With my neighbours strange problem!?

[killerjane]

So I've lived in my semi detached house for just under 2 years; friends with the houses across the road and to my right, but my actual direct neighbours (an older-ish couple) have always avoided eye contact and ignored my 'hellos'

We don't really hear much from them, apart from their little dogs incessantly barking and very occasionally they BLAST their music (though more through poor hearing than trying to be anti-social I think?!).

Anyway, to my surprise, before the weekend, the lady came round and said that for the past few months there's been a deafening vibrating/machinery sound coming from my house that 'shakes the wall' and causes their dogs to fuss. I was shocked and completely clueless as to what could be the issue as I work from home in a little room at the opposite side of the house and the most noise is our tele on an evening.

Our adjoining wall on my side is a long living room/dining room and upstairs master and spare bedroom. The only electrical items plugged in at all are the TV (and currently Christmas tree), neither of which emit any noise whatsoever. There's no plumbing, radiators or anything else that's powered plugged in on that side.

She said sometimes it was so loud they had to turn the tele up and she'd heard it after 1am the night prior. I explained there's nothing electrical along that side of the house and that the only thing plugged in was the tele. I also told her at 1am, we'd have been in bed for hours ha! I said she'd just have to let me know next time she heard it and I'd investigate with her.

I panicked it might be our wood burner or attached fan however it couldn't be at that time and we hadn't even had a fire on the occasions she'd mentioned.

I ended up having a slight run in with them today, on a blasting music occasion as I was working from home and couldn't hear myself think. She brought it up again and said her son had visited the previous evening (who cares about lock down eh!) and had mentioned it too. I asked why she hadn't come and said something as I couldn't help her if I didn't understand. She said she would this weekend...

What the heck could it be?! And is it my responsibility to sort it out?! Neither me or my partner have noticed any noise of that sort (she likened it to an engine speeding up, or a sewing machine) and I'd consider us good neighbours as we're considerate and quiet, but she's convinced it's our problem!?

Gaaah!

One time I swear a helicopter was landing on my house. Floor vibrating and the loudest noise ever! I ran around the house and upstairs but it stopped before I got to it. So I didn’t know what it was. Text my neighbour with an adjoining wall and she hadn’t heard anything. Which I was surprised at because it was so loud. Anyway, it happened again and it turned out to be an upstairs radiator with air in. If it was turned off it stopped but on any more than 3 it would occasionally make this noise. It was so loud and made the house shake.

As I was reading through the thread I was coming to the conclusion that it is either the train line or dementia. If it is dementia it is possible her DS was just humouring her when he said he could hear it.

@TableFlowerss think that joke went whooshing over your head

I meant to add that when my friends DF had dementia he used to go round to his neighbours house berating them for letting mice loose in the walls between there houses as he could hear them scrabbling around. There were no mice and there was no noise.

[quote JustLikeStitch]@TableFlowerss think that joke went whooshing over your head [/quote]
Thing is, I’m not entirely sure it was a joke I would hope so and that it did indeed fly over my heed.

You get that much rubbish and nonsense on here that I struggle to tell the difference 😂

What area do you live in?

We had an almost imperceptible, low rumbling noise that occurred early in the morning and it turned out to be drilling foundations for a wind farm in the English Channel.

Or perhaps you could try this from Fawlty Towers?

Basil: Madam, ….. don’t think me rude, but may I ask …. do you by chance have a hearing aid?
Mrs Richards: A what?
Basil: A hearing aid!!!
Mrs Richards: Yes, I do have a hearing aid.
Basil: Would you like me to get it mended?

Very likely hearing aids.

Or a ghost.

No idea on the noise, but I bet it’s something one of the PP has said with the railway or their own heating/plumbing. Just wanted to say be careful about trying to placate them, we started doing this with our neighbours after a request to keep our birds quiet as it was “waking them up” until we realised that actually it was the wild birds outside that were making the noises that woke them up and well..I have no control over those ones and the requests got more and more ridiculous, (not allowed to cook onions, do any diy even painting at any point without giving them 24 hours notice, the children were to be silent etc )

Another possibility is that she's suffering from tinnitus. DH's grandma suffered very badly and could 'hear' all sorts of loud noises that just weren't there. She accused her neighbour of playing very loud rock music all day and night for example. Her neighbour was a lovely elderly lady who certainly wasn't playing loud music. Fortunately the neighbour was very patient and understanding about it but it never did get resolved

As previous posters have said, you need her to tell you when she hears it so that you can also go round and have a listen.

I used to hear exactly that 'sewing machine' noise coming from our next-door neighbour's house quite late at night. They moved out a few years ago and I never got to the bottom of it. I don't hear it now, so I don't think it was something fixed like a boiler. It could have been a sewing machine, I suppose - it was that sort of rising and falling increased engine noise you get when you press and release the pedal. I also wondered if it was an electric toothbrush, but that didn't seem quite right. Waiting eagerly to see if you find the answer!

If it's happening in the middle of the night could one of you being snoring? My mum's snoring sounds like a train is coming through the house.

