Noise/vibrations in new home. Neighbors not affected?? 2

[Amcmacken]

Hello,
I live in a 6 year old home that is wood frame 2x4 construction with mostly brick on the exterior. Base grade windows throughout which were poorly installed 18 months after the house was built there were 1/4 gaps around all of the windows that needed to be filled with caulk on the inside. I’ve noticed a significant amount of outdoor noise and vibrations in the house and sometimes when the noise is present it sounds like blowing over a pop bottle. I am having the windows replaced with Marvin Elevate casement windows in the hope it will reduce the sound/vibrations. I have also had my exterior walls injected with additional insulation and my master suite interior walls filled with insulation. I also experienced quite a bit of deflection in my master bedroom and to remedy this situation I have added blocking between the joists in the basement. This has helped with the deflection but I still have vibrations throughout my home. The noise and vibrations are more apparent above where my I-beams and support poles are located in the basement. In some cases it feels like my home is a giant tuning fork. I also have a significant amount of bass like echo/sound in the corner of master suite when my tumble dryer is running, 20’ away.

The home is on land that has a high water table and because of that the builder built up the land. All of the land around the house slopes down approx 3-4’ over 8-10’

I’ve contacted the utilities companies, the local metal stamping facility and am coming up empty handed. Does anyone have any insight based on the information I’ve provided? I don’t know who to reach out to for help. I feel it’s definitely related to the house, otherwise my neighbors would have to be affected as well. This has become a major nuisance in my life and I rarely get a good nights sleep. I love my home and want to stay but have to find a solution to this issue. Not sure where to turn for help.

 

[Amcmacken]

@r13: interesting read and I have done a bit of reading on infrasound since this has started. I agree with everyone that this is a very low frequency. I noticed this post on another forum I came across when reading about infrasound. It sounds very similar to what I’m experiencing, including the physical feelings:


“ Apr 9, 2013
Recently am experiencing what I now believe is Infrasound. I felt vibrating of my home at night, so I began searching on the Web and it appears to match the effects of Infrasound, or Sonic sound waves. I'm in a residential neighborhood. I do not know who to talk to or complain to about what is happening. More noticeable at night, its like; someone turns on a switch and feel like a hugh semi truck is sitting in my driveway. It remains to a degree during the day as well. My body pressure appears to go up, and sometimes can hear the buzzing sound. I have shut down my house power, I've disconnected my wireless phones, etc. but it continues. I am afraid people will think I am a nutcase. I have had muscle twitch, shallow breathing, rapid heart rate, stomach aches and nausea, headaches and inner ear itching and tingles. I can't sleep now without a sleep aid. If I close my ears off, it seems to magnify in intensity. Can anyone tell me what is going on, providing that I am not nuts? Is there something out there that can help me detect these soundwaves. I am not tech savvey.”

I also noticed a person responded and mention a an inexpensive device to measure these frequencies. Linking item below. @OG do you believe the equipment you recommended will also measure the lower frequencies? Apologize if i sound plain daft, but I specialize in quartz slabs and porcelain tile.

http://www.infiltec.com/Infrasound@home/

Thanks all!

 

[Amcmacken]

All, I was able to obtain the plans for the water supply/pipes for my neighborhood. Please see attached. My lot number is #27195 which is situated at the bottom center of the area. What I find interesting is that the noise/vibration is the strongest on the south and west side of my home. As you’ll notice from the plans there is a “city of flat rock” line which runs along the souther portion of the property and then turns north and runs along the west side of the property. I also noticed a lift station to the east, near the pond.

 

[oldestguy]

While the vibration may not originate at the sewer line, it may be a good conductor of the vibrations. Sorry abut the word "good". Anyhow that would be an area where the test equipment should be used also.
Which way to the factory and the machinery?

 

[LittleInch]

Did you forget to mention the railroad and the rather large marshalling yards?? About 1 1/2 miles away.

And a whole bunch of level crossings.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Amcmacken]

Flat Rock Metal Factory location and distance from my home attached.

 

[LittleInch]

See sections 17 & 1.8

https://uic.org/IMG/pdf/uic-railway-induced-vibration-report-2017.pdf

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Amcmacken]

Hi Littleinch. Thanks for the response. Yea there is a train yard 1.6 miles away. I have been down this route and have been in communications with the company as well. I have driven there at all hours of the night. I do not hear or feel the same noise as I did at Flat Rock Metal. I can identify the sound of the train moving along tracks separate from this sound. At one point I read an article regarding trains and the fact that they must stay idling during the winter months because of the engines. What I am experiencing is present all seasons. It goes on for days and days and then stops lidyerlay as if someone flipped a switch. It’s constant during those times without a break.

 

[oldestguy]

Doing a search on Google for this vibration subject I see new detector that may work as a geophone does, but apparently cheaper and works in any direction. Connection looks like a typical BNC type.
Look up "Voyager Instruments" and their FID.

 

[LittleInch]

To go over a mile, the vibrations are going deep underground and you don't feel them on the surface.

But either way, there is something about your house which is picking these up and amplifying them.

