In HDB flats
Strange, inexplicable noises in our homes can be eerie, but engineers say they are often linked to how sound travels through a building
They may not look like it in the day, but modern and vibrant Housing Board neighbourhoods are also where things can go bump in the night.
Marbles being dropped or rolled, and furniture dragged - these are some sounds that Serangoon North resident Terence Ng, 28, an associate engineer, hears in the night.
"It is common, yet unexplainable," he said. "The shifting of furniture seems very paranormal to me, but after so long, I am used to it. But still, it's something that I am curious about. To date, there has been no answer for it at all."
Complaints of noise from empty flat: Some issues defy explanation, says Tan Chuan-Jin
Mr Tan Chuan-Jin said that while in most cases, the noises heard in HDB flats are caused by residents or are misperceived, he has encountered a few cases where there did not seem to be a scientific reason behind the odd sounds.ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
When he heard about a resident's complaint over the sound of chairs being dragged from a flat above, Marine Parade GRC MP Tan Chuan-Jin thought it was a neighbourly dispute.
However, he found out that there was no one living in the flat in question, as the former occupant had died and the apartment was empty.
Mr Tan, who is also Speaker of Parliament, wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday night (Dec 12) that he encounters issues that may be beyond an MP's ability from time to time.
The Straits Times December 14, 2017
Shh, what's that sound? Marbles? Or...
str.sg/o4xV
Tan Chuan-Jin December 12, 2017
From time to time, we encounter issues that may be beyond an MP’s ability. And I mean waaaaay beyond.
House visit this evening. Heard a neighbour giving feedback about dragging chairs in flat above. I thought...sigh, another neighbour dispute.
Except that there is no one living in the flat. The resident had passed on and flat is empty.
Okaaaay....😱
Explanation for Marble Dropping & Chair Dragging Sounds at Night
Hear marbles dropping at night? Or chair dragging sound at night? Over here in the Goody Feed office, our very kind boss often forces a few of us to work during the weekends, and even when it’s quiet in the entire building, we can occasionally hear sounds of furniture moving even when all office units around here should have carpet flooring.
In 2020, as most of us are stuck at home, a man living in Hougang called the police 80 times because his neighbour who lives upstairs has been allegedly repeatedly dragging his chair against the floor. The neighbour, however, denied making those noises, claiming that he has put rubber paddings on his chairs and table.
Even Mr Tan Chuan-Jin received a bone-chilling complaint from one of the residents in Marine Parade back in 2017, saying his neighbour upstairs has been dragging chairs but it turned out that there was no one living above him.
The Unscientific & Paranormal Explanation of the Sounds of Marbles in HDB Flats
If you’re alone in your HDB room at 1.00 a.m. now, and have a vivid imagination, we suggest that you click away first—because this story of marbles dropping is going to scare the shit out of you. Okay, so we’ve all heard marbles dropping in the middle of the night.
So what contributes it? There was a big hoo-ha when someone wrote in to the press to complain about this years ago, and HDB apparently took the effort to find out whether it was due to the neighbours.
Building experts told us that it’s due to the pipes, mosquito traps or vibrations that go through the walls.
Open – The Singapore Marble Dropping Mystery
The Marbles Dropping Mystery has plagued many HDB flats residents for as long as anyone can remember. Ask anyone on the streets, chances are that 1 out of 5 would tell you that they do recall hearing those marbles dropping on the floor from the units above them, most of the time during unearthly hours, and sometimes, during the day as well. Often the marbles dropping sounds could be attributed to real playful children playing with marbles.
But the concept of playing with marbles doesn’t tie in well with modern times when marbles playing is already considered a traditional game. Besides, marbles are considered small objects and could be easily swallowed by young kids playing with them.
So, could the sounds of marbles dropping on the floor be due to playful children, or are they something else altogether?
Strange noises you hear at night in your apartment — what causes these sounds?
They may not look like it in the day, but modern and vibrant Housing Board neighbourhoods are also where things can go bump in the night
Marbles being dropped or rolled, and furniture dragged – these are some sounds that Serangoon North resident Terence Ng, 28, an associate engineer, hears in the night. “It is common, yet unexplainable,” he said. “The shifting of furniture seems very paranormal to me, but after so long, I am used to it. But still, it’s something that I am curious about. To date, there has been no answer for it at all.”
