Noise water pump, any

[peteba]

Hi all, I’m looking for a bit of advice.

A flat two stories up from mine has installed a water pump that feeds all of their outlets (shower, toilet, sinks, washing machine, dishwasher …) from a loft storage tank. Alas, the pump seems to be sending vibration down the walls and into my flat. The result is a very low humming sound that lasts from 5 seconds to 30 minutes. This happens 20-30 time a day and is starting to do my head in! The flat in-between doesn’t seem to be impacted.

Unfortunately, the upstairs owner can’t afford to get the pump fixed at the moment and so I was thinking of offering to pay for the repairs for a quiet life.

Before I make the offer, I was hoping to get some thoughts on what might be going wrong here and what I might be getting myself into cost wise. I appreciate there isn’t much to go on here but any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[king of pipes]

It really depends on what pump they have installed and how it's been fitted ? if it is installed on a shared rising main then there will be some noise plumbing is never silent, moving water through pipework and the switching on and off of will transfer noise , anti vibration mats and or mountings may help . Kop

 

[rpm]

Are the people in the flat between you and the noisy pump hard of hearing or have had sound insulation fitted.

 

[peteba]

Thanks Kop and RPM for the responses.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the pump but I do know that it is mounted in the top floor flat's bathroom and takes in water from the loft storage tank that is just above to feed just the outlets in their flat. So I don't think it is water moving through common pipes that we are hearing. Also, the rumbling will be continuous for up to 20 minutes when they, say, run the washing machine so I don't think it is just switching noise. The noise is so distinct that from the duration you can easily tell the difference between a washing machine run, a shower and a toilet flush!

The building is an old 3 storey Victorian conversion without soundproofing so that could be a contributor. However, I don't think the noise is travelling through the air as it would sound like a jet engine in the top floor flat and the middle flat would be worse than I am experiencing. But that is not the case.

I think what is going on here is that the pump has been mounted to a structural brick wall that "connects" our flats. The pump is vibrating into the wall and travelling down to my ground floor flat where it hits the foundation and "bounces" out as noise. I had a sound engineer friend come around with a professional sound meter. The noise is distinct at 115Hz and measurably louder (53dB) at the base of my wall rather than the top of the wall (42dB). (For interest, ambient level is around 30dB in the room). I suspect the vibration is mostly "bypassing" the middle flat.

So my assumption is that we either have a poorly balanced pump or insufficiently dampened installation and that I could be up for say half a day's work, a new pump and vibration matt/mounting worst case. Does that even sound ballpark? Again, appreciate there isn't more to go on here.

 

[king of pipes]

Better the quality of the pump the quieter they run sound proofing mats and mountings are available

 

[Timmy D]

Also need to make sure it’s connected with flexi’s and not hard piped.

I’d also get the washing machine and dish washer off of the pump and on the kitchen mains.

 

[peteba]

Thanks both, this is very useful. I will put quality pump, vibration mats/mountings and flexi connections on the checklist.

Timmy D, I agree that getting the d/w and w/m off the pump would be great but not sure there is a kitchen mains to put them on. I have been assuming that everything in that flat, including kitchen, is fed from the water tank and now goes through the pump. I had figured that it must have been easier/cheaper than plumbing the pump into just their shower. Don't know if that is a reasonable assumption?

As an aside, I did ask the owner whether he had the pump professionally installed and he was a bit cagey in his response. If this was a DIY job, are there regs that could well have been broken? Not sure I would want to get involved in that.

 

[king of pipes]

Cold stored tank water should not be used for drinking ? there should always be a mains supply to the kitchen tap

 

[Timmy D]

Also, if possible separate/run another tank connection/tee of the tank mains feed to the toilet, so it’s off the pump. No need for a pumped pressure/flow boost at 3am when flushing.

The kitchen tap is 99% certainly mains, but the washing machine may not be in the kitchen....