supply line break in the front yard Until the lawn was wet. Once the supply pipe was fixed, never heard the noise again. Could be coincidence but I don’t think so.

 

[LLigetfa]

Municipal systems with water towers often refill the towers overnight on a schedule when water use is down so the pressure is higher due to less friction loss from lower use and the boost of pressure from pumps topping up the water towers.

Other scheduled uses of course are irrigation sprinklers and water softeners regenerating.