noisy plumbing

[twcook141]

Recently had shower remodeled. Plumbing was in concrete slab and was very quiet. Moved shower head to other end of shower and plumber ran water lines from old location up over the top and down to new shower head. Now water is very noisy, can her water rushing thru pipes and can hear thru wall in room on other side of the shower. Plumber put insulation on horizontal run of pipes but can't get to vertical. I think plumber did something wrong. How to fix??

[DIY Guy]

The pipes were insulated by concrete, now they aren't. Noise is a by-product of the change. Not the plumber's fault. He might have thought ahead and suggested insulating, but planning ahead is the mark of tradesperson who you want to keep on your short list. Many people just get the job done, without any extra thought to ease of future repair, comfort, practicality etc.

In this case, accessing the area vertical pipes may be difficult, but one option is pumping expanding urethane foam down the chaseway to fill it up with insulating foam. One drawback to this is that it makes future work a little more difficult because the free space will be filled. But since it is inaccessible anyway, you might end up opening up the wall anyway and then the foam is easily removed.