Noisy neighbour boiler

[cara345]

Next door have a boiler that goes on and off in circles through the night making a low hum but intermittently. It keeps me constantly awake and I'm getting rather distressed by it :( I nod off then am woken up - every 20 minutes.

A lot of it may be that I'm tuned into it but also I've tried everything ear plugs, white noise its a resonating hum/vibration that seems to cut through rather than noise. There's not another room I can go to as it affects the whole house apart from the bathroom. The boiler sits on our party wall.

it's rented and the landlord doesn't think there is an issue - the tenants have tried, but quite rightly don't want to be commanded when they have their heating on or not. It only stops if they turn their heating off through the night.

I agreed with the tenants before that it goes off at 11pm and on at 6ish which was fine - in the day i don't care (even though it's still annoying)

It's starting to affect my mental health really and my work as I'm catching 2 hours sleep max.

What can i do? Has anyone else had a similar issue?

Will the council be involved as it's not say party music all night.

@pigletjohn ?

Is it really their heating (do people have it on over night?) or do they have a water tank which is constantly triggering the boiler? Mine did this and it just needed a part replacing.

100% combi boiler. When they turn it off noise disappears. Previous tenant set it to off overnight which was fine.

I feel unreasonable telling them to do the same but there must be an issue. I've offered to pay for it to be investigated.

You can't dictate another household's energy regime, but I agree with you OP because it's daft to heat up a whole house at night when a cold person can simply use an electric blanket.

Might be the pump.

Sometimes things "join together" (couple is the tech term) in a way that makes noise transmit between them. Sometimes the way they are joined makes the noise even worse.

The solution is normally to change the way they are joined. Sometimes you can insert dampening devices like rubber washers that absorb the vibration.

Unfortunately I doubt whether the landlord would be that happy about demounting the boiler and remounting it using some sort of dampening device because a) you might have to try many methods of refixing it before you found the solution and b) it costs money.

So some potential solutions :

i) If it really is that bad you can try complaining to the council.

ii) You could talk to a boiler installer and see whether they have experienced some similar problem in the past and whether they managed to fix it. If they have, it then becomes an issue over who is going to pay for it.

iii) Move where you sleep as far as possible away from it.

iv) Try some noise cancelling headphones ?

I don't know anything else to suggest.

www.soundreduction.co.uk/about-us/news/noisy-boilers-water-tanks-and-central-heating-pumps/

I feel for you! My elderly neighbour has Air Source heating that kicks in at 4.00 am everyday. I know this because it sounds like a jet taking off right by my head!!! There are rules about where the unit has to be placed in relation to the property but because she is elderly I don't want to worry her. The property is owned by a housing association and they won't do anything. I tried Environmental Health and they wrote to the HA but nothing happened.

I have a white noise machine, as every little noise used to wake me up. If you leave that on all night you won't be able to hear the noise changes. Mine is battery powered, so just charge it up at the mains for a bit and it goes all night.

Do they have children? I only ask because that’s the only reason our boiler ever used to kick in overnight my youngest use to wet the bed if the temp dropped below like 18c inside so in winter it would be on and off. Also have a teenager who likes to shower at like midnight 🤦🏻‍♀️

unfortunately for you there won’t be anything they will have to do, they have a right to have heating and hot water provided by their boiler as and when they require it.

I had the exact same problem a few years ago when my neighbour had central heating put in and the boiler is in the room next to my bedroom.
Would wake me up through the night, so I had a word but they didn't seem bothered.
I resorted to fixing a thick duvet to the wall and it really helped. I know you probably don't want to do this but it doesn't bother me at all now.
Duvet not ideal but didn't want to spend lots of money on sound proofing. Is there anything you could attach to your wall?

Ok the only reason it makes no noise is if they turn the boiler off. The boiler is not broken, also it’s a combi and they work better if the heat exchanger is kept warm therefore when boiler is switched on it will intermittently come on and off hence the sound you hear (it happens even if no hot water is being used or heating switched on) It will happen more in the winter when temp drops. Hope this helps

@GasPanic Gosh thank you for all that advice.

I wonder if it is installed on a party wall it is vibrating down a joist. However I have been here years and it has only become an issue last couple of years. It’s an old boiler so imagine it is a part like a pump that is becoming worn or needs attention.

However it’s strange it only cycles at night. I hear it in the day for hot water etc but that is no bother. It’s just this blooming cycling.

@Devastatedyetagain - gah that’s not good news. Maybe she could get it to start a little later?

@Damia - that’s my normal go to - but it’s just the thud every time it starts seems to kick through the white noise :(

@Notaboutthebass - novel idea - I won’t rule it out!

