Does your house make noises?

[LivingDeadGirl]

Yes, dreadfully so. And after the huge remodel, the place creaked and moaned so badly it was impossible to sleep all night. The worst, on-going problem is the recycled, t&g oak floor in the master bedroom. Sounds like someone walking around all night. I've had my carpenter shoot more nails into it everywhere it creaks when walking across it. Helps a bit. But a house moves around all the time so it is impossible to eliminate the noise. And I won't sleep with a noise machine because I want to hear if there is trouble (people) outdoors, breaking in, etc.

[HappyinCali]

Thanks a lot everyone. i think it is nothing bad then.

[Crazee Cat Lady]

Yes, it's been my experience most do make some noise...the older they are the more it can be, it seems.
But no worries...it's normal.

[PinaCarlotta]

All the time. During the day because the sun is warming it up. At night because it's cold. In between for no reason at all. I'd been meaning to ask if this is normall because I haven't noticed it when visiting other people's homes, but it might be the extra people/noise there.

[Natsku]

My house makes a weird kind of whoooooooooooooo (going higher in pitch all the time) every now and then (like a few times a day usually). Drove us crazy to begin with trying to figure out what was making that noise! I guess its the pipes but I've never had that noise in any other house I've lived in.


Or maybe its a ghost

[Glopop11]

I moved into my new construction house 24 years ago. Every winter when it gets really cold, the huge wraparound deck makes loud popping sounds for a few days. It still scares the heck out of me every time!!!

[revelated]

Originally Posted by HappyinCali

This might be a weird question, but here it goes. I am not really sure how to describe it, but every now and then we hear these noises in the house, as if it is a loud rain drop falling on plastic or whatever. They are single noises that appear at random times. They are not super loud. Imagine sitting around on a nice evening and all of a sudden you hear a single noise that, as I said, is the loudness of dropping a small plastic bag of water, but comes from wood.

Our house is all wooden, so I am wondering if it has anything to do with just the wood making noises (expanding/contracting based on temperature), but I am wondering if the house has some structural issues, or if all houses do it. Thanks a lot for the response.

I've got two sides.

My parents' home in California is an older stucco home built in 74, two story. My uncle's home in Arkansas is also an older stucco, I'm going to guesstimate it was built in the late 60's/early 70's, single story. Grandparents' home in Arkansas is an older brick home, had to have been built in the 40's/50's.

My home in Washington State is an older siding home built in 88, two story.

Now, the big differences:

My attic is easily 5x the size of theirs at minimum, and theirs is foundation while mine is crawlspace. I think the attic size difference plus the crawlspace type, coupled with weather shifts and contracting wood, are the main reasons I hear little noises and never did at my parents', uncle's, or grandparents's houses. It threw me too because I have extremely sensitive hearing.

[Cali Doll]

My townhouse makes ridiculous noise. The most noticeable is the wood flooring, which makes a popping sound when I run the heat.

[Pruzhany]

...as if it is a loud rain drop falling on plastic...

The noise you are describing sounds like you have a little build up in your sewage pipes. It sounds like small amounts of water are building up (when nothing is running) on the little bulge and when it hits a certain point a small amount of water is released which rolls down the pipe and then drips onto another level of pipe thus causing the sound. The expense of dealing with it is not economical.

[brownbagg]

i got a metal roof on top of plywood on trusses, as it heats and cools doing the day, it will pop as its contrast