Pressure sound in mains pipes - why?

[ChrissyWissy]

Hi all
am a bit mystified by a background water pressure sound in my mains pipes. A callout service suggested I had a leak under my kitchen floor so I had the kitchen ripped out, tiles up, hole dug in the concrete, but nothing found. As there are no leaks anywhere else (the two cold tanks in the attic are fine) I can only think of the front of the house where I had a hole dug last year to replace a faulty stopcock with a plastic to lead joint so I guess there might be a change in pressure there, but why now?

thanks

 

[Smcart5]

By background noise you mean you can constantly hear water running through the cold mains?

 

[newbie1]

if you can hear it then there is a leak somewhere

 

[shaunhighcock]

Hi all
am a bit mystified by a background water pressure sound in my mains pipes. A callout service suggested I had a leak under my kitchen floor so I had the kitchen ripped out, tiles up, hole dug in the concrete, but nothing found. As there are no leaks anywhere else (the two cold tanks in the attic are fine) I can only think of the front of the house where I had a hole dug last year to replace a faulty stopcock with a plastic to lead joint so I guess there might be a change in pressure there, but why now?

thanks

the front of the house where you had stopcock replaced would of been a good place to start m8!! lead pipes are bad for corroding i've seen the damage they do to a house just from a little pin hole...

 

[kirkgas]

before i dug up your kitchen i would have did a simple test, get a water key and a mate, turn on the kitchen tap and fill a glass of water, keep the end of the tap in the water as it overflows, then get your mate to turn the water off at the toby valve in the garden, if you have a leak between the valve and the house the water will be syphoned out of the glass because the pressure stops and the water in the line will leak out of the hole in the pipe drawing the water in the glass with it, the other thing to do is make sure no water is running in the house, put the toby key on the valve and put your ear to the key, if you have a leak the sound transfers through the key and you can clearly hear the water russhing through.

 

[Steve001]

before i dug up your kitchen i would have did a simple test, get a water key and a mate, turn on the kitchen tap and fill a glass of water, keep the end of the tap in the water as it overflows, then get your mate to turn the water off at the toby valve in the garden, if you have a leak between the valve and the house the water will be syphoned out of the glass because the pressure stops and the water in the line will leak out of the hole in the pipe drawing the water in the glass with it.

I like that, I like that a lot. Nice tip, kirkgas.

 

[easyt]

That's clever Kirkgas.

 

[ChrissyWissy]

Hi
thanks for the contributions guys. By way of further information, I am not on a meter. I hear a continuous tone. On turning off the kitchen stopcock the sound reduces and is at a lower pitch, by putting my ear to the ground I can hear it under the concrete kitchen floor and (to a lesser extent because of the carpet and joists/raised floor) the living room floor. It stops with the street stopcock turned off. Does that mean that the problem is "further away", i.e. where the plastic/lead join was made?

 

[kirkgas]

the noise going off when the stopcock is turned off just means it doesnt have a route to transmit the noise, try the test i said, and if nothing report it to the water board who will check "their" side of the toby and attend to any repairs that are required