# Continual buzzing sound from walls



## Tarquin

I got foam insulation put into my extermal walls about five months ago. After that, I noticed a buzzing sound coming from the walls, every so often but nothing major. I always thought it was next doors heating coming on.

The last week, however, the buzzing is now 24 hours a day.I went next door to the neighbours and they said they have hardly had their heating on the last week.After a bit of research and talking with my father, it could be that the foam stuff might have affected the wiring in  the walls. The sparks guy I use, cant come out for a month and he didnt sound very positive about solving the noise problem, when I told him about the foam in them walls.

I havent done any checks yet myself (like knocking off the power and checking out each room). Does anyone know what i would need to do? I am  a bit sick about all this as Im wondering if I messed up by not getting the wiring in the walls fully checked out first before doing the insulation (its an old house and my father said the wires might have been just dropped down and not done properly). Am I looking at a full rewire and also having to get rid of the insulation, which already cost me 2k?


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## selfbuild09

I have heard that some types of insulation react with cables. The shielding on the cable corrodes. Can't shed any light on the buzzing though...sorry.


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## paddyjnr

I'm not trying to be funny here but is it just you can hear the buzzing sound because I was thinking down the lines of tinnitus  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus and it reminds me of something similar which happened to myself a while back. 
Just a thought and I may be miles out with it.
P.s sorry for bringing medical issues into it.


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## MugsGame

Another ...


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## dubgem

I dont' know why you haven't done your own check, as you mention, turning off the power at the mains and seeing if that stops the buzzing.  You should do that immediately.  At least you will then know if it is the electrics or not.  

If it's not the electrics then you won't have waited a month for your electrician to come out when we won't be able to do anything anyway.  And if it is the electrics then you shouldn't wait for that electrician, get someone who can come straight away (I'm sure there are some recommended on other threads in this forum).

Also you should immediately get on to the people who put in the foam insulation for you and find out what they have to say about it - they may have come across it before and be able to advise you.


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## selfbuild09

Tarquin,

Has anybody else in the house heard this buzzing noise...


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## cinders55

This may sound silly but I heard a constant buzzing behind a wall in our house a few years back, also an old house, and it turned out to be a wasp nest, big enough to warrant a horror movie named after it.   I've since read that they take up residence in the spring, and in our case they came out through the bedroom wall in October and swamped the room for quite a while.   It was actually a bit of a nightmare and they made a total mess of the wall/ceiling, so I hope that's not what you have, but it's worth checking out.   Good luck to you, hope it's nothing too serious.


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## Tarquin

UPDATE ON THIS - guys,this is getting very serious,neither the OH or myself have slept much the last two nights with this noise. I switched off the electricity at the mains - can still hear the noise. So we went outside our house and my wife thinks she could hear a humming near one of our bedroom windows. I rang the ESB and they are sending someone out next week to check if they can find the source. I rang Bord Gais and the guy I spoke to said, good luck, I have my work cut for me trying to locate the source of the noise.  He didnt think its the pipes as we dont have the boiler on and can still hear the noise and said it also sounded electrical to him from my description.

I know nothing about electrics but apparantly even the electricity switched off, there could be a transformer within the house running? I am not inclined to think it is next door as the noise is very loud in the box room (which doesnt adjoin next doors house).

Can anyone help or have any other information in light of the above? My wife is nearly in tears with tiredness. I will get another electrician in early next week, neither of us could wait a month, with this noise, for our own one.


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## Towger

If the mains is off and you dont have mains (supply) wires running along the wall etc, I would tend to think you need the exterminators in. BTW mains humm is at 50Hz, if that helps!


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## DGOBS

Just a thought, try turning on both you hot and cold bathroom taps and have a listen..........


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## extopia

Sounds like an insect nest alright, although is it not too early in the year?


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## greengrass64

if you have the electrical mains switch swiched off for a while and the buzzing sound remains, it seems to eliminate the electric cables as being your source on noise. 

How are the esb cables routed into the house? 
Is your esb meter located indoors or outside in cabnit.
Turning off the electrical mains switch does not turn off the power to the esb meter.

What type of insulation did you put in?
Foam fill or foam beads?


