Whining from central heating - driving us crazy

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Hi all,

I hope you can help please?

We have had builders in to fit a new bathroom. The floorboards have been up (one even put his foot through the ceiling), the bath and toilet taken out, the radiator has gone too.

Anyway, shortly after they started their work we noticed a very high pitched whine (a bit like coil whine, if you know your electronics) - the sort of whine that you can hear in the air but can't pinpoint the source. It was coming from our small downstairs hall (about 1m x 2.5m) which, perhaps not coincidentally, is directly below the bathroom. It is not too loud, such that you can get used to it and if you walk about 5m into the next room it becomes quite faint, but unfortunately the sitting room is the room directly off the hall, so it is quite annoying. Walk through the sitting room and you get to the kitchen, as both rooms are open plan. In the kitchen, you can't hear the noise.

For several days we've been struggling to pin-point the source of the noise, which is intermittent and mostly during the evenings. Could it be the smoke alarm developing a fault etc. Anyway, today I figured it out. I heard the noise cut out and the second it did, I heard our gas boiler, which is in the kitchen through the sitting room, also cut out, the house having reached the required temperature. I experimented by setting the thermostat higher, which made the boiler kick in and the noise started again.

To be clear, the noise is NOT coming from the boiler in the kitchen. It is coming from the hall which is the other side of the sitting room.

Could it be one of the central heating pipes? Could the builders have damaged it somehow?

I'd be grateful for any advise you could give please. Many thanks!
Matt
 
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It might well be a pipe vibrating against something; are any of them visible, or are they all under the flooring. I reckon you'll need to get them back to investigate as this shouldn't be happening. At least you've managed to ascertain roughly where the problems starting from.
 
Bathroom rad might have been used as a bypass, ask the builders to link the pipework and see if the noise disappears.
 
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if the lockshield valve on a radiator is cut right down it can make the noise you're describing,
try opening it up a bit more and see if it makes a difference
 

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