neighbours noisy plumbing

kingandy2nd said:

This is not going to help your cause...you need to do what EH require (i.e. a proper log) if you expect any help.

There are plenty of other sound recording devices, and even independent companies that can can act like EH to provide you with monitoring tools.

You could ask for a plumber to inspect the pipes in your loft, or even to just listen to the noise and make an assessment.

Your basic lack of action to try and sort this just strikes me as strange considering you're suggesting it's having such a detrimental affect on you.

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Hi, No, I put in my diary on one day that the noise drives me so insane that i have had to put my white noise machine on permenantly all afternoon. it simply shows how intolerable the noise is....my diary seems to just consist of on for 10 secs, off, on for 1 minute, off, on for 30 secs, off.on, off...all she does is run those taps.
i am about to go to the council offices and hand in my completed diary sheets.
Asking a plumber to listen might be difficult as I do not know when she will be running her taps. I have asked a couple of plumbers (just met them through my work - and mentioned this noise and they cannot understand it...
i did look at the private sound monitoring - they were about £280 a day.
What i really want is for EH to ask her to run her taps and then come into my house and listen to it.....i dont know what the next step from the diaries will be. i would assume they will contact her - i think they have to if they intend taking it further.

Madrab said:

I'd have a chat with citizens advice just to ask how they would recommend engaging with the neighbour so they can't ignore it, not as much about the specific issue, just about how you get someone to officially acknowledge communications. You may need to make an official communication, registered (signed for) letter etc to ensure she has received it. Is she an owner or tenant?

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Hi Madrab
Thank you for that advice. I am thinking that perhaps EH will contact her but I will note your advice.

notsure123 said:

Hi, No, I put in my diary on one day that the noise drives me so insane that i have had to put my white noise machine on permenantly all afternoon. it simply shows how intolerable the noise is....my diary seems to just consist of on for 10 secs, off, on for 1 minute, off, on for 30 secs, off.on, off...all she does is run those taps.
i am about to go to the council offices and hand in my completed diary sheets.
Asking a plumber to listen might be difficult as I do not know when she will be running her taps. I have asked a couple of plumbers (just met them through my work - and mentioned this noise and they cannot understand it...
i did look at the private sound monitoring - they were about £280 a day.
What i really want is for EH to ask her to run her taps and then come into my house and listen to it.....i dont know what the next step from the diaries will be. i would assume they will contact her - i think they have to if they intend taking it further.

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If it’s a frequently she uses her taps as you suggest, it won’t take long for a plumber to hear it.

£280 seems like a small price to pay to get external validation if it’s affecting you as much as you claim.

kingandy2nd said:

If it’s a frequently she uses her taps as you suggest, it won’t take long for a plumber to hear it.

£280 seems like a small price to pay to get external validation if it’s affecting you as much as you claim.

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Thank you. But even if i got a plumber in to listen and give an opinion, it does not change the fact that she will not acknowledge the situation. I am hoping that EH can help and would hope that should they contact her, she must surely have to acknoledge the situation. I feel absolutely sure that if she would just come in and listen to this noise, she could not ignore it as its so unacceptable. To acknowledge it, would mean doing something about it.....so its to get her to actually know its unacceptable and even if EH cannot legally do anything, they could convey to her that it is loud, it is unacceptable etc etc......
nightmare......

As the problem affects you profoundly, just move.

If you must stay, then use ear plugs. These are soft enough to sleep with: https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/sgbgpsd1116s/

TapLady said:

I have exactly the same problem with my neighbour's taps and plumbing and with the neighbour's response - I believe the problem is amplification in the party wall. The pipes have been attached to the wall and the wall acts like an amplifier when anything is drilled into it, etc. I live in a tiny converted chapel - the outer walls are 2ft thick stone but the party wall is 200 mm grey cement bricks. I bought my half in 2003 - I like how it was converted and have not made that many alterations, it is similar to the submitted plans (living area upstairs, sleeping area downstairs because of light issues, etc). The other side was rented out for a few years until someone bought it in 2015 and decided to renovate - it was living hell and I learned that anything that is drilled, hacked, or hammered into the party wall is 'loud' - for instance, you can vaguely hear a drill start-up on the other side... then when it goes into the party wall - holy Moses - like a jet plane taking off. They moved a shower room right next to my living space a couple of years ago. My living space is only 4 meters wide - theirs is only 4 meters wide too. I cannot hear the toilet that is against the party wall but the pipes and taps to the sink are far louder than my taps - it is annoying as hell. The thing is the people next-door are not prepared to compromise by moving the pipes, etc - that would be way too helpful. Does anybody know anything about party walls that amplify like this and how to get rid of this problem from my side?

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Hi I posted this earlier because I have a similar problem - noisy taps from a sink on a party wall after the neighbours did some renovation. It is very difficult to record something like this because you don't have that much notice of when it is going to happen and it doesn't last for that long but is very intrusive... but I managed to get a small recording (you have to turn the volume up loud) which I have attached along with the picture of the pipes and sink - I also have a picture of the pipes to the shower during the renovation - I cannot hear the toilet or the shower - just the taps on the sink. Luckily, I sent the recording to the neighbour who has at last agreed for a plumber to call round - I thought I'd try to figure out what may be going on before the plumber calls - I thought maybe if I can't hear the shower or the toilet than perhaps those pipes can be used to feed the sink - will this work or maybe it has something to do with the taps?