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## extopia

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/03/15/the-walls-are-buzzing-because-theyre-full-of-bees/


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## iggy

This sounds like the start of the best horror film script ever!!!
.......Sits down with popcorn and beer............bzzzz..bzzzz....


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## glowinthedar

Tarquin said:


> My wife is nearly in tears with tiredness.


 
As a very short term solution to get some sleep, you should get some ear plugs.

I find them great and they block out all background noise.


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## Tarquin

Hi thanks again for the replies. Re the ear plugs, we already wear them and the really good ones as well - the noise goes right through them. My electrician said that if the problem is electrical, the electrical waves will go right through any ear plugs, but if the problem was any other sound, it wouldnt. 

Thanks to asking one of my neighbours,(who came into the house and had a good listen) I think I have finally figured out the problem- we have cables running right outside each bedroom window. I got on a ladder and there is a distinctly loud hum coming from them. When I go back into each bedroom and go to the wall where the cable is on the outside, the humming is louder there. So it sounds as if the noise of the cables is coming through the walls. As we are there three years now, I cant figure out why the cables should be only vibrating so much more now.

While I have the ESB coming out on Tuesday, my problem now really is what they will do about it. What bugs me a bit is that my own house seems to have quite a number of cables around my windows, whereas the neighbour who helped me, his own house has just one cable running down it.

I will let you if the ESB agree that its the cables!


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## Armada

The fact that you have had your cavity walls filled - probably means the insulation is now carrying the sound from the exterior cables through to the interior of the house.

Thats why the problem really has only arisen in the last while. IMHO getting the cables moved is the only answer.


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## colm

Just on the off chance have yopu checked any battery operated devices, clock , timer, mobile phone. I had 3 call to a house once where the customer was convinced her alarm keypad was beeping every so often. Turned out to be one of the kids toys under the bed.


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## Tarquin

UPDATE AGAIN- Disaster. The cables on the walls outside are not ESB, they are NTL, phone - our ESB cables are underground. We had a guy from the ESB in the house for almost an hour checking everything he could think of. He could hear a slight humming sound but couldnt locate it.He didnt know what effect the foam insulation could have but Im really beginning to feel that (as one poster said) putting the foam in has caused the sound of the cables to be amplified into our rooms. The ESB guy said that the voltage from cables for NTL and phone wouldnt be as strong as for electricity but he did agree there was a slight humming sound in the house.

I am getting an electrician in tomorrow, but is there any point? The humming is there when the power is knocked off, our ESB meter is fine (been checked) and I cant get any cables moved as there would be nowhere else for them to go. I will get him in though just on the offchance something has been missed.


I know this is probably crazy but does anyone know if I could get the foam insulation taken back out even from  one wall, just to see if there would be a difference? Im asking here as I am dreading ringing the company who did it for us and thinking Im off my head. I noticed that drilling for insulation was done right next to all the cables. The worst room is the back bedroom and the ESB guy could hear the humming there and I was thinking of that wall.

I know this probably sounds like we are imaginging it but we really arent, day time is ok, you can put up with it but night time is very bad and ear plugs dont help at all.

If anyone has other information that might help (as in could it be the insulation acting as a conductor for the cables sound through the walls) I would appreciate it. I am starting to get desperate.


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## colm

Have you tried disconnecting any phones in the house or anything that has batteries.
I would put money on this being something stupid.


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## Armada

Have you checked ballcocks? 
Is there a bathroom near your bedroom?

Could possibly be a ballcock in a cistern or in the attic humming. Could be a leaking shower. Perhaps try, if you haven't already done so .. turning off the water supply at night and see if there is an improvement.

Is it definitely foam sprayed into the walls?


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## berlininvest

OK, if you are desparate, a wayout suggestion:

maybe some kind of weird interference wave / harmonic has been set up between the signals in the various cables. To disrupt this, try changing the physical configuration of one or all the cables.

In other words - have you tried JIGGLING them??!!   

(I am actually being serious - maybe separate them, pull them out of the wall a bit or shove them in a bit, see if it helps.  If the NTL one happened to break, well there you go, I think they are pretty easy to reconnect (jam them back together and tape up AFAIK).  I'd rather go without phone or TV than sleep).


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## Towger

OK more ideas, the power has been turned off so:

As suggested before, it may be a ballcock run a tap, flush the jacks and see the sound is still there.