Now the on/off bit might just be because something shifts a little bit in the house as it cools down or warms up or just shifts a bit.

If I was you I would go get a set of accrow props and start moving them about a bit in your basement to stress the frame of the house differently and see what happens...

Or dig a large trench around it and fill it with gravel.

Ultimately finding out what the vibration is is academic. It's the house which is causing these small vibrations to be such an issue for you IMHO so the sooner you start looking at the frame of the house and doing something to change its natural frequencies the better for you.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[oldestguy]

Don't dig any trenches, install braces, etc unless you are darn sure of the purpose. Get the scope and sensors before doing anyting permanent.

Edit: Note the Huron River with water that is a darn good conductor of vibrations.

 

[1503-44]

I was just thinking the same thing about the river channel. There is a dam there too. Might the vibrations correspond to flow cascading over the dam. It would also be a low frequency source. Channel is also to SW. Otherwise I've got nothing.

 

[oldestguy]

Solving these problems at the affected house might be easy and they more likely complicated with several smaller amplitude frequencies. I'd not be surprised to see it difficult to install damping, such as a "column" in the center of a living room. May result in improvement, but still some too difficult to dampen out completely. Takes patience.

Edit: While at it look at results from a perch for basting vibrations. Plenty out there and some reports of distance from blast useful here.

 

[LittleInch]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Rock_Dam_(Michigan)

Looks like it's just a weir now. Another one of these dams which failed earlier in the year.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[dhengr]

Amcmacken:
I’m with LittleInch on this problem, at this stage of development, except for his trench idea, which I think was partly said with tongue-n-cheek, at this point. Look for something peculiar about your house or its framing. And, you might need a helper to do some of this work. At this stage of the game you are trying to hone-in on the problem, not immediately fix it with one simple action. You stay up where you hear the problem most distinctly, and have your helper doing the fiddling around to try to change/reduce the sound/vibration. This allows you to hear any changes immediately, without running up-n-down and wondering if things have really changed. Cut a 2x4 a few inches longer than the height from the bsmt. slab to the underside of the fl. joists (or did you say they were I-Joists?), and a second 2x4 a few inches longer than the height to the underside of the fl. sheathing. One at a time, he should prop these 2x4’s up under a fl. jst. (check many) immediately under your area, and give it a whack or two at the fl. slab, to cause that fl. jst. to be pushed up slightly. Try different locations along the length of the joist. He is destressing, or stressing slightly differently, various members and locations, to see if this changes the pitch or loudness of the sound/vib. up where you are. If the sound changes you might be honing in on the problem area. Do the same with the subfloor sheathing, very lightly, you don’t want to part (push apart) the sheathing from the fl. jsts. at their joint/connection. Do this immediately under the upper wall which is making the noise, at different locations under the wall. He is trying to load/unload/flex that wall a bit to change the sound level. You can often feel with your finger tips, a vib. or relative flexure btwn. two members which you really can’t see by eye. Put your finger tips at the 90° joint btwn. the fl. jst. and the fl. sheathing, and with someone moving around on the fl. above, you will feel any vert. movement btwn. the sheathing and the fl. jst. before you can see it, most often. This can indicate locations of fl. squeaking, either btwn. to the two wood elements or the nail fasteners. Is the fl. sheathing glued and screwed? Alternatively, take a couple 2x2’s which will reach across the room, and can be clamped and wedged btwn. opposite walls; proper end blocking or application at a stud location, so as not to punch through the sht. rk. Maybe use some carpeting on the end blocking to minimize any vib transmission. Here, you are trying to stress/flex the offending wall section out of plane to change the sound/vib level. Is a whole wall plane or fl. plane acting something like a drum head, in its vib? This whole process does kinda make you look-n-feel crazy as hell, there is no simple answer or straight path to a fix, many times.

 

[oldestguy]

The long post above is nice, but waiting until you have instrumentation to measure this stuff will save a lot of wasted time. Advice from one who has done this too many times.

 

[WARose]

I also noticed a person responded and mention a an inexpensive device to measure these frequencies. Linking item below. @OG do you believe the equipment you recommended will also measure the lower frequencies? Apologize if i sound plain daft, but I specialize in quartz slabs and porcelain tile.

http://www.infiltec.com/Infrasound@home/

Looks like it will pick up the lower stuff. I'd contact them to be sure. (I'd also look around and see if you can find product reviews.)

This could possibly work out better than a instrument to measure actual vibration (assuming the source is noise). Most of those devices (and I own one) are relatively cheap until you want to start measuring below 10 Hz. Then it gets pricey.

 

[oldestguy]

WARose":Might not be able to read full wave forms, but ought to at least get the peaks.

 

[12345abc6ttyui67]

I've seen you've been testing all kinds of things.

What about opening / closing those enormous garage doors when the sound / vibration is occuring.

Your analogy of 'blowing over a bottle' made me think maybe there is some weird pressure effects or reverberation going on between external and internal pressures.

No idea if that fits the bill of what you are experiencing, hard to judge without seeing it in person.