To want to know what this bloody noise is?

[TammySwansonTwo]

Help me MN. I'm going a bit bonkers.

Bought our house in July. Shortly afterwards my husband asked me if I'd heard "that weird noise". I hadn't and thought he was messing around.

Then one night I was up in the middle of the night feeding the babies and went to the loo - I heard what sounded like a neighbour drilling through a wall. Told my DH and he said "no, that's the weird noise - doesn't seem to be coming from the neighbour's".

I've heard it on and off, day and night, since then. Seems to last about a minute and then abruptly stops. Just heard it again and now it's really starting to annoy me. I only ever hear it in the bathroom which is upstairs at the back of the house, and joined to one neighbour's house. It doesn't seem to be coming through the wall though, it's too loud for that.

I'm worried it's something weird in our house or garden but I can't figure it out (if it were coming from our house it would have to be from under the bathroom floor or outside.

I haven't started keeping track of times I hear it yet, but will probably do that now.

What could it be? Anyone heard anything similar and figured out what it is? It's so weird!

I had this too for months, terrified me, until I realised it was pigeons living in our chimney and/or roof... 😬

A long shot, OP, but do you have any toys in your bathroom?

Only a few months ago we kept hearing a strange clicking sound that sounded a bit like our heating coming on and it seemed to be coming from the wall adjoining the living room/kitchen that had the boiler the other side. Took us several weeks to work out that the clicking noise in fact belonged to DS2's toy teapot (the kind that plays music and makes the sound of pouring tea when you tilt it) that was hidden in a box and the batteries were running out.

Just been investigating their outside wall - no fan but there is an exhaust, so I'm guessing they maybe have their boiler in the bathroom? Not sure if that could be what's making such a crazy noise (if so, they should probably get that checked out!). Definitely no toys in there - we do have a toy laptop thing downstairs where the batteries are running out, which randomly sings songs at us while sounding demonically possessed. This really does sound as loud as someone using a power tool in the next house though!

i reckon its boiler related

I think so too now - but whose boiler turns on at 3am or other random middle of the night times? Also, last night I heard it twice between 10pm and 10:30pm. So odd.

It'll maybe be a combi boiler so 'kicks in' when the hot tap is used, that would explain the randomness.

I think that's probably it - although I don't hear them in the bathroom if I'm in there in the middle of the night when it goes off. Probably is that though. They should probably get a new one, sounds like it might blow up!

Some boilers have a preheat setting where they click on and off for a short period of time. This seems to be random and is a similar noise to that which you are describing.

Could it be a dehumidifier clicking on and off? Ours used to turn on automatically when it reached a certain level of humidity and would sound like a rickety old generator until you gave it a bump! It was so loud and it sounded like drilling from other rooms

Could be.

Funnily enough just heard it. The reason it sounds like drilling is that the pitch goes up and down. Lasted almost exactly on minute then cuts out. Definitely seems to be coming from their house, not ours. It's bloody loud. It's a vibrating sort of noise.

I don't mind the noise being there, it's just a bit weird!

(Definitely not a vibrator BTW unless she's taking an industrial belt sander to her bits multiple times a day and night)

I had something like this years ago from a neighbour. Turned out the washer had gone in her taps so every time she turned it on this loud noise came out. Took nearly a year to work out what it was!!