Advice Needed, pls - house humming and vibrating 3 years now - What is it?

bryanb

Have you tried the earlier suggestion of trying to track it down using a stethoscope or something similar?

shown73

If you were to switch of your household electric supply on your fuse box, would that not at least rule that out? There should be a main switch somewhere, to isolate all your electrics. Does seem significant that the noise altered when the stopcock was changed. If you had a key for it, you could perhaps turn down the pressure gradually, to see if that made a difference. I'm assuming that it is external to the house. Ours is outside, in the pavement, and needs a really long key thingy to turn it. You've probably tried all this already, I just didn't see it mentioned ....

tomstickland

Elimination would help.
Turn the electricity off at the distribution unit.
Turn the water supply off.
See if it makes any difference.

Fred56

FHM. We had a problem with a humming noise, it came and went but was there most of the time. Drove me nuts for months but found the source when in the loft tweaking the aerial. Where the roof felt overlapped the airflow over the roof was drawing air through the gap and making the felt vibrate like a reed in an instrument. The weird thing was that when in the bedrooms it sounded like it was in the walls. At no point did I ever think it was coming from the roof. Taping the joints in the felt cured it. Take look, it'll cost nothing to check.

FamilyHistoryMad

Suzy_M wrote: »

Few off-the-top-of-my-head-suggestions based on experience -

Have you had an historic environment search done on your location? - May indicate previous underground activity.

Have you checked back through planning applications at your local council? Suggest you go back to five years before the noise started, and a five mile radius, and work forwards in time. These are often available on line. Any major developments also affects the way sound travels in a built-up area.

Check out the Highways Agency site for major roadworks completed in your area. - e.g. Since we had a major trunk road upgraded near us in certain conditions our doors and windows constantly vibrate even though we cannot hear engine noise and the road is two miles away.

Do you know anything about flight paths over your area? e.g. We have a couple of "heavies" go over us each night - We cannot hear the engines until they are directly over us but the doors and windows vibrate long before we see or hear them.

Any industrial units in your area? We suffered from a high pitched whining noise for years and couldn't trace the source. Eventually it was traced to a factory ventilation unit some two miles away, we now don't hear it because a major development has altered the way the sound travels.

As regards your underlying bedrock etc. the British Seismic Survey may be able to provide you with some background.

(Apologies for any cross-posting)

Thank you for replying.

We haven't had an historic environment search done - we were convinced that it must be something to do with having the new boiler fitted as it seem to coincide with that. When the guy fitted it he said the shower over the bath (that had dripped miserably) would seem like a power shower and he was right. The water came blasting out. It was a while before all of us could hear the noise and at the time my nan was suffering from Alzheimers and was in the last stages of the disease and obviously the noise in the house was a secondary issue to what nan was suffering. If anyone has any experience of watching a beloved one dying of Alzheimers they'll know exactly what I mean. It must be one of the most wicked diseases ever. So it went on for a good while but it was not something we could deal with at the time. Then nan, well, you know. Well after years of disturbed nights looking after first grandad and then nan we thought there would be no excuse for not getting a good nights sleep (apart from the little one getting up up to 20 times a night due to her sickness). So we didn't get it sorted out at the time. Now it has become obvious to all in the house and that the lack of sleep is not down to the stresses that we were under before.

Mom had asked the council for plans but they said they did not hold them and couldn't help us.

There are no road works near us.

We are not under the flight paths and there are no industrial units near us.

Our soil is clay but this will have to be an avenue to check once we have convinced ourselves that it is not the water or the electrics.

Kind Regards
FHM

Mollymop5

I'm afraid I have nothing useful to add as you've been given some great suggestions.i really feel for your lack of sleep and hope you get sorted soon.

FamilyHistoryMad

bryanb wrote: »

As the previous poster who had problems in Portishead said, wavelengths of sounds can make noise/vibration apparent at specific distances, yet not noticeable next door. I still think your problem is arising from something electrical, a transformer is most likely as the hum is continuous. Electrified railways have transformers at intervals of course. Does the noise ever change characteristics? pitch? volume?
I haven't noticed in any of your posts, where you live, are you prepared to tell us? It may give a clue to someone.

Thank you for replying.

We live in South Birmingham. We still need to go around the house as one of the posters suggested to try and home in on the sound. At present trying to hold down jobs (oh still working now and was till 12:30 last night), trying to spend a bit of time with the children and then trying to get them settled down for bed - never an easy one with the little one being sick all the time, then trying to get a meal and before you know it is time to start packing up for work to start all over again. Stupid excuses really as if we got the problem fixed we would have more energy to get things done!

The railway is a mile away? I suppose we are still convinced that it is something that we have done in the house that has caused this.

Kind Regards
FHM

FamilyHistoryMad

tomstickland wrote: »

Elimination would help.
Turn the electricity off at the distribution unit.
Turn the water supply off.
See if it makes any difference.

Thank you for replying

We have turned off both the water and the electricity and it doesn't make any difference to the sound/vibration. We have turned the water off in the house and at the stopcock in the street. We have had a power cut in the area and could still hear the sound.

Kind Regards
FHM

ps was trying to reply to everyone in order but this was quick one to answer.

FamilyHistoryMad

shown73 wrote: »

If you were to switch of your household electric supply on your fuse box, would that not at least rule that out? There should be a main switch somewhere, to isolate all your electrics. Does seem significant that the noise altered when the stopcock was changed. If you had a key for it, you could perhaps turn down the pressure gradually, to see if that made a difference. I'm assuming that it is external to the house. Ours is outside, in the pavement, and needs a really long key thingy to turn it. You've probably tried all this already, I just didn't see it mentioned ....

Thank you for replying.

We have turned the electricity off and we have had the electricity board in and they changed the meter and fuse.

We have turned the water off and worked with the water guys who turned the stopcock off the in the street but we could still hear it. The guys were stumped at what it could be.

Kind Regards
FHM

oilit

FamilyHistoryMad wrote: »

Thank you for replying.

We have turned the electricity off and we have had the electricity board in and they changed the meter and fuse.

We have turned the water off and worked with the water guys who turned the stopcock off the in the street but we could still hear it. The guys were stumped at what it could be.

Kind Regards
FHM

Im betting when you had the boiler installed and the shower became much more pressurised it was because you now have a power shower - or a pressurised system. If so, I bet there are pumps somehwere in the system that are running all the time (not sure if they should be or not) if they have not been installed correctly you will get vibration through the pipes, and or the floor/wall .