@Princessbananahamock is that a preheat thing?

sort of if it’s to make sure when you turn the hot water tap on you get instant hot water supply. If say I switch my boiler off overnight when I switch it back on it takes a while to get a hot flow. Hope that makes sense.
My combi is 15 years old and has always made the sound overnight unless switched off. It’s also situated in kitchen under my bedroom so I can hear it when boiler is left on overnight. All the pipes come from boiler and they do make low level noise expansion but like a lot of people say vibrations do carry.

@cara345

Yes it could well be that it is placed next to some sort of building support so the vibration couples in more strongly.

I suppose a silver lining is that if it is the pump starting to go and they are using it more then there is a possibilty that it will shake itself to pieces within a short amount of time !

@Princessbananahamock so helpful - i can at least ask them thank you!

@GasPanic There is that!

Feel your pain OP our neighbours boiler is external and gives off a high pitched scream whenever it is turned on last night it was still screaming throughout the neighbourhood and our house until 11.30pm…this has been going on for the last 4 years we are saving up money to buy some acoustic windows to block out the sound as their mate the plumber/heating engineer is a bit cr@p Hope you find a resolution could you add some kind of acoustic insulation to your side of the wall?

@Googoooooodolll That's ridiculous. And i bet it has a fix too - saving everyones sanity.

Maybe but I think where if is attached to the wall the sound is carrying down the whole side of the house - only a small house so it's everywhere. I honestly wouldn't mind if it stops at say 11pm but when it's on all night it's torture. I've offered to pay to investigate THEIR boiler but they haven't taken me up on it so far. Not sure how much more reasonable I can be.

Don't want to start up with the council but may need to.

I have the same problem , I have lived here 3months and next doors boiler screeches through my walls . It wakes my son up and he will no longer sleep in his room .. it is pointless talking to them as you get no where . Like you it is now starting to affect my mental health . I don't understand how they don't get nobody out to look at it , as it's a housing association and free. I have emailed the landlord myself and suggested a boiler check but they haven't got back to me . It goes of through the night the early hours it's just horrible .

@rocco0984 It's miserable isn't it? Sorry you are going through it. It's a noise nuisance so if landlord doesn't get back maybe the council? Push for action. The effect on mental health when you have tuned into something like this is very, very real.

What is so annoying is that mine was an easy fix. New tenants moved in and were happy for me to send my friend a gas engineer round and he just adjusted the pump after a 5 minute inspection (you were right @GasPanic - it was the pump!). I still hear it but I have to make a point to listen to hear it, the cycling drone has gone and is just a very quiet hum - like a normal but distant boiler noise.

I suffered for about 2/3 years with the noise as previous tenants wouldn't let my friend look at it and insisted the landlord used their own "engineer" who clearly couldn't sort a very basic issue out. instead they went without heating in the evening and night to not disturb me as I was getting so distressed by it.

Yes it really is . I'm hoping it breaks down on them so they have to get it repaired! I just don't understand why they are living with the noise and not getting it sorted . They know I can hear it ! but ignorance is bliss they say . I spoke qith the landlord who said they would call back and never did. So will have to give them another call. Glad you managed to get it sorted though .

My neighbour tired to complain about our plumbing noises and our air conditioner external unit making noises. Council said they aren't a noise abatement and part and parcel of living in semi (in our case). The neighbours asked us to not use them at certain times and I refused. Sadly, not really my problem that they are hyper sensitive to normal house noises. The funny thing is their son plays the drums!!! But obviously that is different as he is studying for grade 3.

My combi boiler was replaced a couple of years ago, and a few weeks later, my neighbour commented that it woke her up when it came on at 6am to warm the house up before I got up.

I mentioned it to the plumber, he popped round and had a listen, turned the water pressure down where the supply to my house leaves the water main, and that was it sorted. (We have unusually high water pressure, apparently, which is weird given we're at the top of a hill.)

He showed me what to do if it needed to go down a bit more. It was dead easy, when you open the flap in the pavement to reveal the water meter, there's a big screw on the pipe just to the house side of the meter. A quarter turn clockwise (I think it was clockwise) was all it took.

If your neighbours have a water meter with this kind of access, it might be worth giving this a go. Probably best under cover of darkness though!

@LakieLady Thank you for being a lovely neighbour! Luckily mine was sorted as the new occupants let us in and again was a simple fix - I'd suffered years with being woken through the night. If only the previous lot would have let someone in to take a look.

@ChristmasKittens maybe offer to have a heating engineer of their choice take a look if you don't want to look into it. Sometimes what is trivial to you is causing someone mental distress. Yes you could argue what i was hearing was "normal plumbing noises" but it rattled through my whole house and kept me awake at night. The daft previous occupants just plainly refused to investigate using a professional and when we got access it was a simple tune of a pump.

@rocco0984 they probably can't hear it - my neighbours said they weren't bothered by it!