Noisy neighbour's plumbing sounds

spiritus

This is starting to drive us crazy !

We live in a terraced house and our bathroom and our neighbours share adjoining walls.

In the last year whenever they flush their toilet their pipework starts making a horrendous humming noise-it sounds like someone's blowing a goddam trumpet for thirty seconds at a time !!

They have three people in the household and so this happens on a regular basis. It's that loud you can hear it in every room in our house and it's no fun being woken up by the noise several times in the middle of the night.

We don't have any relationship with them as when I asked if they could fix a leaking pipe that was dripping onto our property they ended up throwing eggs at our front door and back door in the early hours of the morning.

Do I have grounds to make a noise complaint to the Council ?

Timalay

I very much doubt you could make a noise complaint to the council. It sounds like some air stuck in the pipes (had a toilet at the school I clean at that made the same noise, and plumber found it was that problem). Could be an easy fix if the air can be found easily.

fluffnutter

If they run the cold tap at the same time as they flush the loo (and leave it running for a few minutes), it might help. Sounds like they've got air trapped in their system.

But your main problem is the lack of a relationship with them. All this would be easy to sort out if you could have a friendly word about it. You can't complain to the council without first trying to resolve it yourself. Stick a note through the door and see if that helps. If not, then start recording how often the noise happens, how long it goes on for, how loud it is, how it makes you feel etc. and contact environmental health.

ju1i3_2

I've had various problems with various neighbours and I can tell you the best way to resolve things is speaking to them directly - as painful as that might be. It's the last thing I wanted to do but when I forced myself to talk to them it helped. Also notes and third parties annoy and escalate things. I'd go speak to them again and ask them to come in and hear the sounds themselves - be friendly, offer tea? even if the last thing you want to do is invite them into your home.

spiritus

Timalay wrote: »

I very much doubt you could make a noise complaint to the council. It sounds like some air stuck in the pipes (had a toilet at the school I clean at that made the same noise, and plumber found it was that problem). Could be an easy fix if the air can be found easily.

I'm not so sure about that-noise is noise.

I will keep you posted to the outcome.

rumblefish

It's an awkward situation made worse by the fact that you already have a bad relationship with these people who don't sound particularly pleasant. I'm not convinced that 'noisy plumbing' will come under the environmental health department's purview but I suppose you have nothing to close by asking.