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Gunslinger Patch
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Major
Joined: 04-Mar-2002 00:00
Posts: 1611
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 Posted: 06-Mar-2005 02:32 Post subject: mystery noise |
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Ok, Let's get the panel of experts together to brainstorm this one.
Tonight when I got home and got online, I somehow created a problem.
You see, I keep my comp in a spare bedroom that has a little cramped half bath, dinky sink and a toilet with less space for elbows then a public stall. I stack boxes in there. And once in a while I get a bad smell in the room and go flush the toilet some and spray air freshener and the smell goes away.
However, tonight, doing this has created a mystery that is bugging the hell out of me.
It is a noise, a vibrating hum kind of noise, like a badly overadjusted or blown stereo speaker might make. Except it became so damn loud I know it wasn't one of the cooling fans on my comp making it. I could turn off the tv in the living room and hear it all through my house.
It came from the little half bath, inside the wall behind the toilet. In there somewhere is also the plumbing for the bath/shower in the real bathroom. There shouldn't be anything electric in there or at least nothing newer then the 70s that is still turned on. And if the house electrical wiring is making that noise the thought of sleeping without first checking the smoke detector kind of scares me.
I can touch that cheap, thin slab of paneling and feel the vibration. And thought for sure that somehow, some old long forgotten electric motor was in there and trying to work for the first time since I bought this house 6 years or so ago. I was thinking come monday, if I could stand it that long since it is louder then the fan I like to run in my bedroom when I sleep, I would have to find an electrician and tear out that panel and fix whatever the hell it is before it burns out and burns me out with it.
But, just for no reason, I flushed that toilet again and it stopped.
And then, after I thought it was over and turned my comp back on, it came back. So I decided to go take a piss in the real bathroom, flushed that one, and it stopped. The pipes for that one don't go into that same wall.
So I come back to my comp to make this post and it started again. And I flushed the unused toilet again, and it stopped again. Been 10 minutes now and it hasn't come back.
Could this damned noise be the work of someone chainsawing the sewage pipes somewhere around here? A bad power transformer getting ready to blow (seen one once, it sounded like that before it blew) somehow vibrating my plumbing that damn much?
And how could flushing the toilet that only flushes every few months make it start to begin with? And if it could be started that way, why didn't the other toilet start it too many long times before?
Okay experts, get to it. Tell me what the hell that noise is.
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"Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those with guns..." -Thomas Jefferson
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Ruger
Lyran Alliance
Hauptmann General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2039
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| Posted: 06-Mar-2005 07:50 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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It's your evil, deformed twin brother that your parents hid beneath the house...he's lived off your sewage and toilet waters for years, but now he wants out!
Ruger (maybe I've seen too many episodes of the X-Files or too many horror movies...  )
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Seraph
Blighted Sun Battalion
2nd Company
"Seraph's Slaughter"
Major
Joined: 11-Mar-2004 00:00
Posts: 1744
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| Posted: 06-Mar-2005 08:50 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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I'm thinking insect infestation. Possibly bees or wasps. A friend of mine had that problem in his bathroom last year. The hive kept growing til it started to push the walls out. He hired a guy to remove them. The hive was 7 feet tall and 6 feet wide. The damn bees destrroyed 4 studs and were slowly wearing the drywall down. The guy said if it had gone unnchecked for another 3-4 weeks the house would have been full of bees after the wall gave way.
Just a possibility you may want to consider.
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If ignorance is bliss, then why are you so miserable?
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Warhammer: 3025
Freelance
Captain, AFFC (Ret.)
Joined: 29-Jan-2005 00:00
Posts: 1856
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| Posted: 06-Mar-2005 09:20 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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Assuming your twin brother doesn't get you, I recommend that you hire a general handyman. He's not as specialized as either a Plumber or Electrician, but he'll cover your bases if the vibration is being caused by your pipes, something elecrical, or something else.
I had something similar happen once, in my apartment. It turns out that the building slightly shifted on its foundation, and one of those old heating pipes (the ones connected to that old, shaking furnace in the basement. You know which one I mean  ) had come into contact with a nail in a nearby stud. The pipe was constantly vibrating, and the nail amplified the vibration by turning the entire wall into a giant subwoofer.
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Evil is like a bowl of oranges. Only one, instead, is an orange of DOOM. That orange has a fate to rule over the other oranges with an iron fist. That orange is me.
Because sometimes, there are many guards in the castle.
Ya Rl'yeh!
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ralgith
Blighted Sun Battalion
1st Company
"Ralgith's Renegades"
Colonel
Joined: 18-Aug-2003 00:00
Posts: 2021
Location: United States
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| Posted: 06-Mar-2005 09:21 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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Thats just scary man, I've never seen a beehive bigger than 2' x 3' approx. And I thought that was huge! heh.
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Colonel Ralgith t'Mayasara
Blighted Sun Battalion
1st Company 'Ralgith's Renegades'
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Gunslinger Patch
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Major
Joined: 04-Mar-2002 00:00
Posts: 1611
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| Posted: 06-Mar-2005 15:48 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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Well, the sound has returned. Can't be bees, my grandfather used to keep some hives way back when and it don't sound like that. Its something metallic and somehow the toilet has been turned into a speaker.
