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Alan
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

In message , Dave
wrote
The past few mornings we have heard a distinct tapping noise apparently coming
from the other side of the adjoining wall in our 3 bed semi.
This happens at more or less the same time (07:00) each day. The
tapping lasts a
few minutes, stops, then starts again. After about an hour there is no more
tapping for the rest of the day!


Central heating switching on at 7am and pipes through joists etc.
expanding?
--
Alan

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nightjar
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?


"Dave" wrote in message
...
.....
Can someone suggest how to track the noise down - eg does deathwatch

beetle make
this pattern of sound?


A deathwatch beetle sounds like someone making short, sharp taps on a piece
of wood. It is quite loud if you are in the same room, but I'm not sure that
you would hear it clearly through a wall. They are very rare in domestic
premises, as they generally prefer oak and other hardwoods that have started
to decay a bit.

Colin Bignell


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Sneezy
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Dave wrote in
:

The past few mornings we have heard a distinct tapping noise
apparently coming from the other side of the adjoining wall in our 3
bed semi. This happens at more or less the same time (07:00) each day.
The tapping lasts a few minutes, stops, then starts again. After about
an hour there is no more tapping for the rest of the day!

So far I have possible: - neighbour, beetle, ghost.

Now, next door lives an elderly women (80+) who is still quite fit and
"with-it". But she has been known not to be above telling the
occasional fib. (Denied damp problem when there clearly was one). So
I'm just wondering if *maybe* she's going bonkers and tapping the wall
- because that's what it sounds like.


My parent's next door neighbour (now in a better place) was a heathly woman
who seemed quite with-it. You'd never know that she talked to a brass cast
of a miner, believing it to be her dead husband reincarnate. If it's not
coming from your side, then you've either got to somehow catch her in the
act or at least get in the property to have a look for yourself, or contact
environmental health about the noise nuisance - they can always get social
services involved if she is nuts.


--
john

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what
they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand." -
Putt's Law
  #4   Report Post  
Pete C
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Hi,

Does the tapping stop if you tap back in response?

cheers,
Pete.

On Sat, 21 Feb 2004 14:49:11 +0000, Dave wrote:

The past few mornings we have heard a distinct tapping noise apparently coming
from the other side of the adjoining wall in our 3 bed semi.
This happens at more or less the same time (07:00) each day. The tapping lasts a
few minutes, stops, then starts again. After about an hour there is no more
tapping for the rest of the day!

So far I have possible: - neighbour, beetle, ghost.

Now, next door lives an elderly women (80+) who is still quite fit and
"with-it". But she has been known not to be above telling the occasional fib.
(Denied damp problem when there clearly was one). So I'm just wondering if
*maybe* she's going bonkers and tapping the wall - because that's what it sounds
like. I went around the morning and suggested maybe there was a water pipe
tapping somewhere to her (there isn't because there are none there). She denied
even hearing a sound! This is almost certainly untrue as even sound sleepers in
my family have been awakened by the noise.

Can someone suggest how to track the noise down - eg does deathwatch beetle make
this pattern of sound?

Tomorrow I'll try and record it!


  #5   Report Post  
John Rumm
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Sneezy wrote:

environmental health about the noise nuisance - they can always get social
services involved if she is nuts.


If she is 80 odd, is it not more likely that she is just a bit deaf?

--
Cheers,

John.

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Sneezy
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Dave wrote in
:

On Sat, 21 Feb 2004 16:41:12 GMT, Sneezy
wrote:

Dave wrote in
m:

The past few mornings we have heard a distinct tapping noise
apparently coming from the other side of the adjoining wall in our 3
bed semi. This happens at more or less the same time (07:00) each
day. The tapping lasts a few minutes, stops, then starts again.
After about an hour there is no more tapping for the rest of the
day!

So far I have possible: - neighbour, beetle, ghost.

Now, next door lives an elderly women (80+) who is still quite fit
and "with-it". But she has been known not to be above telling the
occasional fib. (Denied damp problem when there clearly was one). So
I'm just wondering if *maybe* she's going bonkers and tapping the
wall - because that's what it sounds like.


