vibrating

Susangill

Can anyone help we have a loud noise in our house like a humming or a machine running all the time it is driving us mad we have lived here years and this has just started in the last 6 months any help would be appreciated. We live in a semi-detached it seems to be in the walls our neighbours got an alarm could this be causing it thanks again in advance.

Dades

Moved to Accommodation & Property. I don't think your issue necessitates a new forum, and someone here might have a suggestion for you.

Tokyo

Susangill wrote: »

Can anyone help we have a loud noise in our house like a humming or a machine running all the time it is driving us mad we have lived here years and this has just started in the last 6 months any help would be appreciated. We live in a semi-detached it seems to be in the walls our neighbours got an alarm could this be causing it thanks again in advance.

Alarm shouldn't have any moving parts - certainly nothing that would cause it to vibrate.

Have you tried to isolate the location of the sound in any way? Upstairs, downstairs, front or back of house? Can you hear it when you are out in your front or back garden, etc? Is it present 24/7, or does it only come on at certain hours of the day/night?

Right now it could be anything - my guess would be a water pump or similar, but it's hard to say without more info.

Uno my Uno.

Almost certainly a new water pump in your neighbours house. Storage heaters can also cause a strange buzzing/humming when storing power. Asking your neighbours would be the first thing to do.

Sun in Capri

The washing machine in your neighbours house?

annoyedgal

This happened a friend of mine. Turned out the neighbour was running a dehumidifier beside a wall. nearly drive her mad! Was sorted once she spoke to neighbour about the noise. They just moved it away from the wall.

dundrum23

Hi folks,

I am hearing a hum in my semi-d house since 24th June. Never heard it before and don't hear it in other places I've stayed for weekends since then...so it's not my ears. Turned off all elect in house on first night, all circuit breakers on fuseboard, hum continued. Repeated that many times since. Have asked lots of neighbours and only next door (not attached) hears it.

People in attached house to mine say they don't hear it. They do have a fish tank up against the parti- wall though. Perhaps that's causing it? However, if so, how would lady in unattached next house hear it too?

It's very annoying. I can sleep through it now as it's lighter but it was so strong for month of July that you could feel it standing on upstairs landing and in bed, not only hear it and so, it was very hard to sleep.

I was grasping at straws - phoned DLRcoco cos it started at same time as Marlay park was getting in gear for summer concerts. My house is about 500m away as the crow flies. They were putting temporary mobile phone towers up and had generators running everywhere in the park. Thought it might be those. The low frequency sound vibrations from those can travel miles. They denied it could be the generators. When Longitude finished (last concerts), the hum got a lot lighter. But it's still there, on and off, all the time.

Had ESB over in early August. Mini-pillar outside neighbours house. They checked - no problem. High tension wire connecting our houses to support virgin media cable along front of house...not that either.

Overall from what I've read and spoken with others about, i'm getting that it's VLF - very low frequency - from a transformer, but more likely from a pump in a neighbours house...water, heating or fish tank pump etc.

What can I do to find out whose house it's coming from and from what item?
I've already called into lots of neighbours beside, opposite and behind and all say they have no freezer or electrics in garden block shed or anything, no pumps.

Any ideas anyone?
I saw a post a month ago and can't find it now...a mechanical engineer was offering to call over to the afflicted persons house to try to figure it out. I need someone to help me like this. Or that engineer. Pls pm me. Thanks

Cuddlesworth

Fish tanks have pumps to circulate the water. If the tank is right up against the partition wall, then it would be very likely to be the cause of the noise. If your neighbour is elderly, they would be unlikely to hear it.

riclad

i Had a problem ,the main water pipe going into the attic was vibrating against the wooden frame ,
near ,above the hot press .
about 3 ft from the attic roof .
it sounded like a small pump or a toy machine go.
i fixed it by placing a towel between the pipe and the wooden frame,
which stops the pipe from moving.
my neighbour next door, could hear it during certain times ,
i think it stopped when the tank was full .

the esb was off ,there was no pump, it was just water going into the tank.
it sounded like an electric pump, or a toy gun .sort of metallic
ratt tatt tatt sound.


if water goes thru a metal pipe at speed it can make the pipe vibrate ,
like of resonate frequency theory.
if the pipe hits the frame beside it it sounds even worse .
there could be a pipe in a wall space or attic that s causing the noise .
you,d have to go into your attic or even the nieghbours house to find it.
where the source of the noise is.
or it could be a pipe inside one of the walls in your own house.
i have no water pump of any kind in my gaff.
i think plastic pipes are silent ,
my pipe is metal .

the_pen_turner

it could be the water pressure causing a noise. . too much pressure against valves and ball cocks.
I fitted a pressure restricting valve on a mains pipe in a house that had a noise problem. it was on a toilet cistern . when the cistern was filling there was an awful vibrating noise.
when the pressure was reduced the noise disappeared.


OP when you hear the noise turn off the mains water at the stop cock or water meter and open the kitchen tap to release the pressure. this should tell you if it is too much pressure in your house. you might be able to get your neighbour to do the same

dundrum23

Cuddlesworth, thank you. Another poster on a different page has said that fish tank pumps tend to create constant strong noise as they pump constantly.

Good food for thought guys.
Oh m gosh...there's too many possibilities...I try to look on the bright side and think i'm learning about houses through this.
It's a low drone or hum noise, on-off, not so much rat tat metallic noise.

My neighbours are not helpful - attached ones - however i'll try with them...and get a plumber over too.

It just occurred to me that the attached neighbours seem to leave their water pump switched on all the time.
I got one installed a few years ago when I renovated the house. I only switch it on for showers.
If theirs is switched on all the time, and there's any kind of leak, it could possibly be activating the pump in the smallest way.

This source would give me more hope than the air-conditioning units at Lidl.

dundrum23

Hi pen-turner, thank you for your feedback...
I have a tap fitted under kitchen sink to turn off mains water.
Do I turn that off and open tap?
OK I just did and nothing remarkable happened. The cold water stopped coming and the warm water dribbled out.

the_pen_turner

dundrum23 wrote: »

Hi pen-turner, thank you for your feedback...
I have a tap fitted under kitchen sink to turn off mains water.
Do I turn that off and open tap?
OK I just did and nothing remarkable happened. The cold water stopped coming and the warm water dribbled out.

yes. open the tap to release pressure in the cold tap.

did you do this when you could hear the noise

dundrum23

Yes I did it again.
Cold water just dribbled out. Nothing special happened. What should happen?
I don't have pump on except when having showers.
Have all new plastic pipes under sink.
Kept older metal pipes in rest of house.

dundrum23

The humming/droning is still going on.
Are you a plumber? Would you be interested in investigating this for me pen-turner?
I'm signing out now. Goodnight.

riclad

Old houses have metal pipes which may vibrate if, water goes thru pipe
at a certain speed , pipe is not held tight against wall.
my pipe goes into water tank, when tank is full,
it stopped vibrating ,
this happened like 3 years ago.
my neighbour could hear it,
It sounded like an electric motor or a pump,
or a toy gun.
maybe record sound and upload it to youtube .and post a link,
pipe sound problem .
Use a smartphone app to record it ,close to where the sound is loudest .
IF sound is near roof ,attic it might be main pipe that goes to the water tank

the_pen_turner

im not a plumber but have worked with a few and learned a bit on sites