Also 

Would one of the neighbours have one of these units installed : [broken link removed] Which are said to transmit a ultrasonic pulses through the houses wiring.


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## VOR

This might sound obvious but do you have an electric rodent repellant plugged in? They send a buzzing noise through the walls.


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## colm

VOR said:


> This might sound obvious but do you have an electric rodent repellant plugged in? They send a buzzing noise through the walls.


 He has already tried turning off the mains


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## Tarquin

OP again - electrician called. He looked at the cables outside. The problem is that three cables alone are my neighbours, only two are ours, neighbours cables are right next to our wall. He could hear the sound, said it sounds like a harmonics issue, said to ring NTL and eircom, to get them to check cables,  neighbours included (which will go down a lead balloon  with them, not friendly people). He also said about getting our water tanks checked, that if they were leaking, they would be running continuosly. He looked at the alarm and said even if ESB and electrics were turned off, the transformer of that could be emitting something.

I will keep ye posted, thanks again for all the help to date.


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## berlininvest

If it is a harmonics isse then you really should try to change the physical configuration as far as possible.

There must be some slack that you can pull one or more cables a bit to try and break up the harmonic.  Maybe even loose a clip or two to enable this.

You don't have to break them, just try jiggling them.


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## 345Jabber

Even if your mains is switched off the pest controller could be battery backed, plug it out, no messing we had one in the house and after about 4 years it went faulty and we could hear the humming almost made you physically sick had to bin it.(pity the mice).
Has any work being carried out recently in your vicinty by the ESB etc. recent studies have shown some people are more perceptable to high voltage humming than others.
Cables like NTL/Eircom don't operate in this range so can't imagine it would be them. Also the insulation should be bouncing external noise back out of your house not back in, unless the company have trapped cables on the internals of the cavity brick.
Best of luck


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## corkgal

Are you semi detached? Are the walls that the sounds in in external or internal or joined to the neighbors?
I'd get NTL and the others out to look over their cables. I'd also ring the insulation guys, they may have heard of it before. They may have caused it by putting pressure on a cable.

To produce sound something is vibrating and using power. It could also be dangerous and start a fire.
If its all the walls then its likely ot be the insulation instead of one wire on the outside.


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## Tarquin

OP again - I may have found the answer but its not the one I wanted. A very nice neighbour came in and put his ear to everything, internal wall, external walls, the windows.He could kind of only hear the humming with the walls but when he put his ear to the windows, he could hear exactly what I am hearing. A new motorway opened up only about two weeks ago, neighbour thinks all my windows are vibrating from the sounds of the motorway (its about a mile away) and reflecting it back into the house and its walls. Is he right? Certainly this morning. Its just crazy.When I open a window, I can hear a very slight hum in the distance from the motorway. When I close the window, the sound is much stronger.

I am seriously worried about the insulation, mostly because I am getting such confusing information on it. SEI said that the foam should actually be muffling sound, not causing it, that cables are protected and that the foam shouldnt have disturbed them. Electrician I had in, has foam himself and said the stuff used is supposed to not affect the cables. I did contact the insulation company and they said they never heard of the foam affecting cables (company was recommended to me by a friend who is related to one of the owners, and they are aware that that is how I found out about them so they may not be fobbing me off, I dont know.)

NTL is only happening after Easter so that is still a possibilty and the alarm.

There is one thing - the transformer for the door bell is buzzing. But with the mains off, the humming sound is still there. Im just wondering though if the transformer could still be causing an effect or is this not possible, given the humming is there, when mains is off.

If my neighbour is correct about the windows and the motorway, would getting new windows in (overdue to be done anway) help?

Edited to say I forgot to add one thing - neighbour said there is a mast in a playing field not far from my house, said it could be a mobile phone one (ESB said none are near me). Should I investigate this?


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## paddyjnr

Why not purchase one of these sound level meters and trace where the levels are highest  [broken link removed]


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## pandrews2000

No the foam insulation is pumped in and then expands much like you get for filling gaps


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## durafoam

Closed cell foam creates millions of tiny air capsules and is probably the best insulation available on the market.  Just consider, they spend billions launching space shuttles, and usually a portion of the launching rocket is covered in polyurethane spray foam.

In my experience spray foam is amazing for muffling sound.  It's probably not the root cause...