But what I still don't get is what the hell could make the whichever pipe it is shake like that, its just a water pipe, my heater/ac is at the other end of the house. And how did flushing a toilet set it off to begin with? I got to find my best bud to come over and help me yank that panel off the wall tonight.
Hmm. There were carpenter ants in there at one time, before I poisoned them. Maybe they're back and they're pissed?
Its too bad about the bees though. With a beehive like that I could get some money for it from the tv networks for the movie rights to "Nature's Vengeance" or something like that. LOL.
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"Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those with guns..." -Thomas Jefferson
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Hardware
Clan Ghost Bear
Star Colonel
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 605
Location: United States
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| Posted: 06-Mar-2005 20:43 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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Does your home's plumbing have a air trap? What it would look like a short, capped, vertical section of pipe right next to the supply pipe entering the house. The purpose of an air trap is to, oddly enough, trap air. Air trapped in a plumbing run can make weird noises and the fact that your noise goes away when you flush either toilet makes me suspect air in the lines. You may need to run water for some time in the affected segment of line to flush out all the air.
Just my $0.02.
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The more I get to know people the more I like my dog.
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Gunslinger Patch
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Major
Joined: 04-Mar-2002 00:00
Posts: 1611
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| Posted: 06-Mar-2005 21:46 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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I'll try it, have to wait till tomorrow to look around for the air trap thing outside, can't find a flashlight. And now I can touch the wall in behind the regular toilet and indeed half the walls in the house and feel the vibration. And the wall behind the regular toilet is now making the noise as well.
I ran the water in the unused bathroom sink, and got a very brief air gasp, about 1 second, when I first turned it on and the noice stopped right then. Now to see if it comes back again.
[ This Message was edited by: Gunslinger Patch on 2005-03-06 21:54 ]
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"Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those with guns..." -Thomas Jefferson
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jymset
Scavenger
in pursuit of LosTech
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 956
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 07-Mar-2005 03:36 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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So, any news? I really couldn't give input, but things like this interest me. It's all a learning process..... (and I'm still young  )
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The AC5 is a great gun!
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Hardware
Clan Ghost Bear
Star Colonel
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 605
Location: United States
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| Posted: 07-Mar-2005 09:07 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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Since it seems to be spreading it sort of confirms the air in the pipes theory. Since (theoretically) each time anyone connected to your water supply line opens or closes a valve creates a pulse in the water supply an air gap in the pipe allows that puls to manifest in that section of pipe. Water can't be compressed, but the air can and as the air compresses and rebounds the pipe vibrates in sympathy.
Are you connected to a municipal water supply or do you have a well? If you have a well you may be sucking air either through a hole in the pump assembly or your well may be bottoming out. If you have a municipal supply the air would have to be coming from the pump end or somewhere the pipe was cut and reconnected. Air always looks for the highest point in a plumbing setup. One way to bleed all the air is to open every tap in the house and let them run for until they stop sputtering. Don't forget to flush the toilets!
Good luck and keep us up to date!
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The more I get to know people the more I like my dog.
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Rarich
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 991
Location: United States
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| Posted: 07-Mar-2005 19:36 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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I'LL Buy THAT FOR SERIOUS $$$$$
Hire an exterminator now, or bug bomb the room at the very least. If those get into the house you could easily be stung to death.
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Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease.
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Gunslinger Patch
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Major
Joined: 04-Mar-2002 00:00
Posts: 1611
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| Posted: 07-Mar-2005 21:45 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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Well, its been a day and the noise has not returned. It would seem that the cause was a little bit of air that could only be disposed of by turning on the faucet on the unused sink, which disposed of the air bubble in about 1 second.
(edit) Oh yeah, I'm hooked up to city water.
What a relief, now I won't have to yank that panel off, which would have been a real pain the ass what with the small space to work in and so on. Not even sure I could pull it off that wall and move it around so I could get at the wall behind it without cutting it in half or something.
It is just amazing to me that a such a small amount of air in a pipe could cause such a loud noise and a detectable vibration when touching any wall in that whole half of the house. On the walls behind the toilets themselves, the vibration was about as much as when you are touching the refrigerator right when the compressor starts up, and the noise was a good bit louder then that too.
[ This Message was edited by: Gunslinger Patch on 2005-03-07 21:47 ]
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"Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those with guns..." -Thomas Jefferson
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Gunslinger Patch
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Major
Joined: 04-Mar-2002 00:00
Posts: 1611
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| Posted: 07-Mar-2005 21:46 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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You know, it is somehow very fitting that it was Hardware who called it right. 
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"Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those with guns..." -Thomas Jefferson
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Hardware
Clan Ghost Bear
Star Colonel
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 605
Location: United States
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| Posted: 08-Mar-2005 05:53 Post subject: RE: mystery noise |
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20 years of watching This Old House pays off. Plus, lo-buck home repair is a neccesity. Any fool can throw money at a problem. Getting it resolved in a cost-effective manner is a bit harder.
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The more I get to know people the more I like my dog.
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