Electrical hum
I did some checks with my crappy old unit yesterday and it goes like this:
if you can hear something through the wall, even faintly, the machine will help you locate where it is and in my case got very loud when i was on it.
The downside of using this was, and this was big, it WILL pick up air borne noise and when you are trying to locate a sound, the air borne noise muddles it all and will override the noise you are listening for. it could be a car in the road or someone talking in your own house.
i hope you ordered one that has a flat reciever and not that pointed metal one, needle like. that thing is useless on a masonry wall. my set has one and i tried it.
and lastly, if you have to turn the sensitivity on the device up very high, your own breathing will interfere with it.
i wanted to share that with you before you open the package.
stevecym
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
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yudashasom | 4 years and 8 months ago
Fish tank air pump ??
shahnandersen
in General Discussion 4 years and 8 months ago
@Coolguyjones re:Flip. Shoddy work can result in loose connections in the heating or electrical system which can create vibrations. Just a wild guess, like yours and everyone elses. Good luck.
stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago
There is probably nothing in the wall for a boro scope to look at….
You could get a stethoscope or an electronic listening device. I have something called an enginear, it is for listening for unhealthy noises in engines but can be used to listen to a lot of things including possible water leaks. With one of these instruments, the sound will get so loud and obvious, that you can move around the wall and pinpoint where it is and might even identify what it is – I like the fish tank pump comments. Maybe you will hear a little compressor running.
There had been a question about determining if someone had a water leak on here once. Before telling them to get an electronic listening device, I opened my faucet upstairs just a drip. I went to the basement and put the device to the water main and not only could I hear water moving in the pipe, but I could hear the drip landing in the sink two floors away.
If you do what I am suggesting, you are still experimenting but I bet you will be able to tell that neighbor right where that sound is coming from.
stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago
i just looked at what kind of equipment might pick up and magnify sound through walls. they have these leak detectors that come with head phones. but i am not sure they will pick up random sounds broadcast over a wider area. they seem kind of specialized with pinpoint heads whereas the device i have was made in the 1970’s and is low technology and that seems great for a variety of things. if you wish to find one of these used on ebay, the device i have is called a “Steelman EngineEar”.
Guest User | 4 years and 8 months ago
Thanks everyone for your help on this. After continued experimentation, it seems that it’s related to an outlet. The (very) weird thing is that when we killed the breaker to the room, we still heard the hum. But after unplugging the two things plugged in (and the breaker on), the hum stopped after 30 mins. And hasn’t come back with nothing plugged in to the outlet.
So I’m going to replace that outlet, but still very puzzled about how any of this is possible. Any ideas?
cate | 4 years and 8 months ago
Wow! I hope you found it. If it’s really the outlet, you might want to call a licensed electrician to investigate because a hum can be a sign of a dangerous condition that could cause a fire. Simply replacing the outlet probably won’t make a difference. What are the appliances? Do they draw a lot of power? (And even when turned off?) Hopefully it’s not a coincidence — the neighbor unplugging their humming appliance on the other side of the wall. Good luck!
Guest User | 4 years and 8 months ago
Thanks Cate. It was a led lamp, and alarm clock, so nothing that draws a lot of power. And thanks for the advice.
stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago
does that alarm clock have a battery back up in it?
Guest User | 4 years and 7 months ago
So in the end, it wasn’t that outlet. It’s still happening, and I’m confident it’s nothing electrical in the house (as we’ve killed every breaker in the whole house and still heard it).
Going to try and engage the neighbor again. And potentially tear open the drywall. But wondering if there’s any possibility of it being a water/plumbing/pump issue?
colonialrevival | 4 years and 7 months ago
When hypotheticals keep leading to dead ends, that’s usually a cue that I need to learn more about what’s actually going on. In this case, I’d grab an oscillating saw and cut a small (6″x6″ square in the drywall over the point where it’s the loudest, and retain the piece for easy patching later.
cate | 4 years and 7 months ago
It’s probably just something like a fish tank, fridge, air purifier, white noise machine or something like that on the other side. Tearing open the plaster/drywall is likely to reveal only the brick party wall.
brokelin | 4 years and 7 months ago
The thing that is most annoying about hums is that what creates them usually cause vibrations as well. You can use white noise to block out noise, but it will do nothing about the vibrations.
I once had an apartment that was half a floor of what was originally a single family house, and when new neighbors moved in and placed their stereo speakers on the floor of the room right next to my bedroom, I could feel the bass they produced travel along the floorboards and vibrate my bed at night. Luckily, they were considerate neighbors, who either then turned down the bass dial, or moved the speakers off the floor, as I suggested might work, and the problem was solved.
The same issue is often the case with neighbors above. I had neighbors who used a small room humidifier on the floor above my bedroom – turns out the kind that use electrostatic charge to make the mist seem silent, but cause the floorboards under them to vibrate. Moving the source of the vibration off the floor solved that problem as well. Same neighbors also at one point made my entire bedroom vibrate at night by running the fan of the very old window AC in the winter – one needed the noise to cover the other’s snoring – and the windows and walls in the 100+ year old building shook, rattled and vibrated – the noise wasn’t a problem in the summer when every unit had its own bedroom window AC doing the same thing, creating their own noise and vibrations, but in the quiet winter, it made it hard to sleep. An actual white noise machine, not one the floor, would solve the problem without creating a problem for people in other apartments.
