Beetle neighbour ghost?

[Dave]

The past few mornings we have heard a distinct tapping noise apparently coming from the other side of the adjoining wall in our 3 bed semi. This happens at more or less the same time (07:00) each day. The tapping lasts a few minutes, stops, then starts again. After about an hour there is no more tapping for the rest of the day!

So far I have possible: - neighbour, beetle, ghost.

Now, next door lives an elderly women (80+) who is still quite fit and "with-it". But she has been known not to be above telling the occasional fib. (Denied damp problem when there clearly was one). So I'm just wondering if

*maybe* she's going bonkers and tapping the wall - because that's what it sounds like. I went around the morning and suggested maybe there was a water pipe tapping somewhere to her (there isn't because there are none there). She denied even hearing a sound! This is almost certainly untrue as even sound sleepers in my family have been awakened by the noise.

Can someone suggest how to track the noise down - eg does deathwatch beetle make this pattern of sound?

Tomorrow I'll try and record it!

[sam ende]

water pipes, plumbing, central heating kicking in, she's running a bath etc etc ?

sammi

[Alan]

In message , Dave wrote

Central heating switching on at 7am and pipes through joists etc. expanding?

[nightjar]

A deathwatch beetle sounds like someone making short, sharp taps on a piece of wood. It is quite loud if you are in the same room, but I'm not sure that you would hear it clearly through a wall. They are very rare in domestic premises, as they generally prefer oak and other hardwoods that have started to decay a bit.

Colin Bignell

[Dave]

Thanks for the suggestions - neither side has central heating but maybe pipes that fed the immersion heater etc. As she's said she hasn't heard the noise this is going to get tricky as it's certainly coming from her side. :-(

[Sneezy]

Dave wrote in news: [e-mail]:

My parent's next door neighbour (now in a better place) was a heathly woman who seemed quite with-it. You'd never know that she talked to a brass cast of a miner, believing it to be her dead husband reincarnate. If it's not coming from your side, then you've either got to somehow catch her in the act or at least get in the property to have a look for yourself, or contact environmental health about the noise nuisance - they can always get social services involved if she is nuts.

[sam ende]

what kind of tapping is it, regular, irregular, from upstairs or downstairs ? does she walk with a stick ?

sammi

[Dave]

Am going to try and record it tomorrow morning (of course, it won't happen then!)

[Dave]

I'm prett sure it is not.

She's been a good neighbour and I don't wish to upset her. If she is going loopy I'd like to help in some constructive way to deal with it - a bit difficult though. She rather suddenly seems to be doing things she never did before like hanging several bird feeders in the garden and now it's becoming a problem because the pidegeons are flocking to the place, which isn't health imo. I've also spotted her a few times deliberately slamming the (empty) wheelybin lid for no apparent reason! I just hope it *is* some pipe problem - far easier to deal with.

[Pete C]

Hi,

Does the tapping stop if you tap back in response?

cheers, Pete.

[John Rumm]

If she is 80 odd, is it not more likely that she is just a bit deaf?

[Sneezy]

Dave wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It's a tough one. The next door neighbour I mentioned sort of did her husband in - he fell down stairs and she just put him to bed. She'd mow the lawn, only there was no lawn - just soil. The Council explained to her how to light her fire using the gas lighter (like a piezo ignition thing only it uses mains gas). She took a hatchet to it, chopped it up, and tried starting a fire with it. Completely misunderstood - funny if it weren't so serious. Then there's the numerous occasions when she put the gas cooker on and forgot to light it. She smoked - Lord knows how she didn't blow the place to Kingdom come. Oh and she tried changing a light bulb - by pulling hard on the bulb. Ripped the light fitting out, blew the fuse. If it wasn't for my Dad taking care of her she would easily have blown up/burnt down her house and my parents house.

Social services aren't big on constructive intervention. If she is losing it, you might end up being her carer - for your own safety if for nothing else! Fingers crossed it's a simple pipe or similar problem.

[Lee]

Could it simply be an excessively loud mechanical alarm clock? The large "Big Ben" ones with the 2 oversized "gongs" on top are very very loud... :) If it's touching the wall the clapper could be making the tapping noise.

It sounds like something timed anyway...

Lee

[The Natural Philosopher]

Sound like a heating pipe heating up and creaking against a joist. Check waht time your, and their, CH, fires up.

[Suz]

What way are the two houses heated?

[Mary Fisher]

Mary

[sam ende]

and did you ?

sammi

[John Rumm]

I said "IS IT NOT MORE LIKELY...." - oh sorry that's tourists... ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

It always works :-)))))))))))))))))

Mary