HELP clanking pipes

[whoopstheregoesmymerkin]

the noise is LOUD and it's driving me barmy. It's like a hundred tone deaf bells clanking in the walls and floor. It only happens when there is no heating/water on - so usually in the middle of the night

anyone any experience of this, do you think it's a central heating thing or a plumbing/water thing?

I have tried expelling the water out of the taps in case it was air, but on reflection I think it's more likely to something to do with pipes expanding contracting, getting cold. What do you think? What do you recommend?

Not sure what you mean by:

"expelling the water out of the taps in case it was air"

Have you drained the air out of the radiators by loosening the little square nut at the end of each radiator until water starts to drip out? You may need a radiator key to do that altouh some can be done with a screwdriver.

If you turn a tap off quickly does it do it then?

sorry, I switched the water off and drained all the taps starting with the lowest level.
The radiator key sheared off when I tried to bleed them yesterday! They get hot all over so I am guessing they are ok. Will do it again though...

Navy - nope doesn't do it when you do the tap, it's only when everything is off and not calling for heat/water ie midnight and 2 in morning and nothing is scheduled to come on until 6am
It doesn't sound like that tap kick back I think you mean. more like someone bashing over the pipes with a wrench

could you need more lagging on the pipes? It's probably that or air in the system. Do you have a combi boiler?

it's one that does heating and water (heats up water in tank)
It's a new noise so thinking it might not be lagging

do I need a professional to get the air out?

This definitley sounds like air in radiators.

Start by turning all the radiators full on and the boiler on and the water pumping round. Start with the lowest radiator and work your way upstairs.

If the banging does not stop then consider getting a heating engineer.

thank you ABetaDad! I shall see if I have another key, if not hardware shop tomorrow.

a knife normally works or a screwdriver. Good luck!

just done it, lots of air came out of an upstairs one (which I wasn't expecting as it was hot). Fingers crossed
thank you for your help you two, much appreciated

Great stuff!

You may need to do it again in a few days as sometimes air bubbles circulate around - but fingers crossed.

Does it start really suddenly and violently -can you hear it all over the house?

Ours did this and it was the system overheating and "kettling". In our case it was because the heating system had been designed with the towel rails being the heat overflow and we had turned them off.

It took a couple of plumbers to work this out though...