Steam heat makes my floor boards creak and bang excessively. Living in older New York City buildings I have gotten used to most of the sounds that come from the steam heat — the clinking, the hissing, etc…
But this new sound is much more like a very loud bang/thump and it happens to be in my bedroom (very disruptive to my sleep). After walking around the area for a bit, I can tell that it's coming from my floor boards being jostled around from the heat and if I step on them firmly enough the banging will stop for a little while. As you can see from the picture, the floor boards are not loose. Is there anything I can do?? The heat is coming out of the large white pipe, not the radiator. The radiator is completely off.
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find a fire-proof stuffing to jam in around the pipe so it cant wiggle and bang?
or a sock. that would probably be my first choice. but rubber or something is probably the safer bet.
I second a piece of rubber or something to help fill up space around pipe so it can't bang.
Maybe it's from trapped air. Look into 'bleeding' your radiators with a radiator key when the heat is not on (not today!) and catch the gray water in a bucket and then proceed to the next radiator.
Depends what is making the noise...
IF it's your floorboards, while they may not appear to be loose (attached to each other snugly)they may not be nailed/screwed down into the subfloor very well and the heat/cold is causing the old expand and contract banging... (the foot-pressure application seems to indicate this).
If you are on the main floor and have access to the floor from the basement (i.e. between the joists), you or your super can secure down your floor boards from the back.
If you don't have access, you can get your Super super to screw down the offending floor boards by countersinking a pre-drilled pilot hole and driving the screw in. They can then use either woodfiller or a flexible filler (this being easier to remove should the need arise in the future) to hide the screwhead.
(the super would know to look out for pipes or electrical or gas lines, too).
Banging, however, is usually is a metal-based noise. Sometimes ducts or pipes that are too snugly fit into a space will make a banging noise when expanding and adjusting into the space with the heat. Contact your super to investigate.
( I'd suggest you keep everything in writing with dates to ensure that the building is accountable for fixing what needs fixing.)
Re bleeding the radiators -- if the heat is actually steam heat (not hot water), you cannot bleed the radiators. I have steam heat in my house, and it is extremely noisy. Lots of banging and hissing.
Susmita -- you ABSOLUTELY can bleed radiators with steam heat, and that will eliminate virtually all the noise. Condensed water (from the steam) sits inthe bottom of radiators and reacts with the fresh steam as it rises and fills the radiators. You need to get a professional plumber in to do it and show you how to maintain it in the future.
Hot water systems have the opposite problem -- air trapped in the pipes. Believe me, I know -- grew up with hot water baseboard heating. Terrible until we had something installed that took care of it.
I have a steam radiator system and when it bangs, it's caused by too much water in the system. I go to the basement and drain water from the furnace and it stops. If you're in an apt. you should check with the super/landlord about it. The system also burns way more oil when it's over filled, so whoever is paying for the heat has a vested interest in maintaining the system correctly.
If it's a hot water (rather than steam) system, I have no idea what's causing it.
Either way, wrapping the pipe will simply lessen the amount of heat that you get in your apt. (probably not a desired effect).
If it sounds like someone is banging on your metal pipes, the problem is called water hammer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_hammer. A steam system should NOT bang, or be really noisy at all. Water hammer can actually be very destructive to the pipes.
I bought in a row home that has steam heat but didn't grow up with steam, so I knew NOTHING about how it worked. Bought a book called "We Got Steam Heat" (http://www.heatinghelp.com/products/Books/5/61/We-Got-Steam-Heat-A-Homeowners-Guide-to-Peaceful-Coexistence) and now I feel like I finally understand how the system is supposed to work. Between the book and google, I've been able to correct most of the problems.
bleed 'em, and bleed 'em quick... don't fool with any of the wacky suggestions above - they'll just prolong the situation and cause more damage.
I can sympathize - I used to live in a building with a system with no individual control and the clanging was incessant and deafening at times. Plus the pipes running up the corners were hideous. We just got used to it.