On Mon, 6 Jun 2011 19:29:46 -0700 (PDT), Jimmy
wrote:

My apartment neighbor has a shower with a noisy valve. The rushing
noise of the water is very loud in my apartment, and it wakes me up.
It sounds just like the noise my shower valve makes if I turn it on
only halfway.

I need to do something. My neighbor gets up much earlier than me, and
I can't sleep through it, even with ear plugs.

We got one plumber to take a look, and as soon as he heard it, he said
that any shower will make that amount of noise, and there's nothing he
could do. He suggested getting someone to put blown-in insulation in
the wall.

I don't take many showers but afaicr my showers make no more noise
than the running water. I don't have one piece valves, just a hot
faucet and a cold faucent.

With your neibhbor's consent, I would turn the water on to its maximum
noise-making and place my finger tips on the sprayer head to see if
that is vibrating. Then on the valve, at various places, including
almost as close to the wall as possible (too close and maybe the wall
will dampen the vibrations if any.) and see if you can feel the
vibration there.

Does he have an access panel for his shower pipes, in a closet maybe?
Take the cover off and put your finger tips on each pipe. (We had
that in the first two houses I lived in, but this one has the
bathrooms back to back with easy access to neither. OTOH, so far
nothing has broken.)

I can also imagine that a pipe is vibrating but I'm not there to hear
the noise. You want some more tangible evidence than just looking and
listening, because if you get someone to do this work, with the money
and mess it involves, if you're wrong, you'll look stupid to say the
least. Well I guess you know that and that's why you're asking.


What happens if it's all hot or all cold, at various water volumes?
That might be a test of vibrating pipes, or give other evidence of
something

What happens when he varies the volume of water, or the temperature.
Maybe you can get him to avoid some volume range that makes the most
noise. If that means he uses more water, pay him 10 or 20 bucks a
year for teh difference. Try to calculate the difference. With his
permission, paint a red or black bar on the portion of the range he
should avoid. If you smile and are really appreciative and nice, you
can get a lot of people to things for you.


Is there anything else we can try? Could the valve be restricted by
sediment? Would replacing the valve or any of the piping help? Are
there any noise standards for residential plumbing? Are there other
interior wall soundproofing techniques I could look into?

Jimmy