I need an investigatory plumber for this one!

Earlier on the thread we had the conversation that it's unlikely to be a central heating pump, there's no gas in these flats, water heaters are unvented cylinders and heating is usually storage heaters (electric), I don't know if my side neighbour has changed things (as he owns his flat), but we apparently do not have gas in these flats.

Both side neighbours seem to get up and go to work and also go to bed roughly the same time, it's around these times that I get a lot of vibration (this morning I just happened to think it was the downstairs neighbour who has a leaky pipe suggesting her pressure relief valve is coming on on her water heater, and it sounded like a washing machine, but usually she's out and doens't even come home a lot of the time).

So mainly it's around bedtime and getting up time for my side neighbours, but bedtime is very early (not a problem to me I'm up and about) and getting up is often very early, 5 or 6am, a bit problem to me when my bed is vibrating to whatever it is. If they can feel something and are just not saying, it's because it doesn't affect their sleep.

 

I'd have to get someone out to do it, I have friends and family but so far away most of the time. To be honest the vibration runs across all floors of my flat, the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, so not sure where to begin. There doesn't necessarily seem to be a starting point to it....apart from usually it seems linked to the side neighbours.....

 

Thanks for the replies, I'm exhausted, hence my rather 'flat' responses.

I think I need to rule out downstairs' water heater. Once that's ruled out (the leaking pipe is probably a red herring), then I need to get my landlady's advice on how to approach the two side neighbours. I can't approach them again singlehandedly because I've been told by both that they don't feel anything. You can't keep asking the same question. I need someone with more authority to explain to them that it happens only when they are home, that it might be pipe hammer or something that they can't feel but is originating in one of their appliances.

 

Mike, this is interesting...could you expand on that, lol, that's quick for me considering how I feel today.

Would it sound anything like a washing machine with a bearing gone? If not, it may still be relevant because that only happened today, usually it's vibration but without noise, just a rumbling in the walls

 

No I don't think she has a dishwasher downstairs, sometimes this goes on for 5 hours, from about 9 in the evening through to when I finally fall asleep at 2am, before I'm woken to it again at 5 -6 am.

Glad you went around to your neighbour, there's a lot of people like that. Although to be fair a lot of people are used to living in NORMAL buildings from the past where you didn't hear what was going on next door. Now I can hear my neighbours clear their throats.

 

Mike83, with that in mind (and thanks), I wonder which adjoining neighbour is most likely to be the culprit...

1) Downstairs, directly beneath me, where the pipe from the water heating is leaking almost constantly (a slow, cool drip)

2) Next door on the first floor level (my level)

3) Next door and on the ground floor (odd I know because it would have to travel up a wall to run across all my floors, but when I'm woken in the early hours, a lot of the time (1) isn't even in, but this person (3) is up with lights on and often outside the door smoking, so definitely up

The reason for the question is I'm wondering which pipes are most likely to run across my floor. Whilst the girl directly downstairs has a leaking outdoor pipe (from water heater), she reports that all pipes from her actual cylinder appear to go into the ground, not up....so how would a problem with her expansion vessel vibrate me, her upstairs neighbour?

Thanks for your responses.

I realise all this guesswork isn't helpful so I am going to organise a plumber going into downstairs (which they've already said they'd be happy for) just to do a check on their water heater....mainly to rule it out. Then it will be what to do about the two side neighbours. No one talks around here!!

 

thanks Mike83!

I've just been sat at the desk and suddenly my floor under me was 'wavy' - like being on a ship (not literally but the feeling of it)....I look out the window and the bathroom light is on for next door and down (girl under my next door neighbour). This is a common occurrence too, as well as ongoing vibrations into the night and early hours.

So your description is interesting.

 

Thanks, yes I've thought that, but their heating should be electric....not gas, so not sure how this would happen.

the other night there was just a burst of vibration from 9.30 until 11pm, with bathroom lights on from both side neighbours (next door on my level and the one under him) and then all lights out and silence. Suggesting something they were doing to get ready for bed and the next day was the reason, but I can only think of water in that sense....but yes have thought the same as you over the Christmas....in fact my mum's gas heating system 'sounds' a bit like what I hear and feel (I hardly hear anything but it's subtle) and there's a bit of vibration at mum's too, the difference is you know what it is and can turn it off by turning the heating off....but here we're not supposed to have gas...

it would help if I could just talk to my neighbours but the girl downstairs isn't interested at all, and the two side neighbours I rarely see and one of them clearly doesn't wish to talk to any of us in the block, lol

 

I hear the girl's (next door and down) extractor fan sometimes in my living room and there is a very subtle vibration sometimes associated with it, but most of the time when there's vibration the bathroom light is off, it's the early hours and I''m not hearing the fan. lol its crazy

 

No these flats were built in 1993. I could ask the building company to help out, they would have to go into archives to see whats under my floor. I phoned them and they said it wouldn't be easy, so I said if I couldn't sort it I would try again. Maybe it's time to try again.

Basically it's like an L shape, but if you imagine that L's mirror image. Then my flat is the base of the L and the side flat is the longer part of the L and then there's a person under the side flat (well there's a person under me too but most of the time she's out, though her pipe is the leaky one) It often seems to be linked to her (the girl under my side neighbour) activity in the early hours, but also when she's as quiet as anything around midnight (and as she's up around 5 ish I'm assuming she's asleep)