While such experiences are not often discussed, the issue surfaced two weeks ago when Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin put up a post on his Facebook page about a resident who heard chairs being dragged about in the unit above him. Upon investigation, however, it was found that the unit was empty and the resident who had lived there had died.
Other residents in HDB flats have also heard unexplained sounds, such as knocking on doors, thumping and footsteps pounding in the middle of the night, when no one else should be awake.
Things that go bump in the night
The gaunt author might have been scared of what he called "the shadow-haunted Outside." But inside was no comfort, either, in the stories he wrote for lurid pulp magazines around 1930, notably Weird Tales.
In "The Rats in the Walls," for one, Lovecraft's protagonist investigates a scurrying sound -- a noise that bothers the cat. He discovers "horror piled on top of horror." The story points out a dreadful truth about houses. Sometimes, even the coziest dwellings feel creepy. They don't have to be haunted to be full of strange noises and peculiar happenings.
In fact, it might be more assuring to believe in ghosts than to imagine what else goes bump in the night -- like the furnace. And not just bump: creak, clank, hiss, scratch and burble. "Think of the bills," as horror author Stephen King summed up what makes the haunted house movie, The Amityville Horror, so scary. Evil leaves cracks in the wall and broken windows to fix, and a mess on the floor. "Here," he writes in Danse Macabre, "is a movie for every woman who ever wept over a plugged-up toilet." Real estate comes with built-in nightmares of costly repairs and sagging property value, even if the property in question is not the foreboding house in Alfred Hitchcock' Psycho. Or Shirley Jackson's haunted Hill House, "not sane"; or Edgar Allan Poe's House of Usher, with its "bleak walls" and "vacant eye-like windows." And what's that plop-plop-plop sound?
But maybe things aren't so bad. In many another haunted-house story, it turns out that a scritchy-screechy noise against the window is nothing but a tree branch in the wind. Plop-plop-plop is merely a drippy faucet. Here is a Halloween guide to eerie sounds and smells in the house, and what might be causing these spooky disruptions if not a poltergeist:
- EEKY-SQUEAKY-SCRATCH!
- BURBLE--SSSSS!
- HISSSSSSSSS!
- PHEW! BOO!
- KNOCK-BANG-CLANK, GROAN-NNN!
- BUBBLE-BUBBLE-BONGO!
- CREAK--KKKKK!
- WHEE-WHEE-WHOOOOO!
- SIGH-HHH!
MEANING AND ORIGIN OF ‘THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT’
Quaint Old Litany
The phrase things that go bump in the night denotes ghosts or other supposed supernatural beings, regarded as the cause of unexplained or frightening noises heard at night.
This phrase has its origin in a prayer of deliverance first recorded (in various forms) in the early 20th century; the earliest instance that I have found is from the preface to The Magic Casement: An Anthology of Fairy Poetry. Edited, with an introduction, by Alfred Noyes1 (London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 1908):
- “And if that the bowle of curds and creame were not duly set out for Robin Good-fellow, why, then, ’ware of bull-beggars, spirits,” etc.
- “From Ghoulies and Ghoosties, long-leggety Beasties, and Things that go Bump in the Night, Good Lord, deliver us!”
Nuisance neighbours and what you can do
Woman 'going crazy’ over daily piano sounds from next door
At first, Ms C (not her real name) thought it was "quite nice" to hear piano music coming from her neighbour's home during the "circuit breaker" period, when people were ordered to stay in to curb the spread of COVID-19. Then about six months later, from October 2020, her next-door neighbour began playing the same song daily, between 7am and 11pm. "She was waking us up every single day," Ms C, who is pregnant and in her 30s, told CNA.
It got so bad that she and her husband started hearing the song in their heads even when it was not being played. They live in a condominium in western Singapore. Ms C said she tried several ways to resolve the issue, including reaching out to the neighbour. She claimed the woman was "quite adamant" that she could continue what she was doing and that it was "her right to play the piano". After her husband spoke to the neighbour's husband, the woman switched to playing a second song, but did so over and over again, said Ms C.
When she contacted the condominium's managing body, she said she was told that they could not do anything, as there is no by-law stating a specific time when the neighbour could or could not play the piano. "But the by-laws do say that all residents are given the right to peace and quiet … so if music is penetrating into my house, even with all the doors and windows closed, shouldn't that be an issue? But the MCST was just quite not helpful," said Ms C.