Could it be a police or medical helicopter. They fly over our house sometimes and the whole place shakes. Can you look up the train timetable and see if they run during the night.

Could it be a car engine idling near their house. We used to get one wall only really responding to that in our old place, used to vibrate like hell and the radiator used to shake rattle and hum. Car did not even need to be idling near that wall, general vicinity would do.

She could just be imagining/hearing things or be a vindictive drama lover.
We had a neighbour who claimed to hear drilling and hammering at random times, even in the early hours when we were asleep, and that it was coming from us. He went so far as to report us to the local council's noise/anti social behaviour/whatever it's called department who showed up and found the allegations baseless. Not only was it not us, there never was any DIY noise or any other loud noises when he claimed to hear them. He was about 24 by the look of him at the time with no hearing aids or anything. Never did work that one out.

I am getting a worrying "rainy puddles" situation type vibe here. I hope not, for your sake. Be careful how you deal with her, you don't want an adversarial situation to develop.

I had this happen with a previous downstairs neighbour. He complained that I was running a tumble drier late at night every night. I wasn’t. He was a funny bugger so I kept a log of the couple of times a week I was using it. A couple of months later I got a visit from the council. He’d made a noise complaint about me, not backed up by any evidence surprise surprise. I showed them the log I’d made, and I also showed them another log I’d made when the downstairs neighbour was hammering on their ceiling, my floor, which happened late at night and early in the morning while we were in bed. The council went back and gave him a bollocking for banging, and told him that they were closing the case because there was no evidence and my story was different to his. He was a right twat that neighbour, I was glad to move away.

I suggest you just sit tight and let them get on with it. There’s nothing you can do if they don’t cooperate. Chances are they have tinnitus or somet, or they’re just causing trouble.

OP please have a word with their son - look out for him.

This exact thing happened to me with my previously lovely neighbour and she had a massive stroke a few weeks later.

it's one thing if it's dementia or hearing aid feedback but what if it's something treatable?

I came on to say air in the radiators as that would happen as temp drops so around 1am for example when heating might kick in.

I would say look its not coming from here and you are happy for them to set up sound recording and if its anything on your property and they can evidence what it is then you are happy to do something about it. However they also have to investigate things from their side etc

We get all sorts where we are - low flying aircraft, helicopters, chinooks, trains and heavy good trains in particular that are so heavy and slow you don't hear only feel them but they for e.g. shake mirrors etc also there is the possibility that it could be rail ground works - are you near for e,g, HS2 work

@waltzingparrot

Anything on thy roof that could be vibrating and sending shock waves down the wall? Solar panels, wind generator, weather vane

Nothing on the roof I'm afraid!

@Star81

Next time the son pops over could you have a 2 min chat and see if he’s got any ideas on what sort of noise it was ? If she’s not overly willing to tell you when it’s happening maybe he could help ?

I definitely will!

I vote water hammer in their pipes. Mind you ours was so bad the other day that the whole bloody block would have heard it. It sorted itself out eventually but difficult to sort while children are in teh shower without freezing them or scalding them.

My dear old mum once called me round to investigate a similar weird noise. It was awful, and seemed to be coming from the attic. I hunted and hunted for the source and eventually discovered that it was a large and scarily realistic dildo that had mysteriously powered on and was vibrating loudly in the drawer underneath her bed! The noise it made in there was incredible! I don't know when I've been more embarrassed. Maybe your neighbour has a similar secret lover stashed away?

I worked in an old age psychiatry service for many years. We had some patients who were convinced that there were either noises or voices coming from their next door neighbours house. They could get very annoyed at anyone who suggested that these were auditory hallucinations rather than real noise and so spouses often found it easier to go along with the idea. They would get very upset and sometimes paranoid about it. Usually they had hearing difficulties, and some had cerebrovascular disease or early dementia. It was a difficult condition to treat.
I wonder how elderly your neighbours are.
It’s still worth checking things out but it may not be your problem

@Oldandcobwebby I just spat out my tea

@Ohdeariedear

My mum found the world quite overwhelming for a while when she got her hearing aids, so much background noise she’d not been hearing for years....

This.

After a head injury I had weird things going on with the usual tinnitus and deafness. I have both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss - the skull fracture 'rearrangement' reduced some of the conductive losses so I started to hear things I hadn't heard for decades.

It was difficult to cross a road because cars sounded close when they were a good 30 metres away. I was ducking to avoid low-flying airplanes.

I've lost that over-sensitivity but life was very weird for a while.

The fact she hasn't let you in to hear the noise raises a little question mark, is it real or in her head.

Have you spoken directly to her husband and does he confirm her complaint? That would be my first check. Just to be sure the lady hasn't got some form of dementia and is expressing dome delusional obsession.

other wise, Central heating pipes can produce a distant juddering noise that might be reverberating through a wall or joists perhaps?

Bad case of tinnitus? (not joking)

I live about 500yds from a railway line. I've been stood in the garden at 1am previously trying to figure out where that infernal hum/vibration is coming from. After a while it struck me, they're working on the lines. It stopped for weeks but every now and then it'll occur again.
My moneys on that. 👍