# What the hell is my (party wall)neighbour doing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 9, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628 "2003-06-09T12:31:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/1 "2003-06-09T12:31:55Z")
Every night, from about 9pm onwards, a dull, low throbbing noise comes through the party wall from next door - it isn’t disturbing, but if you listen for it, it is always there, all night, every night. It sounds EXACTLY like a heart beating - _buh-boom\buh-boom\_. Now I _could_ just go around there and ask them what it is, but they might wrap me in slimy tentacular strands, ready to be eaten by the malignant hibernating alien entity that is making the noise. Speculate - what could be causing the sound? (my best guess was that it was some device intended to calm a sleeping baby by emulating in-womb sounds, but they don’t have any children that young). ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/2 "2003-06-09T12:51:05Z")
**Mangetout** - you haven’t given us a lot to go on (not that you know a lot about it yourself), but I will try the Sherlock Holmes routine: Since it runs “all night, every night”, I am inclined to assume that what you are hearing is: 1. the running of a machine to affect the apartment’s enviroment - e.g., heater, air conditioner, humidifier, de-humidifier - something that runs all night and whose mechanics result in low-frequency rhythmic rumblings. 2. a machine, like you said, designed to create ambient noise to assist with sleep. Beyond that, I would need more clues. Of course, you could always ask them, especially if you are merely curious and not protesting… ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/3 "2003-06-09T12:55:00Z")
I’d say nix the heart beat baby sleep idea. I bought one of those for my sister, who ended up just using it for her puppy when she got it. And unless you are in the room, or your walls are made of rice paper, there is no way you’d hear that, especially through sheet rock. My central airconditioning system sounds literally like thunder, but is is not a sustained sound. Cetainly not all night. How old the your complex? Could it be some sort of heating duct in your house? ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/4 "2003-06-09T12:57:23Z")
It’s early. That second to last sentence should say: How old _IS_ your complex? Oh and whats a party wall? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/5 "2003-06-09T13:31:42Z")
It isn’t an apartment complex; it is a terraced house - the party wall is made of cement blocks (a single layer, I think) faced with plaster on my side, presumably the same on theirs. Air conditioning is unlikely as very few properties in the UK have it installed. They have gas-fired central heating with water-filled radiators - the flue for this is fan ducted - it could be some sort of resonant effect within the flue, I suppose, but their heating will be mostly ticking over just on the pilot light at this time of year. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/6 "2003-06-09T13:33:09Z")
Sorry, a party wall is the wall that divides two adjoining properties - in the UK, this will most often be terraced or semi-detached houses. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/7 "2003-06-09T13:36:31Z")
Maybe a c-pap machine for somebody with sleep apnea? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/8 "2003-06-09T13:45:02Z")
> [@](#): > > God! — no, no! They heard! — they suspected! — they knew! — they were making a mockery of my horror! — this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! — and now — again! — hark! louder! louder! louder! louder! — > > ``` > "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!" > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/9 "2003-06-09T13:45:43Z")
> [@](#): > > They have gas-fired central heating with water-filled radiators What has the temperature been lately in your part of the UK? If it warmed up a bit, then cooled for a while is it possible you are hearing the metal pipes expanding over a period of time? I mean in the house I grew up in we had those radiators, and they always made a tick-tick-ticking sound when they heated up… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/10 "2003-06-09T15:40:50Z")
Blazing sunshine insterspersed with torrential downpour mostly, business as usual. It doesn’t sound like the expansion/contraction of pipes; it is very regular and it is a very very deep bass, I would suspect the muffled beat of a stereo playing some dance song, were it not the case that it goes on for hours and hours, night upon night without changing. I did suspect for a while that I was just hearing _my own_ heartbeat (tinnitus or something), but every once in a while it stops for a few seconds, then starts again (but I don’t collapse and die), besides, I can only hear it in the rooms adjacent to the party wall. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/11 "2003-06-09T16:37:09Z")
**Mangetout** - > [@](#): > > I would suspect the muffled beat of a stereo playing some dance song, were it not the case that it goes on for hours and hours, night upon night without changing. Oh. Sorry to say, there are hip-hop beats that one can buy right here in the states that are for those who like to sleep with them. BTW I never could But some do. Ghost Dog the movie had similar beats. Sounds like your neighbor may have a cd they put on repeat that plays something they can sleep to. If so I feel for you. Unisom works wonders…So does a warm glass of milk if you want the natural way. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/12 "2003-06-09T22:52:21Z")
Completely by coincidence\*, I found out today what was causing the noise (it really has been bugging me for months, literally). It is a tumble dryer - as simple as that - the whine of the motor and the whirr of the drum are too high-pitched/quiet to travel through the wall, but the repetitive sound of the clothes tumbling inside and knocking against the drum was obviously just right to be transmitted. \*I just happened to go out and hear the beating noise accompanied by the whine of the machine running in their ground-floor garage. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/13 "2003-06-10T00:20:43Z")
These people do laundry _ **every night** _, for _hours on end_?? What kind of maniacs do you live next to?!?!?! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/14 "2003-06-10T00:30:37Z")
Clean ones. ---
**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/15 "2003-06-10T00:47:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmackFu \* > \*\*Clean ones. \*\* or very dirty ones … ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/16 "2003-06-10T02:37:31Z")
Hey, the sound of a tumble dryer thrumming away can be very soothing when you’re trying to sleep 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/17 "2003-06-10T13:05:00Z")
And I was going to suggest that you read the Steven King short story about the guy in Maine who drank the bad can of beer, and whose body was gradually taken over by the protoplasmic Other…pulsing…dividing…consuming rodents and working up to larger mammals in his apartment house…aaaaaaaaaaargh… ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/18 "2003-06-10T18:15:23Z")
I thought that was Greg Bear’s “Blood Music?..” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-my-party-wall-neighbour-doing/180628/19 "2003-06-10T21:36:58Z")
Blood music, that was a great story. On the issue of _why_ they run the thing so frequently; they are Asian Muslims who nearly always wear traditional dress and are always _scrupulously_ clean (they also have three children and very little space for a washing line).