I live near a big water tower and have a pressure reducer installed on the cold water supply in my basement. I've been having some pressure problems recently: when I turn on a faucet (cold) after a few hours of not using it, the water explodes out, and settle down after a few seconds. It even got so bad that it blew the top off my second floor toilet (the flush assembly popped off due to too much pressure, and flooded my bath. I used a pressure guage and found it to be 85 psi before the reducer. I then put the guage on a 1st floor faucet (about 8 feet above the reducer) and set the reducer to allow the sink pressure there to read 40 psi. Now the pressure in my house is lower, but inconvenient. I left the guage on the first floor spout and turned the water on a few hours later. The pressure spiked to 65psi, then immediately went back down to 40psi. Anyone have any idea what's happening here to make a pressure build-up at faucet points throughout my house?? Could the reducer be bad? Email me directly if you can help (famdog@yahoo.com) .thx in advance.

i have 3 inch pvc pipe drains that bang loudly. it is worse with hot water. i live in a 3 story condo. it bangs from all sinks, toilets and showers. a plumber wants to cut pipe and install a rubber sleeve to free the ridged pipe.