Now back to your buzzing problem--it sounds like a very unique issue.  I only wonder if you have single or double pane glass windows.  I think a double pane window would help.... 

I do have one theory--did the contractor move any of your outside wires, or has someone else moved them? Did the contractor spend any time outside the house/ or did they have any need to touch those wires? 

The vibrating cable issue sounds perplexing--I do wonder what your root cause is.


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## waom

I had a buzzing noise in the house for some time - turned out to be water hammer (lots of posts on this). The vibration in the water pipe can cause a humming/vibrating noise. The noise was worst in one of the bedroooms as the cold water pipe into the tank in the attic was running up behind the wall in this room. Plumber put a disc in the tank which seems to have solved the problem (or has least eliminated the buzzing noise).


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## JoeB

Try deadening the sound from the windows.. i.e you'd have to lean a plank or something against the center of the window, or quite near the center.. this may prevent the windows vibrating if it's a reasonant frequency issue with the windows, I can't see anything else vibrating at a reasonant frequency.


PS. even placing your hand firmly against the center of the window should help.. so you could test this at night.. however you can only test one window at a time this way.


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## Matty101

I wonder what it turned out to be!


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## ollie323

Try lifting the offending cables off the wall and re-fix them with some rubber or something that will absorb the vibrations going into your wall. 
You could try ask whoever installed the cables but i wouldn't hold my breath on them doing anything about it.
Good luck!

ollie


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## Rachd2011

*I have this same issue!*

Oh my gosh.  I thought I was going crazy.  I have heard a dull humming noise which I think is coming from the celing or walls.  I have double brick walls so i'm assuming it's not coming from there.  It also coincides with new people moving in next door.  What is this noise????

I thought I had an ear infection but I can only hear the sound when I'm at home, and nowhere else.

I was wondering if perhaps people next were marijuana in a shed and that's the sound of the lighting and exhaust fan, but now I'm not sure.  I've turned off my fridge, it's not that........

i've put my hand on windows thinking they could be reverberating, but it's not that.

Who can I see about getting this looked into?  My friends can also hear the noise, so it's not me going bonkers.

Any help would be great.

thanks.


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## Tintagel

Our ESB meter is in our utility room. That room and the room beside it have a constant hum. It's awful. There is a an ESB pole across the road from our house that also has a hum/vibration coming from it. Family members suffer from tinnitus, a dreadful affliction. She has to sleep with an MP3 player on all night.  
I would imagine that UPC can move the cable either that or ask them to remove it altogether.


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## roker

Just a small point, if the insulation is reacting with the electic cables, switching off the power is not going to make any difference.


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## wookie

Please help meeee :/

Tarquin, did you ever get a resolution to this issue     ?            

im experiencing the exact same issue,    the house i moved into in april  has  foam insulated cladding on it ,   but only recently  ive been kept awake with a  dull droning  humm,  almost a pulsing humm at times     

In past 2 weeks have gotten 1 nights sleep   

ive checked as many avenues as possible, spoke to my neighbours, but still the noise is a mystery 

would love to hear if anyone else experienced this  

David ( wookie )


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## PMU

wookie said:


> but only recently  ive been kept awake with a  dull droning  humm,  almost a pulsing humm at times


  Only recently like since you turned the central heating system on? If this is the case it could be noise from the thermostatic valves, switching on and off.


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## Prosper

wookie said:


> Tarquin, did you ever get a resolution to this issue ?


I'd love to know what the cause of the humming noise Tarquin posted about - I've just now read it thanks to you picking up the thread. Polyethylene beads interact and create static electricity and possibly this creates noise??? If they are near cables could this add to the noise problem??


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## roker

I had problems with a buz in a previous house, it was caused by the water supply to the header tank resonating, it would go on quite awhile after the taps had been used


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## Sue Ellen

wookie said:


> Please help meeee :/
> 
> Tarquin, did you ever get a resolution to this issue     ?
> 
> 
> David ( wookie )



Hi David,

Welcome to AAM. 

Unfortunately Tarquin has not visited AAM since 28th September, 2009.


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## michaelm

There is a buzz in my house which is only really audible at night but I'm usually too tired for it to keep me awake.  It's from the transformer in the alarm box in my hotpress.


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