Continual humming/whoosing sound from cold water main

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Good afternoon everyone. This is my first post on here and my knowledge of plumbing isn't the greatest, so hopefully the following will make sense and you may be able to give me some advice!

I live on the third floor of a small block with 5 other flats. About a month ago I noticed a low humming / whoosing sound in my bedroom as if water was flowing through a pipe. The sound itsef is coming from underneath my floor. As I said, I live in a flat and can usually hear the sound of other flats flushing the toilet or using the shower, so initially didn't think much of it. However, since noticing it, this noise has continued non-stop regardless of if I am using any water or not. It also appears to be louder at night.

When I open up the airing cupboard, where my water meter is located, I can also hear the continual low humming noise coming from the cold water main even when none of the dials on the water meter are moving. When I touch the pipe there also feels like a slight vibration coming from it too. I have had a plumber visit and he acknowledged the noise and turned off the internal stop tap in my airing cupboard, but the noise continued and he said that he wasn't too sure where it was coming from.

Each of the flats in the block have a small panel just above floor height by the front door with a stop tap. The stop tap behind this panel looked pretty ancient and had seized up, so a plumber visited earlier today to replace it. During the replacement he turned off the water to the building via the external stop tap under the pavement and the noise that I had been hearing in the water main immediately stopped. Unfortunately, after he had finished replacing the interal stop tap and turned the water to the building back on the noise started again.

Apologies for the long post, and hopefully that all makes sense. I'm just at my wits end as the sound is starting to keep me awake at night!! If anyone has any advice then I'd really appreciate it. From doing a bit of research online, some people have suggested that there could be some sort of leak outside on the supply pipe that is causing the noise. I just wondered if anyone on here thought that may be the cause, had experienced something similar, or had any other suggestions. I'm thinking that the best next course of action would be to call Thames Water to see if they can help at all.

Regarding further information. I have a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard and a cold water tank in the loft. I have seen some people suggest that the float/ball valve may be the issue, but I've had a look up there and it doesn't appear to be noisy.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this!
 
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Someone in your block, has a tap left on, or maybe a leak. Easy way to check which one, would be to turn off the local stop tap, to each flat, and see which one stops the noise.
 
Someone in your block, has a tap left on, or maybe a leak. Easy way to check which one, would be to turn off the local stop tap, to each flat, and see which one stops the noise.
Hi Harry, thanks a lot for taking the time to reply. I've spoken to the flat directly below me and they said that they can't hear anything. If it was that flat that had the leak should they be hearing the noise too? Unfortunately some of the other people in the block aren't the friendliest, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to get permission to turn off their stop taps.
 
Could possibly be a failed flush on a toilet cistern, causing a constant flow of water into the bowl..
 
Who is the management company for the flats? It might be something you can drop in their lap to investigate and sort out. Also, if your stop tap to your flat was siezed, it's possible the others are in a similar state and might need fixing.
 
Thanks to everyone who replied with help and advice.

I just wanted to provide an update rather than leaving the post unresolved. Thames Water visited earlier today and mentioned that there was a lot of noise coming from all of the external stop taps in the street. They suspect a leak and are in the process of trying to locate it.
 

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