NEED HELP! Constant popping, banging and cracking noise coming from ceiling and walls of the house day and night (heating, phone)
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The noises could be made by a lot of different things, but most likely it's due to expansion and contraction of different materials. Metal expands and contracts a lot more than wood, so that would be my first place to look.
My masonry home has metal straps about 8 feet long fastened on a 45* angle to all the framing at the exterior corners underneath the masonry. This is a form of bracing. When the walls get hot during the day and then cool off at night, I can sometimes hear a slight popping sound. I think it is the metal straps making the noise.
Another more obvious sound is the expansion and contraction of the metal gutters and facia along the outside of the house. I have the dark brown gutters and have some pretty long runs. They soak up heat during the day. Then when the sun goes down, they start to cool and contract. This can make some slight popping sounds.
It's the same principle as water pipes making some popping noises when you first run hot water through metal pipes.
If you hear these same noises on cloudy days when there's not much sun and not much temperature change from day to night, then you might want to check into some more serious issues such as foundation settlement or possible sinkhole activity.
The noises can be heard on cloudy days, as well as sunny days, but they seem to be worsen when it's partly cloudy outside, or after the sun comes up or goes down. But they happen at nights too. Sometimes once every couple of hours. if it's normal for a house to pop and snap every couple of hours, how is one supposed to sleep? Your house supposed to be your sanctuary, where you find peace and quiet, not a war zone. I'm shocked how often they occur. They sound similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S57LLqAv-vQ
It might be movements in a fault line, not strong enough for a tremor. