What's The Cause Of Vibrating?

[Scarlett]

My flatmate is sometimes kept awake for whole days and nights by the sense that the floor in his room is vibrating. Today I spoke to the man in the flat below and he said he couldn't think of anything that might cause it other than perhaps water hammer probs with the pipes. This is a vibration, not a noise. It's silent. Could water in pipes beneath his floor cause this? Sometimes it lasts for days, other times just one day. It is driving him mad though. Or is there anything else that could cause a sense of vibration?

[scooping]

I had similar which eventually turned out to be trains on a line miles away.

[bunkmoreland]

I had a similar problem years ago,from vibration and slight noise from the flat above my bedroom. They denied anything ontoward initially, but after the landlord investigated, there was a fish tank with an aeration device that was causing the vibration!!

[EDDIE51]

Can you feel the vibration or is it only your flatmate?

[KARL]

Expanding on from bunkmoreland's story: Is it possible that your flatmate has an unusually keen sense of hearing, particularly at the bottom end of the audible spectrum ? If that were the case then it might explain the sense of vibration, which thus would not actually be vibrations as we normally perceive them but sound waves. One way of testing that possibility would be to don ear plugs whenever he gets the sensation of vibration - if the "vibration" stops and then returns again when he pulls out the plugs, then you have found part of your answer. My son moved into a flat recently where most weeks there is a period when he hears a constant high pitch noise (around 20kH, check it on the internet), but not always at the same intensity - we can at times hear it through his microphone when on Skype. He has asked one or two of his neighbours but they do not recognise the phenomenon and the landlord says he does not hear it. The source remains a mystery.

[Togo]

If he has a fridge or freezer in the room or against a wall of an adjoining room, it may be worth him switching it off or moving it to see if it stops the vibration. The vibrations may only be apparent at certain ambient temperatures so may not be noticeable at all times.
He could of course play the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" every time he feels it.

[pastafreak]

Is it the same flatmate you asked about previously?

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Home-and-Garden/Question1533609.html

[Scarlett]

Pastafreak- it is the same one yes. I do think there has to be a physical cause for it though. We did try the fridge on and off. I can't feel anything but I am at the other end of the flat. But even when I was in his room I couldn't feel anything, and I am pretty sensitive to sounds etc.

[EDDIE51]

Try swapping rooms, see if he feels the vibration if he is in your room.

[jennyjoan]

My friend's neighbour in a sheltered dwelling had same. Had everybody in to listen and because people were only for minutes nobody could hear anything.

Turned out the man down below was on oxygen.

[jennyjoan]

My fridge/freezer sounds a lot as if it is in labour - ready to give birth to a mini fridge/freezer.

[murraymints]

I am with Togo...check fridge/freezer is not against a wall. I discovered this to be the annoying niggly noise on moving to present house.

[murraymints]

Lol Conne x

[goodgoalie]

When I moved to this village from London I quickly became aware of a constant low droning, as if from some motor or generator. It never goes off, and is most noticeable late at night, particularly when trying to get to sleep. I've established that it's not coming from anything in my house or those of my neighbours, and does not stop if all electricity in the area is turned off, say, when work is being done to overhead lines.

Though not hugely loud, it really got to me, and drove a wedge between me and my then girlfriend, who could not hear it. I've explored the surrounding area and it's definitely not an electricity sub-station, nor is it tinnitus, as has been suggested, as my then next-door-neighbour could hear it, too, even though other neighbours cannot. I even called someone out from the local council environmental health, but he could not hear it either! Ten years on, it has never stopped, though it does get quieter from time to time, and I suppose I'm now inured to it, much as how people living near a railway line learn to filter out the train noise.

I'm resigned to never finding out the cause.

[EDDIE51]

I think Scarlett's flatmate, goodgoalie and others are hearing
'THE HUM'
http://thehum.info/
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/have-you-heard-the-hum-mystery-of-earths-low-droning-noise-could-now-be-solved-10182111.html
Only a few people can hear it but it is real .Scientists have been able to record it. Now thought to be due to 'microseismic ' activity in the Earth's core.

[Togo]

I liked your link Eddie. Very interesting, particularly the Worldwide map which shows the affected areas in detail. I have posted a link that should take you to the map directly.

https://fusiontables.googleusercontent.com/embedviz?q=select+col20+from+1EyjVZqUPpoXGQDa_cry9DqFaBVMOgEyq-3qo85bx&viz=MAP&h=false&lat=52.8030786439858&lng=-101.78073185922858&t=1&z=6&;l=col20&y=2&tmplt=2&hml=GEOCODABLE

[EDDIE51]

^ Thanks Togo that is a lot better than my map.

[Togo]

It is actually hidden in the first of you links Eddie. In blue "VIEW THE WORLD HUM MAP". (It is in capitol letters)

[jennyjoan]

My brother could hear the The Hum too - it put him nuts

Even tho I am deaf I hear the noises that nobody can hear - guess it is part of being deaf.

Another time I heard a RummmmmRummmmm - friend who I was with heard nothing but I kept on looking and found it was the generator of the kitchen in the Hotel - they moved us to another room. Could still hear it. It can be exasperating.