Low Frequency Vibration/Humming in The House

[Victoria1867]

Its probably the electricity sub station behind Bassets or the pylon, these tend to hum when the air is damp.

 

ah, right, thank you!

[hicksy3]

I thought this was an advert for a nightclub from the title. Like 'low frequency oscillation in da house y'all!'

 

 

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[rockarounds]

I have encountered a noise similar to a bottle being resonated when blowing across it -this is what you have to do to find where the source is - get up when its quiet at night on a non windy day walk from your home untill you cannot hear the noise (you may want to take an old broomhandle and hold it to any manhole covers around your area and place your ear to the end of the stick this will allow you to listen to the cavity in the manhole -keep walking from your house untill you cannot hear the noise mark at least 4 positions n.s.e.w. the source will be in the middle -probably a compressor from a heat pump good luck Colin.Engeneer.

[Catmanblue]

We had a similar thing in our office, drove us all mad trying to work out where the noise was coming from. It ended up being the temperature valve on the radiator, a quick twist every so often cures the problem

[walkertelecoms]

I've not trawled through the whole thread, but ages ago we had humming and it was an under ground water pipe leaking 3ft off behind out property.

[Taliska]

So I stumbled upon this topic by accident as I have a similar issue which I believe I know the cause of (though I live elsewhere these days, I used to live in Sheffield!).

 

As someone else said low frequency noise/vibration is difficult to localise anyway, but it's even harder when the source of that noise is large or distributed over a wide area.

 

It's the sewers.

 

More specifically, there are compact "sewer pumping stations" (google that!) that are cylindrical and can be put in the ground and don't look like much more than just a manhole cover / maintenance hatch.

 

If you think it's a neighbour but can't explain it from what's in/on their property, then you should realise IT IS YOUR NEIGHBOUR! Just not the one you can see!

 

Sewer maps are freely viewable to the public, though the water companies often make it inconvenient to view them.

 

The recipe for this nightmare is:

 

Low frequency noise/vibration travels big distances.

The sewers connect to every property so transmit that noise very well.

Water companies are installing these stations more and more and don't have to tell you about it.

 

For a reputable report on such a problem, google: "sewer pumping station ayrshire scottish public services" and read the PDF on the result that is at spso [dot] org [dot] uk.

 

(It's a PDF report authored by the Scottish public services ombudsman in to a complaint where a neighbourhood was negatively affected by a pumping station).

 

It's important not to ignore these things. They drive down property prices by making your area less desirable. They can cause intense vibrations which can structurally damage your property over time and leave you footing the bill when you're unable to locate the source.

 

Hope that helps some people. I realise this is an old topic, but I'm just trying to get the word out as the water companies need to be forced to reform their practices and that won't happen until large scale awareness has increased!

 

(Formerly lived in the Devonshire quarter!)

[Mbeira]

I had a vibrating bedroom wall, until I worked out what it was. Took months.  

 

The toilet vent pipe!  Wind shaking it. I had the bracket reattached and it stopped.  The vibration must have hit the same resonation frequency as the side wall of the house, amplifying it.