Upstairs neighbour mystery noise equipment

coffeehound

Longstanding noise conflict with upstairs neighbour in brick and concrete-floor flats. Things have bumped along for a couple of years but have recently taken a more sinister turn.

A month ago, he had a visitor and it sounded like they were moving some heavy equipment around and having a good belly laugh. That night the equipment was switched on and it vibrated the floor in my flat to the extent that I couldn't get to sleep in bed. It makes the floor buzz and makes my joints feel odd.

This has happened on and off since then with me losing sleep and struggling at work as a result. What is more serious is that my tinnitus has got noticeably worse with my ears sometimes hissing in the morning, despite wearing ear plugs.

I will of course be moving out as soon as reasonably possible. But until then, what should I do? The police would need a warrant to see inside his flat. And would they even attend such a tinfoil-hat-sounding complaint?

Any ideas as to what equipment would cause this effect? Something ultrasonic perhaps? It must be semi portable as he can be heard shifting it around when I've relocated bed.

Thanks for any advice.

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theonlywayisup

Police don't deal with noise complaints. I have no idea what could be causing the noise but feel for your situation. Your local council should have an Environmental Health Officer, you could get in touch with them for assistance.

Callie22

Could it be some kind of fan or portable air-con unit? I once lived in a flat over someone who used one of these and when it was used overnight the vibrations were awful.

Geoff1963

Is there any pattern to the noise, like hot nights ? Callie22 suggested an A/C unit.

Any idea how the neighbour sleeps with the noise ? Maybe it is something on their ceiling, like an out-of-balance fan. Maybe they aren't there at night, or on those nights.

Probably useful to record it, then go and see Environmental Health. Maybe others in your block have complained, or you could ask them.

It could be an air filtering unit for a cannabis farm ; if you could smell that, you'd have reasonable grounds for believing that a criminal offence was being committed and the police ought to take notice. Unless it is a noise-making machine, it probably uses a lot of power, and so do solar lamps. ls it only on at night, during Economy 7 hours ?

Norman_Castle

As above, contact the council. They will investigate and possibly visit to witness the noise.

coffeehound

Thanks for your replies and good suggestions. One thing I forgot to say was that the sole intention of this equipment is to hassle me and deprive me of sleep. I wasn't going to get into the specifics too much, but basically the guy is a loon. He literally never goes out (at least not when I am home) so can sleep all day while I'm at work.

I'll follow the suggestion of contacting the council.

Norman_Castle

If you believe this is intentional then its harassment. Call the police on 101 and explain the situation. They may decide to get involved.

I have sporadic problems with a noisy neighbour waking me during the night with loud phone calls and TV. White noise helps a lot. It drowns out other noise and I suspect the fact that I can control what I hear helps. It also annoys my neighbour which is fine by me. You get what you give.

AM radio tuned into static works for me.

coffeehound

Thanks, good to know there may be an offence that it comes under.

Unfortunately it's the vibration rather than noise that disrupts sleep (misleading thread title really). For the first couple of years ear plugs and/or industrial ear defenders thwarted his attempts to wake me up. But he's since worked out that vibration works.

Strider590

My neighbours used to make a lot of noise, especially music........ We used to call it Ch4v anthems 2015.

That was up until I introduced them to Rammstein on my rarely used stereo (which is beefy enough to shake the building). I was careful to take down all the glasses from the shelves in my kitchen before hand.

Geoff1963

As a practical idea, could you isolate your furniture from the floor, with stacks of small squares of rubber :
Halfords : Rolson 6 Piece Floor Mat Set - 120 x 180cm for £10 = over 200 squares 10 x 10 cm.

It wouldn't stop the floor vibrating, but the bed might stop, and the furniture wouldn't make a noise.
If there are places you regularly stand ( washing up ), a larger patch and a small paving slab on top might help.
Keep the receipts.

SomeOne_2

Could it be a subwoofer?

Either way as others have suggested above, i'd get your local council's environmental health dept involved.