Why does my apartment shake

A practical and inexpensive approach is to increase the floor loading within the building. In a building in midtown Manhattan, there were complaints about vibration on some floors. Occupants perceived the vibrations as transient — of short duration. This was attributed to foot traffic.

The conclusion, confirmed by tests, was that there was too little damping in the building. Because the building had a raised floor, acoustical engineers suggested adding weight under the floor to increase damping. Once the weight was placed under the floor, the floor movement decreased and the vibration dissipated. Moveable items, such as heavy planters, placed strategically on the floor can serve the purpose well.

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See what's in it for you. The Path to Zero Energy Facilities ». View All ». Job Board. Sometimes people in buildings will sense vibrations caused by passing trains, or even heavily loaded trucks. Some types of soils have a certain elasticity that transmits vibrations from heavy movement into the building's foundation and up into the structure. These movements are primarily vertical in direction and would typically not be threatening to the building, though repeated severe vibrations can cause brittle finish materials such as plaster work to crack or even fall out of position.

A similar movement can be caused just from people moving normally on a particular floor system, especially in smaller buildings, because the floor structure is overly elastic. This usually would not indicate any structural failure is imminent, rather that the structure was not built adequately from a usability standpoint.

Renovations to existing buildings must be carefully planned to avoid disturbing structural, load bearing elements. Not just bearing vertical loads, but lateral loads as well. If they must be disturbed, adequate temporary shoring must be in place until proper permanent structure is replaced.

Even if shoring was not done, building movement would not be discernible unless structural failure was imminent. Imminent in building failure can be anywhere from within the next few minutes to happening over a period of several months. Besides wind, earthquake, heavy vehicles, and compromised structure, the only other cause for building movement would be differential settlement due to foundation not being founded in stable soil materials.

This is actually a subset of structural failure, as stable soils is a necessary part of a sound structure. When an engineer assesses a structure for soundness, testing may or may not be done, depending on the situation. Structural testing often means testing to failure, which is often not feasible in an occupied structure. The engineer will make an assessment based mainly on inspection of existing conditions and comparing with the building's plans to see if it was built in accordance to the plans, if the plans have design errors, if there are signs of failure such as cracks of certain form in certain locations or sagging and deformation of structural elements.

Some small scale materials tests can be done to verify the installed material matches the design specifications by taking samples and testing in a laboratory. They would typically publish a report summarizing what they did, what they observed and their findings.

While such reports are quite technical by nature, the main gist of it should be comprehensible to any reasonably intelligent person without an engineering background. It's impossible to say if you overreacted since I was not there. While there is certainly cause for concern, imminent collapse World Trade Center style is highly unusual.

I've seen many obviously failed buildings in developing countries in which squatters live without incident for years.

Yet one would have to be truly desperate to spend time in such buildings, as sudden catastrophic collapse does remain a possibility.

I've encountered a vast range of vibrations in multi-dwelling buildings I have lived. Hear are the ones I can remember:. Note that all these sources are not the building structure itself, and are fairly easy to track down. I can't remember encountering a source of vibration or shaking whose source I could not pinpoint with a small amount if work.

If you still cannot pinpoint the source after putting some earnest effort into finding the source, it may actually be the building structure itself. This is not that far fetched if the building was not engineered building inspectors usually defer to a professional engineer for structural issues.

Even if the building doesn't collapse, you will have made the correct decision with the information you had at hand at the time. Thereafter maintain a daily log with times, degree of movement and any other relevant information. Get your friend to stay and report on a cell phone the movement while you are outside checking the source.

If it still does not help a good engineer would be useful but very expensive. But if you are not having the peace of mind, leave the place and take action to get the deposit back and inform the owners and the authorities.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Good luck! Tell ya why.. NO dont move out.. Originally Posted by CarlitosBala.

How exactly could this situation have been avoided? What are the chances that the 5 minutes we're checking out the unit we would experience this? Originally Posted by Faworki Building Code is only minimum standard I've seen plenty of construction built to save a dollar with structural components pushed to the limit A very good friend from Germany was looking to rent and was aghast at many of the apartments she viewed Having hardwood and metal blinds does not help either I took over a 4 plex built in and the deflection of the upstairs floors was very noticeable I believe it is unrealistic in a tight rental market to expect a Landlord is going to modify the property with a ready supply of those willing to take your place.

The beauty of renting is you don't have a long term commitment I would not take it too hard OP, I'm sorry. I know how frustrating it is to move into a place, and incur all of those costs, put up shelves, decorate, organize, and realize you need to move again.

Been there. Legally, the landlord won't have to accommodate you, I'm afraid. In CA, the landlord is required to make the place habitable, but what you're describing is not included. Habitablity would include working plumbing, windows with locks, heat, that kind of thing. As Ultrarunner said, the place is probably legal, and that's about it. In CA, you can legally break your lease, though. What you would do is give 30 days notice that you are going to move out and break your lease.

Then the LL has to try and find a new tenant as soon as possible with a reasonable effort. You will need to pay rent until they find another tenant to start paying. Managers don't normally allow you to go hang out in the apartment at any time of the day and night.