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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

With my neighbours strange problem!?

138 replies

killerjane · 17/12/2020 12:30

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!

OP posts:

baublesbaubleseverywhere · 17/12/2020 15:45

I also think it's something to do with the railway line. Can't wait to find out what it actually is!

TinySongstress · 17/12/2020 15:47

Ooh....tell her it's Fracking.

dannydyerismydad · 17/12/2020 15:52

Maybe it's her DH.

I went all over the house looking forward the source of a noise the other day. Turned out it was DH snoring. He sounded much more machine than man.

Winter2020 · 17/12/2020 16:04

I agree that it’s likely to be dementia or mental health. She may be hearing the trains but thinking the sound is from your house or hearing sound when there is none.

Just because she says her husband and son can hear it it doesn’t mean that they can.

dentydown · 17/12/2020 16:13

Plumbing? Our toilet vibrates upstairs into the upstairs neighbours loft. We don’t flush it at night and early morning or we quickly fill up the cistern with a jug if it’s an emergency. We get it fixed but it starts vibrating again after a week.

Bargebill19 · 17/12/2020 16:28

Not read everything but you mentioned a railway. The railways clean the lines and repack the rails with gravel at night. - the noise is as she described. But I would have though you would hear it too.
Point is, might not be you but could be the railways!

GrinchnotHinch · 17/12/2020 16:36

I’d bet anything it’s in their house, but because it’s on an adjoining wall she’s just assumed.

One of my radiators makes noise like that because it needs bled/has air in, it’ll be something like this

RolandSchitt · 17/12/2020 17:03

@Oldandcobwebby

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?

This happened to me too! In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of a small jet engine in my bedroom. After my heart slowed down and my wits returned, I wondered if I had a haunted vibrator. Very odd, because it was the type you had to twist to turn on. 👻

NiceandCalm · 17/12/2020 17:07

@killerjane - I went into our bathroom once and heard this really weird humming/vibrating noise, I immediately backed out and called DH in a panic, thinking the electrics were going to blow. He walked in and switched off the electric toothbrush that had fallen into bath and turned itself on. Oh, how we laughed!

OverByYer · 17/12/2020 17:11

Lol I dare you to ask her if she has checked her vibrator?

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 17/12/2020 18:13

If she has problems with her hearing, it may be tinnitus. I have a friend who was convinced her neighbours were blaring music through her walls. She only realised it wasn't that when someone else was round at her flat and couldn't hear the racket...

Feyei · 17/12/2020 22:50

You'd previously invited her to come round the next time she heard it, her son was visiting and mentioned it to her - perfect opportunity for them both to pop over and see if you could figure it out between you. Yet they didn't, and when asked she didn't have a reason for not visiting.

This makes me lean towards dementia or a neurological problem. It's not unusual for someone who's confabulating (inventing things that they believe are true) to claim that another person backs up their story. The son may not even have visited.

If you can catch the son and have a word I would do - if his mum is imagining the noise he needs to know. If it's real then he will know that you're confused about the source and trying to help. I'd open along the lines of "Hey, this noise is a puzzle, isn't it? What did it sound like the other night? Could it be from the trains?"

If he replies "it's terrible, I felt as though the walls were shaking" then at least you have confirmation that it is real.

ShimmeringIce · 17/12/2020 23:16

You don’t have a fish tank do you? I’m sure you’d have mentioned it by now, but this sounds exactly like the time our neighbours hadn’t quite put the lid on theirs right... they couldn’t hear a thing but it was maddening in our house!

VenusTiger · 18/12/2020 00:46

@killerjane is she reporting that it's happening at the same time of day/night? If so, I'm going with trains or snoring.
Until you're able to speak to the son (nothing stopping you from speaking to the husband), could you chat to a few neighbours in a concerning way, ask if she's ever talked about noises before with the previous occupiers?

MaliceOrgan · 18/12/2020 04:36

It could be Rumpelstiltskin

thenightsky · 18/12/2020 19:30

I get woken most nights around half past midnight by a rumbling so loud it shakes the windows. DH never wakes up and I mentioned it to my neighbours both sides, who claimed never to have been woken by it either. I downloaded Freedar onto my phone and discovered it was an RAF Hercules flying very low from a nearby airfield.

Original poster

killerjane · 18/12/2020 20:25

Thank you everyone for all the comments!

So I have an update that just CANNOT be a coincidence. I follow a local page for my area, usually just posts about litter picking and so on. But in the last week, there’s been THREE posts with people reporting a humming/vibration at night. So much so a local councillor has got involved. They’ve dubbed it ‘The Halton Hum’. Some of the comments state it’s been going on for months, some say it’s so loud they can’t sleep, some say their partners and kids can’t hear it but they can...I mentioned it to my friend who messaged me at 1am to say she could hear it (she lives about 5 mins further than me)

This is too coincidental not to be related right!?

OP posts:

DrinkFeckArseGirls · 18/12/2020 20:38

Where I am It’s the fucking night bus that shakes the whole house and once a painting fell down. Oddly nothing shakes during the day. Maybe because there’s constant traffic 🤷‍♀️

Bargebill19 · 18/12/2020 21:14

That’s your answer then. I wonder if you plotted the houses which hear the noise, on a map, if it would lead you to the source?

FangsForTheMemory · 18/12/2020 21:21

I wonder if she's got tinnitus? Mine sometimes sounds like a jet taking off.

ChristmasTreeFairy5000 · 18/12/2020 21:33

@killerjane You mentioned the Christmas tree is plugged into that wall. I think it might be your lights. Especially if they are LED.

I have some that hum ridiculously loud. They actually vibrate through the wall downstairs and up into the bedroom. It noise is louder upstairs than downstairs where they are plugged in.

NameChangeUnwiseAdvice · 18/12/2020 21:38

We are maybe a mile and a half away from the railway but they have been doing work on it recently and my GOD the noise. So my bet would be on that. Hope you get to the bottom of it!

carlywurly · 18/12/2020 22:04

My electric toothbrush is irritatingly loud when charging in the middle of the night. I often get up and unplug it.

What I was coming on to say was we had something really similar with a neighbour 2 houses up. She claimed that the "industrial machinery" next door (between us) were using was causing her property to crack. I think she said the kitchen tiles had been damaged.

All we could possibly relate it to was a carpet cleaning machine next door had hired. The properties are detached so it was just so improbable and bizarre. Turned out she was in the early stages of dementia. She went downhill pretty quickly after that but was extremely difficult as a neighbour for a good while. Very sad.

AccidentalScientist · 18/12/2020 22:23

I've had to join MN after 7 years of lurking for the sole purpose of this thread. @killerjane *when you say "Halton Hum", would that be in Buckinghamshire? I grew up near there and was never been able to work out what the humming noise at night was! Moved out over 10 years ago and when I stay with my parents I still sometimes hear it. Nobody I've ever mentioned it to knows what I'm on about!

Original poster

killerjane · 18/12/2020 22:27

[quote ChristmasTreeFairy5000]@killerjane You mentioned the Christmas tree is plugged into that wall. I think it might be your lights. Especially if they are LED.

I have some that hum ridiculously loud. They actually vibrate through the wall downstairs and up into the bedroom. It noise is louder upstairs than downstairs where they are plugged in.[/quote]
I mean maybe, but they must pick times when we’re not in the room to start making noise because I certainly haven’t heard them. Plus they’re off at the plug during the times she mentioned!

OP posts:

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