Radiator knocking

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

I grew in an old home with hot water radiators, and sometimes there'd be loud annoying knocking. But we were always able to bleed out the air bubbles. After leaving home, I've lived in hot-air heated homes. Or with steam-radiators in college. Until now, where this old apartment building, with radiators I'll assume are hot water, has the loudest and most persistent knocking, and the landlord says basically "welp, it's an old building, nothing we can do". Is this normal for the area, and I should make sure to only live in differently heated places if it bothers me? Is there nothing they could do, or are they just too cheap to do it?

*googles* Apparently steam systems can knock, or "pound", too, due to water trapped in the system, lovely. I don't know which is more likely, given that at bad times I can feel the floor vibrate, and the floor up by one of the pipes seems damaged. (There's naked pipes running from floor to ceiling, so simply turning off the radiators doesn't help noise.)

Comments

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those sound like single pipe steam radiators. Unsurprisingly; they're pretty common in old houses around here.

The keys to let air out are just for hot water radiators. Ideally, liquid water should never leave your steam radiators.

This post seems like a pretty good summary of common problems and what you can do about them - not much, if it's your neighbors radiators causing it.
http://www.yrgxyz.com/yrg-blog/test-blog-post-2/