I dont have a clue about such things but well done for all that you have managed to do so far. Hope somebody else on here can help you. (i am now getting a shunting noise behind my boiler when she stops running the taps...heaven only knows what they did.

Really good luck...glad the neighbour is receptive.....

Keep us up to date with progress.

For me, I have sent diaries off to environmental health and can only wait and see. You were being very polite when you said the noise is very `intrusive`!!

how annoying i cannot seem to download and listen to your tap noise...

Wow thats loud!! i managed to liisten to it. Its similar to what i hear but I dont have the sound of actual water flowing as well. (if i capture on video on phone i do hear water on playback but not like yours. Good luck with this....you have my sympathy

notsure123 said:

I dont have a clue about such things but well done for all that you have managed to do so far. Hope somebody else on here can help you. (i am now getting a shunting noise behind my boiler when she stops running the taps...heaven only knows what they did.

Really good luck...glad the neighbour is receptive.....

Keep us up to date with progress.

For me, I have sent diaries off to environmental health and can only wait and see. You were being very polite when you said the noise is very `intrusive`!!

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Thanks, I do hope I can get it resolved. Good luck with your problem - the shunting noise sounds worrying - hope the EH will help. Maybe, they can visit the property and come up with a solution.

notsure123 said:

Wow thats loud!! i managed to liisten to it. Its similar to what i hear but I dont have the sound of actual water flowing as well. (if i capture on video on phone i do hear water on playback but not like yours. Good luck with this....you have my sympathy

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Yeh, it is louder than the taps on my side. The owner said in her email that a plumber came round on 3rd Oct but he only heard normal tap noises - in my diary on the 3rd Oct I have written 'Terrible noise from tap next-door - they left it running for ages' haha

Just thought i would let you know the outcome of keeping 2 weeks worth of diaries for environmental health where it was absolutely filled with the noise and me saying that the noise was seriously driving me insane.
I was told that unfortunately they cannot intervene as it sounds like an insulation problem. (despite the fact there was no noise whatsoever before she had the plumbing installed and nobody else i have spoken to hears noise like this when a neighbour runs their taps. I hear the worst in my kitchen, it seems to pour down and yet i am not even next to her kitchen of bathroom, i have another room behind my kitchen that adjoins to her wall and even that is not attached to her kitchen.....now a shunting noise behind my boiler when she turns her taps off!
She will still no acknowledge it and the noise continues. I hope she has a burst pipe and a lovely flood or something and karma pays her back for her bodge plumbing job that has seriously destroyed the peace of my home.....this noise is not just now and then, running taps seems to be her hobby and when her family appear to stay over the summer weeks the noise never, ever stops.
I guess we have to accept there are simply, and i know they are far and few between as most people are good, decent people, some selfish, rude, disresepctful people in this world. Thinks she owes me nothing for pouring this noise into my home.....sorry, really at the end of the line....if this sound was music on the same scale pouring down into my home - and up until 1.30 am environmental health could step in.
I am hoping many burst pipes for her!!!
good luck Taplady - its sooo annoying fighting for a resolution and some justice in these things. The plumber should have been in your place to listen to the noise as that is the issue....my taps make a noise when i run them but the issue is if my neighbour heard them on the same level.
Basically, I am left a victim of her obviously, very cheap, bodged plumbing job....she obviously does not have the intellect to even question what they were doing - prehistoric plumbing in 2022. (i rememeber when the previous owners family put the house on the market, she said, as part of her selling points, `hallway has room for a washing machine`......i thought at the time, thanks for that!! her hallway is right along my entire living space and to be honest, why on earth would you want to put your washing machine in the hallway??? would not question this is right next to the neighbours lounge....and what the hell is wrong with your kitchen. i think the occupier there is naive and jsut lacks basic social skills to be honest and thats why she doesnt talk to anybody - you just get a hostile look. why buy a house in the middle of a street if you dont want to even acknowledge anybody....weird weird and very very annoying.

We are all victims of the society we are in. It's collective karma.

Move out. It will fix your problem instantly.

You've been offered solutions to your problem.

Employ a private company to monitor the noise, and then take the neighbour to court privately. Section 82 Environmental Protection Act 1990 request.

Or just continue to rant...

notsure123 said:

good luck Taplady - its sooo annoying fighting for a resolution and some justice in these things. The plumber should have been in your place to listen to the noise as that is the issue....my taps make a noise when i run them but the issue is if my neighbour heard them on the same level.
Basically, I am left a victim of her obviously, very cheap, bodged plumbing job...

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Thanks yeh, it is a great deal of stress and effort to resolve something that is not your fault - building control was actually notified of the installment of the bathroom next to my living room on the party wall - however, with COVID and new regulations they did not participate as much as when the chapel was first converted in 2000 and are now based over an hours drive away. These days they tend to allocate surveyors to inspect the work for them and some of those just ask the developers questions over the phone and don't even bother to inspect the property. Building work has been going on in the chapel from 2015 to 2022 (even though it is a very small building) and although I raised a few concerns about various things, not one official has ever visited the property on my side in that time. I am very grateful that things are not as bad as they could have been. Good luck with finding a solution - so far there has been no sign of a plumber - wonder what they'd say when she tells them what the job is - something like 'hmmmm.... not sure when I can get out there' haha