Stop Pipes from Banging

Q: There’s a lot of loud banging in our plumbing. Any advice on how to stop this?

A: You’re probably talking about “water hammer.” Water hammer is the noisy banging caused by water pounding against a valve whenever you shut off the faucet. You should probably invest in a commercial water hammer arrester, which is a small pipe-like device installed at the source tap that absorbs the increase in pressure caused by turning off the water. It helps keeps the pipes in the walls quiet.