From Eveningsnews.com
If You’re Looking for a Quieter Home, Start with the Right Plumbing
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Sep 16, 2005, 00:42
(ARA) - With the cost of building the average home higher than ever, buyers are demanding higher quality in both the materials used during construction, as well as the workmanship. Although quality is subjective, there are some tangible ways to help consumers compare homes. One measurement that is receiving more focus these days is the noise level within the home.
Things like squeaky floors or doors, rattling windows or a dripping faucet typically reflect low quality materials or poor workmanship -- neither of which is well tolerated by today’s more educated buyer. In response to consumers’ lower tolerance levels for noise inside the house, manufacturers have invested heavily in technologies and materials that soften the noise of their products. That’s why today’s dishwashers, washing machines and even refrigerators run quieter than the early models. In addition, builders are finding buyers more receptive to paying extra for added insulation or other soundproofing materials designed to provide a sense of seclusion within the home.
As you evaluate your next home and determine if it’s quiet enough for your tastes, you might want to start by looking in some unlikely places, such as the bathroom and basement. That’s because much of your home’s plumbing pipe runs behind bathroom walls and along basement ceilings.
“If you don’t think household plumbing pipe is a major source of noise, you may want to think back to the last time someone in your household used the bathroom late at night to shower or flush the toilet while you were trying to sleep,” says Garry Gage, a 30-year plumbing veteran and a field consultant for FlowGuard Gold CPVC Pipe and Fittings. “Water flow noise can be very noticeable depending on the type of pipe you have, but not quite as annoying as water hammer (the banging sound you hear through the pipes when a faucet is turned off quickly or the water pressure changes for some reason).”
Gage points out that years ago people didn’t have many options for minimizing plumbing pipe noise unless they wanted to pay for added insulation around all of their pipes. Today, however, there are alternative pipe materials that offer a significantly quieter operation than traditional copper plumbing. CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) is one such material that is growing in popularity, not only because it’s quieter but also because it offers a long list of other competitive advantages, such as higher energy efficiency and less condensation. More important from a service life standpoint is that CPVC pipe will never corrode, pit or scale. So no pinhole leaks to cause costly damage, no copper leaching into the family’s drinking water supply, and no problems with decreased water flow over the years.
NSF International, a third-party testing lab, recently ran a test that confirmed a FlowGuard Gold CPVC plumbing system is, in fact, four times quieter than copper pipe. The test specifically documented the dBA (human ear response) level for the FlowGuard Gold pipe at 35.9 versus 55.4 for standard copper pipe. To put the 19.5 dBA sound level difference between the two pipes in perspective, consider that the human whisper at 25 dBA approximates the noise level of water running through a FlowGuard Gold pipe, versus a washing machine at 65 dBA, which is close to the level of noise of water flowing through a copper pipe.
Other common noise levels register as follows:
Rustle of leaves -- less than 20 decibels
Normal human conversation -- between 60 and 70 decibels
Busy street traffic -- between 70 and 80 decibels
Jack hammer -- approximately 100 decibels
Rocket ship -- between 110 and 120 decibels
There is no mystery as to why the FlowGuard Gold CPVC system is so much quieter: CPVC is a natural “insulator” and copper is a natural “conductor.” Also, CPVC is considerably more flexible than copper, which means that it can more readily absorb noise compared to copper which is more rigid and more likely to transmit the sound.
So the next time you’re in the market for a new home, and you could really use a little more peace and quiet (as well as a little less corrosion, scaling, condensation and energy loss), you might want to put science to work for you and opt for the quieter plumbing alternative -- CPVC.
For more information about the benefits of CPVC plumbing pipe, visit www.flowguardgold.com. Courtesy of ARA Content
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