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Is there anyone out there who can help me!? At night when I lie in bed, I
am able to feel the vibrations of any motor which happens to be running in
my house and it’s driving me crazy, not to mention sleep deprived!
I moved into my newly constructed house in June of last year. The house was built by a most competent builder with an excellent reputation. The floors throughout most of the downstairs are hickory, which I know is a very hard wood. However, my bedroom is carpeted over subflooring. There is a 5′ crawl space under the house, which is where the furnace is located.
during the winter I feel the furnace when it is running, and in the summer
the air-conditioner causes a vibration in my bed. I can also feel the motors of my two refrigerators which are located in the kitchen, which is 48 feet from the bedroom. I have disconnected other motorized objects in an effort to curtail the vibration. Several Hvac technicians have checked
those systems and have done whatever they could to cut down vibrations.
The refrigerator repair man has checked the balance and the motors on both
units and has done everything he can. Besides I’m not sleeping on top of the refrigerator; I’m sleeping at the other end of the house!
Additional insulation was added under my bedroom in an attempt to absorb the vibration. As you can see, I’m a desperate woman who really just wants
a decent night’s sleep in her lovely new home.
Is there anyone out there who can shed some light on why this is happening in my house, and more importantly, does anyone have a solution?
Please post your responses here and email them to me at [email protected] and my son at [email protected].
Replies
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I'm no expert, but if the problem is confined to when you are lying in bed, then perhaps you could do something between the bed's feet and the floor instead of trying to isolate every motor in the house. Naturally, I have no ideas as to what to do...but perhaps someone will come along.
Oh yes. (I can't resist). Never disturb the vibrations.
Rich Beckman
*I'm tempted to post a wisecrack answer. OK, I will.Just think, you don't have to deposit quarters in the little box to operate the vibrating bed.Now to your problem. Extra insulation and motor balancing will not solve your dilemma. It's possible that your floor system is accidently an amplifier. Just the right combination of material and any vibration resonates, sort of like a tuning fork when struck. My thought would be to isolate all the offending machinery from any contact with your framing/sheathing/floors/walls. If the A/C is on a concrete pad in the crawl space use perhaps rubber pads to provide isolation from the concrete. If your ductwork is metal, provide a flexible transition from the air handler to the ductwork and from the air returns also. Some A/C units are suspended from the floor joists by metal straps. If that's the case, find another way to support the unit. Try a rubber floor mat or foot pads under your refrigerators. If the space between the joists is accessible perhaps an expanding foam spray would work. Let us know what finally works.
*Have you tried moving the bed to another part of the room? If there are harmonic vibrations that your floor structure is tellegraphing in to your bed room then there are probably nodes and anti-nodes (places where the motion is largest and places where it is the smallest) that you want to look for. Or maybe there are common floor joists that run from under your bed over to the HVAC and the Fridge. If you can get the bed off of them and on to others it might be better.Actually looking at the situation, from down in the crawl space, and visuallizing where your bed is vs. the offending devices (measure from some common points like an outside wall or something to keep your bearings) is probably the best way to see something like this.Or, if there is no simple connection like that maybe the whole floor is under-stiff. In that case, um, I don't know, how about a couple of jack-posts under the bedroom floor x the crawl-space floor to dampen any vibrations (these might need to be periodically adjusted as the house changes its position relative to the ground with the seasons (especially if it is a dirt floor and the jack posts gradually push themselves in to the dirt). Obviuosly, pouring footings for these would make the situation simpler from a long term maintainence point of view.The material that the floor surface is made of won't make much difference (hickory or cement even), it is the structure of the support underneath that provides the stiffness. A slab on the ground would vibrate the least. If your joists are just the minimum (minimum depth, spacing, thickness) they may allow quite a bit. Don't allow anyone to shrug off your complaint with a "your're just too sensitive" because it is YOUR house. But do consider this to yourself - is this much worse than other places you've lived? How were those places constructed? etc.Correcting a problem like this can be very difficult if left to others to 'take care of' if they can not feel it - you will be the best detective in trying to solve your problem. Good luck and let us know what worked!
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I agree with the previous note, the vibration is a function of the bedroom floor stiffness. Do you notice the vibrations anywhere else in your home? If the problem is bad enough I would suggest having another beam installed under the bedroom. With the crawlspace access you have enough room. Not a trivial solution but it should chnage the hamonics of the room. I do not know how you would isolate all of the motors in your house, besides, I'm sure footsteps will set up a similar condition. Good luck
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I would suggest getting into an loud argument with the cashier at the grocery store today, and on the ride home run into something and dent your car, and finally write a check for something and transfer the money out of your account so the check bounces.
Everybody needs a certain threshold level of problems. Increase your daily dose of problems and the hum from your refrigerator won't seem so bad.