I’ve got something above me now that gets turned on at night above my bed that makes noise (that I can cancel out with music) and makes me vibrate (which I can’t cancel out and makes it hard to sleep) – I’m not sure if it is a noise machine, a humidifier, an air purifier, or an apparatus to assist breathing – it is clearly something related to sleeping, as I hear it when it gets turned on and off. Haven’t met those neighbors in this larger building yet, but from nasty notes from them about running my W/D hours before the night quiet hours start, because I was at work in the day. time (I don’t think they’ve ever lived in a multi-family building before, but have downsized from having a suburban house, and go to sleep at 7 p.m. and start stomping around on their rugless floors between 4 and 5 a.m.) I don’t expect them to be cooperative, so I’m sleeping badly for now, and dreaming of a living on a top floor again, or dreaming about living in a detached house for the first time ever in my adult life so I can sleep – I’ve had that kind of neighbor before, the kind who think nothing of keeping you up all night but who complain about the smallest noise you make just because they hear that someone is living there.
Your next door neighbor might not want to let you in (I can kinda understand that), but may be cooperative enough if you suggest that something running with a motor could either be moved to elsewhere in the room, away from that side, or, more likely I think, moved off the floor onto a table with padding – though if on the floor, the offending motor could be anywhere in the room, not just near that wall. It might be worth asking the neighbors to find and remedy the problem themselves by perhaps moving something with a motor, so your tenants can sleep. Though maybe they have a grow room or something set up, and it won’t change.
If they truly love the place, your tenants could resort to what I did when I had a blissfully quiet top floor unit, until the city started jackhammering the cement up in the schoolyard next door every day, hours before I usually awoke. After a few weeks of being rudely awaken by that noise, I got some of those soft foam earplugs with the highest decibel rating I could find (they have them at drugstores), and was then able to sleep as late as I wanted, while noisy construction progressed outside for months.
cate | 4 years and 7 months ago
Sounds like a bit of a nightmare with your new neighbors, Brokelin. Hope the situation improves.
cate | 4 years and 7 months ago
OP, one of the many ways noise and vibrations are conveyed in Brooklyn row houses is that joists touch inside pockets in the brick party walls.
Guest User | 4 years and 7 months ago
Thanks Cate – that’s good to know. How could I try to validate if that’s the issue here?
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
I mentioned an electronic listening device. Have you investigated getting such a thing? If that is coming through a particular joist or set of them, something like this will narrow it down. Even if it is not coming through the joists but simply through the wall, something like this will narrow down the wall and even part of the wall so you can see if it is coming from the neighboring house.
You may not find out what this is, but there are ways to eliminate what and where the sound isnt from and this could lead you to where it is.
I kind of get it, you dont want to buy a tool. But coming from someone who has worked with tools all his life and buys them whenever a need arises, i see the value in such a purchase.
If you are afraid this might not help isolate the noise, perhaps later i can put something running, a drill or motor on the other side of a brick wall here and see how close i can pinpoint the sound with the low technology device i have and rep ort back. So let me know if you are interested.
Also, if this sound is airborne and not coming through the wall, a listening device may not work.
cate | 4 years and 7 months ago
I don’t think you can narrow it down to a cause such as a joist or a bit of missing mortar and fix that. The point is, noise can be heard through party walls of row houses. (In all sorts of odd and mysterious ways.) It’s very likely a device is making vibrations and simply needs to be put on a thick towel on a table and/or moved across a room. (Possibly a rug in the room where the tenants are hearing the noise might help as well to absorb a bit of the sound — or not.)
helen40
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
This noise/vibration could be coming from nearly anything from almost anywhere in the attached house or even further away. It may seem to be emanating from behind the wall, but it could be traveling down a pipe, for example, and manifesting itself next to your tenant’s space. If you care that much about keeping this tenant who is making you crazy, It sounds like you will need access to your neighbors, if allowed, and maybe the services of a sound engineer who can try to solve the problem with or w/o that access.
I have noticed many more house sounds and vibrations given the greater amount of time I have been home, and the relatively low level of activity in residential and commercial property nearby. A nearby roof fan for a restaurant I never noticed before now sounds like a jet engine as there are so many fewer fans running. So could this be a long-standing but only now apparent noise.
If you have not had tenants before, you will learn from experience that some are much more needy than others. It seems you have a very needy tenant who expects a perfect apartmen t and a landlord who will solve all of their perceived problems. These are not good tenants in the long run (or in your case, the short run) and if you think you can lease in this market, give them the option to leave early. Or wait until the end and dont offer them a renewal.
Good luck.
hkapstein | 4 years and 7 months ago
Oddly enough, the problem could actually be that the apt is too quiet.