Vibrations in house

[Gloxx1961]

Hi Last September/October I started feeling vibrations after hearing a very noisy shrilling sound which only last seconds but when in back bed room can feel the chair move and house shake but only lasts seconds. This vibration and noise is not on a particular day or time I could feel it for 3 secs then after a five mins it would do it again or it might be a hour or three hours when I would feel it again. This might continue for a week on and off then I don't feel anything for a while then it starts up again!!! This vibration and noise was felt up to January this year 2006. Not felt it until yesturday and it's been on and off all morning as I type this, can wind cause this in the roof space as I noticed it was very windy yesturday but not so today. I just wish I knew what was causing it as I sometimes think I am going potty espically when I tell my family they look at me "gone out". Who do I need to contact?? Please help thanks

[Phil Anthropist]

Are you taking anything that could cause hallucinations?

[dom]

• Trying hard to resist the temptation to take the p*** *

Is it possible that there is some weird structural resonance responsible for both the cracks and this?

Is your house of unusual design or construction?

Is it near to heavy construction/industry/mining/tunnel etc?

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Hi Last September/October I started feeling vibrations after hearing |a very noisy shrilling sound which only last seconds but when in back |bed room can feel the chair move and house shake but only lasts |seconds. This vibration and noise is not on a particular day or time I |could feel it for 3 secs then after a five mins it would do it again |or it might be a hour or three hours when I would feel it again. This |might continue for a week on and off then I don't feel anything for a |while then it starts up again!!! This vibration and noise was felt up |to January this year 2006. Not felt it until yesturday and it's been on |and off all morning as I type this, can wind cause this in the roof |space as I noticed it was very windy yesturday but not so today. I |just wish I knew what was causing it as I sometimes think I am going |potty espically when I tell my family they look at me "gone out". Who |do I need to contact?? |Please help thanks

Might it be Water Hammer? put your hand on various pipes and see if it is worse on one particular pipe.

Are you on top of old mine workings, in which case it may be serious.

[dg]

What type of house construction is it?

Some of our earlier timber framed buildings would have this type of reverberation when wind blew in the cavity and rattled the membrane or sheafing.

dg

[dave]

Well maybe this is a good time for me to mention a strange low-pitched "hum" we get occasionally in our semi. (It's NOT imagination - anyone with decent hearing can hear it). The *very* strange thing is that the sound is remarkably localised. It's in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Just inside the door the sound is loudest. Walk to the centre of the room and it's completely gone (at least inaudible). There are several nodes like this within this 12' x 12' room. As I say the frequency is low - only a few tens of hertz. I do have a theory about what the cause could be - but be interested to see if the grp has some ideas first.

ps: Switch elec. power to entire house off - all water taps fully off. sounds still there.

[meow2222]

It is possible for wind to cause resonance / flapping, and it can sometimes be hard to find. Interior doors are sufficiently unfirmly attached to do this sometimes. Gaps are known for triggering low howls in wind occasionally. Chimneys can act a bit like organ pipes, though they normally dont. Vibration and noise can be caused by trains, trucks, even kids on toy carts.

And of course all the above can be caused by other things.

NT

[John Rumm]

I was about to say a transformer until you mentioned the last bit ;-)

One cause could be airflow over the top of a cavity or pipe - rather like blowing over the top of a bottle.

[Phil Anthropist]

This is an excellent time to mention this and I think I have the answer. It could be that the amalgam fillings in your teeth are picking up electro-magnetic, radio or even mobile phone signals. Some people can actually hear music or voices, but obviously in your case your fillings are only picking up weak low-level signals. That's why you can only hear a humming sound as the low frequency vibration is conducted from your teeth, through your facial bones, to the bones in your middle ear. The reason that the sound is only heard in that one room by the door, and the volume varies as you move about the room and is absent in the centre of the room, is that the signal is being screened out by surrounding buildings. If it's not that it could be the battery operated wall clock just above the bedroom door. Those quartz clock movements sometimes start making a racket prior to packing up altogether, and would not be affected by switching the power off. By the way, is there a prize if we identify the correct cause?

[Gloxx1961]

Thanks for all your comments I did have builders in last June/July and they had to do stuff in the loft and had a new bathroom suite put in bathroom in August so plumber may have had to do something put pipes and water tanks spring to mind I will endevour thank you to all xxx

[Andrew Mawson]

hearing

again

So which Tube line runs under you house?

AWEM

[marvelus]

I had this at the old house. I think a house can resonate like a tuning fork or a speaker cabinet. I used to walk around the neighbourhood looking for a compressor or something to blame but being outside was blisfully quiet, a relief . the new house doesnt have it and when I visited the old house I was reminded how oppresive the sound was, it was getting worse if anything.