Foghorn Challenge

[Coniferman]

hmmmm - can anyone work this out?

When the wind picks-up there is a sound like a fog-horn (tone is slightly higher than that) at the back of my house - can clearly be heard inside and outside. I cannot place where it is coming from. Any ideas?

Things I have considered but think unlikely:

1. My gutter downpipe is open at the bottom about 2 or 3 inches above the opening to the drain.
2. Next door have a single storey extension with a chimney on top
3. The "sleepers" under my shed.
4. I thought about gaps in my soffits but they have all been fixed.

I look forward to some weird and wonderful suggestions but hopefully someone will have encountered this and have the solution.

I am in an area of 80's build 3-bed detached.

 

[joe-90]

Houses have always done this. It's called 'wuthering' which is why the book was so named.

It's all to do with the same principal as a aircraft wing making airflow faster due to the pitch of the roof.

 

[tim west]

Is Pacific Heights set in the ocean?

 

[bernardgreen]

If you can estimate the tone of the noise in musical terms then looking up a table of organ pipe length will give an idea of the length of resonant pipe or cavity that produces that tone.

As it is low pitched I would look at long pipes such as the soil stack pipe or chimneys as first options.

Wind blowing across an air brick into an un-filled cavity wall has been known to create very low pitched ghostly groans

 

[tim west]

(naked man sitting by soil pipe turns to camera and smiles) pa da da dah dah da da

 

[bernardgreen]

(naked man sitting by soil pipe turns to camera and smiles) pa da da dah dah da da

Ahh yes..... the man who will sit and toil at Pan Pipes........

 

[Richardp]

OK, Coniferman, this is not a wind up, we had a bloke from the council here last year sorting out sounds reported from one of the council houses, he put a plastic bucket over his head and could pinpoint where the sound was coming from, in this case it was a stink pipe, (a bird had built a nest in it.)

 

[Coniferman]

OK, Coniferman, this is not a wind up, we had a bloke from the council here last year sorting out sounds reported from one of the council houses, he put a plastic bucket over his head and could pinpoint where the sound was coming from, in this case it was a stink pipe, (a bird had built a nest in it.)

Right, gone to find plastic bucket! At least the padded cell will keep the noise out

It sounds quite normal so I can live with it - only when the wind really picks-up. Curiosity really, if no quick fix.

Cavity walls are filled, air bricks are in more sheltered positions, no naked pan pipers !!

 

[Deluks]

(naked man sitting by soil pipe turns to camera and smiles) pa da da dah dah da da

Ahh yes..... the man who will sit and toil at Pan Pipes........

I used to sit and toil at Pan's People

 

[Trazor]

(naked man sitting by soil pipe turns to camera and smiles) pa da da dah dah da da

Ahh yes..... the man who will sit and toil at Pan Pipes........

I used to sit and toil at Pan's People

Toiling...................

 

[tim west]

OK, Coniferman, this is not a wind up, we had a bloke from the council here last year sorting out sounds reported from one of the council houses, he put a plastic bucket over his head

Did you scare him that much?

 

[ricicle]

I've had this at different houses.What I discovered was that it was the wind getting underneath flagstones and 'vibrating' them!

 

[Coniferman]

I've had this at different houses.What I discovered was that it was the wind getting underneath flagstones and 'vibrating' them!

Interesting - I do have a patio that needs re-doing - missing pointing etc and slightly uneven. Can't imagine how wind can get under them though?

You made me think also that next door have decking - could that cause it?

The worst thing is that when I hear it, I go outside and the wind stops. Grrrrrrr! Theres me out in the garden in the midde of the night with a bucket on my head stepping from one paving stone to the next.

 

[Richardp]

um! Coniferman, I forgot to say,it has to be a yellow bucket

 

[tim west]

Tie a yellow bucket round the old conifer tree