*If the problem only bothers you in your bed, then as indicated previously, the most cost effective solution may be to isolate just your bed. Many years ago, I remember seeing special elasto-isolators for isolating equipment. Sort of like a giant drink coaster with some type of "silly-putty" type silicon based material in the center. A cheap solution might be to get some of the foam kneeling pads that are sold in gardening stores and have some plywood cut to just cover the top. The plywood would only need to be thick enough to keep from being damaged by the bed legs. Placing each bed leg on one of these should isolate you. The problem with these would be if the bed legs were at the far corners of the bed, which would probably lead to a tripping hazard. However, the experiment would be cheap and if they worked, the bed or the plywood/foam sandwich could be reworked so that the isolators were hidden. Modern automotive motor mounts have become very effective at damping vibration. It would be possible to mount your bed on motor mounts, although quite a bit more expensive than using gardening kneeling pads. If that fails, I guess you could try sleeping in the guest bedroom, getting a water bed, or trying a hammock hung from the ceiling (while humming the old Beach Boy's "Good Vibrations")...This company makes a special foam pad for vibration damping and I am sure that many others do also:http://www.karman.com/pads.htmIf you really want to get some expertise on vibration control, you might try:http://www.vibrate.net/C-Control.htmlSometimes one's body confuses sound with the feeling of a vibration. A remote possibility is that at least part of your problem is that you can hear the subtle vibrations more than you can actually feel them. If that is the case, you might want to try some inexpensive foam ear plugs. If you are actually reponding to sound more than transmitted vibrations through your bed, damping the noise might be an even harder nut to crack than plain old vibrations.
*....i assume your HVAC experts did all they could ..like installing isolation connections on all the ductwork..as ralph (#2) mentioned above..another culprit may be the support system of your furnace..lots of crawl space installations hang the furnace from the joists....if that is the case, get your experts back and talk about a pad in the crawl space so the unit will be floor-mounted instead of hung...you may have sensitized yourself..if you can eleimiante the big culprits .. take a vacation and you may find you no longer notice the little culprits..or you may just be a classy lady...u no... the princess and the pea..
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We'd like to help but our experience is with
picking up "Good Vibrations"
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Well my wife likes vibrations in the bed as long as im not there......i think w.w. grainger used to sell 1/4" thick rubber vibration isolation pads for a/c condensing units....i would buy 4 and put under each leg of the bed .........unless you have one of those beds like mine with a couple of legs in the center under the slats then you would have to buy more.....if you cant find this stuff go to wal mart and buy a truck bedliner made of rubber and cut it into squares and place a couple under each leg. Also be sure the headboard is not touching the wall......if you still feel vibrations then hummmm real softly and you will blend in with your surroundings.......this is from and idiot who turns his fan on at night so he will have a noise to help him sleep..too many skil saws during the day i reckon
*Lots of good ideas...Was your house constructed with TJIs? Often times these are much more prone to transmiting reverberated freqs throughout the structure. Also, regardless of what kind of joists you have, review and ensure that the max span of the joists were not exceeded.The first logical step would be to do what others have mentioned...ensure rubber or equivalent pads are used to isolate all motors (and the bed) from the structure.From your description most of the motors seem to be below (crawlspace) or on (refrigerators) the first floor platform. One method to reduce or eliminate the freqs transmitted via a platform is to box in the bottom of the joists. In your crawlspace, check to see if the bottoms of the joists are visible. If so, a possible solution would entail running sheets of ply down the center of the joist span, using adhesive and fasteners. One continuous run of 4' wide ply down the center can do wonders in reducing transmissions through the structure.I'd take all these options and go over them with your builder. If it's just the vibrations felt through the bed, the isolation pads under the feet of the bed should help. If you notice a hum throughout the house, as well as feeling the vibes, then you may be looking more towards structural changes.Please do post a follow up. Regards, Mongo
*Did you build over a graveyard ?
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Is there anyone out there who can help me!? At night when I lie in bed, I
am able to feel the vibrations of any motor which happens to be running in
my house and it's driving me crazy, not to mention sleep deprived!
I moved into my newly constructed house in June of last year. The house was built by a most competent builder with an excellent reputation. The floors throughout most of the downstairs are hickory, which I know is a very hard wood. However, my bedroom is carpeted over subflooring. There is a 5' crawl space under the house, which is where the furnace is located.
during the winter I feel the furnace when it is running, and in the summer
the air-conditioner causes a vibration in my bed. I can also feel the motors of my two refrigerators which are located in the kitchen, which is 48 feet from the bedroom. I have disconnected other motorized objects in an effort to curtail the vibration. Several Hvac technicians have checked
those systems and have done whatever they could to cut down vibrations.
The refrigerator repair man has checked the balance and the motors on both
units and has done everything he can. Besides I'm not sleeping on top of the refrigerator; I'm sleeping at the other end of the house!
Additional insulation was added under my bedroom in an attempt to absorb the vibration. As you can see, I'm a desperate woman who really just wants
a decent night's sleep in her lovely new home.
Is there anyone out there who can shed some light on why this is happening in my house, and more importantly, does anyone have a solution?
Please post your responses here and email them to me at [email protected] and my son at [email protected].