I live in a multi story condo, and the pipes in one of my 2 bathrooms shower seems to be humming. When I turn on the shower it seems to subside but when I turn it off, the humming resumes. I can feel the pipes vibrating inside the wall, but cannot tell if it is originating from my shower or if it is coming from a different floor. Also it seems to only make the noise at night, by morning it has stopped, the humming is also intermittent (not continuous). I plan to inform the property manager but am curious if the problem is obvious to what is causing this and can it be isolated. There is a slow drip from my shower faucet, but it has sort of always been like that, the humming is something new.

I have tried to search as much as I could, and have read about slow leaks from the toilets causing this problem, turning off the supply valves or flushing the toilets doesn't have any affect to the humming.

Any help or comments would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Mark.

Hi Mark,
This might no be coming from your unit at all. You may be experiencing a phenomenon known as "sympathetic vibration" This occurs when the pipes pick up the vibration and carry it all over the connected units. As a rule we check the toilets first and if we don't find it there we attempt to track the vibration, by feel, back to where it feels the strongest. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful but smells, noises and vibrations are the hardest to track down if you're not there to do it. Good luck, Tom

Thanks Tom, I appreciate your response. At least I know more about the subject and that I'm sort of thinking along the correct lines. I'm pretty sure it's not actually coming from my unit but I'll have the slow drip fixed for the environment and saving water sake. And I'll also inform the property manager that its going going on, maybe he can coordinate an effort to track down the cause. What's interesting is that the hum changed to a high pitch whine, and back to the hum again. I'm glad I can sleep through anything.

I'll post for continuity sake if I do ever get answer on what actually caused the problem.

Thanks again,

Mark.