My parent's next door neighbour (now in a better place) was a heathly
woman who seemed quite with-it. You'd never know that she talked to a
brass cast of a miner, believing it to be her dead husband
reincarnate. If it's not coming from your side,


I'm prett sure it is not.
then you've either got to somehow catch her in the
act or at least get in the property to have a look for yourself, or
contact environmental health about the noise nuisance - they can
always get social services involved if she is nuts.


She's been a good neighbour and I don't wish to upset her. If she is
going loopy I'd like to help in some constructive way to deal with it
- a bit difficult though. She rather suddenly seems to be doing things
she never did before like hanging several bird feeders in the garden
and now it's becoming a problem because the pidegeons are flocking to
the place, which isn't health imo. I've also spotted her a few times
deliberately slamming the (empty) wheelybin lid for no apparent
reason! I just hope it *is* some pipe problem - far easier to deal
with.


It's a tough one. The next door neighbour I mentioned sort of did her
husband in - he fell down stairs and she just put him to bed. She'd mow the
lawn, only there was no lawn - just soil. The Council explained to her how
to light her fire using the gas lighter (like a piezo ignition thing only
it uses mains gas). She took a hatchet to it, chopped it up, and tried
starting a fire with it. Completely misunderstood - funny if it weren't so
serious. Then there's the numerous occasions when she put the gas cooker on
and forgot to light it. She smoked - Lord knows how she didn't blow the
place to Kingdom come. Oh and she tried changing a light bulb - by pulling
hard on the bulb. Ripped the light fitting out, blew the fuse. If it wasn't
for my Dad taking care of her she would easily have blown up/burnt down her
house and my parents house.

Social services aren't big on constructive intervention. If she is losing
it, you might end up being her carer - for your own safety if for nothing
else! Fingers crossed it's a simple pipe or similar problem.


--
john

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what
they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand." -
Putt's Law
  #7   Report Post  
Lee
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Dave wrote:

The past few mornings we have heard a distinct tapping noise apparently coming
from the other side of the adjoining wall in our 3 bed semi.
This happens at more or less the same time (07:00) each day. The tapping lasts a
few minutes, stops, then starts again. After about an hour there is no more
tapping for the rest of the day!

So far I have possible: - neighbour, beetle, ghost.


Could it simply be an excessively loud mechanical alarm clock?
The large "Big Ben" ones with the 2 oversized "gongs" on top are
very very loud...
If it's touching the wall the clapper could be making the tapping
noise.

It sounds like something timed anyway...

Lee






--
To reply use lee.blaver and ntlworld.com
  #8   Report Post  
The Natural Philosopher
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Dave wrote:

The past few mornings we have heard a distinct tapping noise apparently coming
from the other side of the adjoining wall in our 3 bed semi.
This happens at more or less the same time (07:00) each day. The tapping lasts a
few minutes, stops, then starts again. After about an hour there is no more
tapping for the rest of the day!



Sound like a heating pipe heating up and creaking against a joist. Check
waht time your, and their, CH, fires up.


  #9   Report Post  
Suz
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Thanks for the suggestions - neither side has central heating but

What way are the two houses heated?



  #10   Report Post  
Mary Fisher
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?


"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Sneezy wrote:

environmental health about the noise nuisance - they can always get

social
services involved if she is nuts.


If she is 80 odd, is it not more likely that she is just a bit deaf?


Pardon?

Mary

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/





  #11   Report Post  
John Rumm
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?

Mary Fisher wrote:

If she is 80 odd, is it not more likely that she is just a bit deaf?



Pardon?


I said "IS IT NOT MORE LIKELY...." - oh sorry that's tourists... ;-)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/
  #12   Report Post  
Mary Fisher
 
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Default Beetle neighbour ghost?


"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:

If she is 80 odd, is it not more likely that she is just a bit deaf?



Pardon?


I said "IS IT NOT MORE LIKELY...." - oh sorry that's tourists... ;-)


It always works :-)))))))))))))))))

Mary


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/



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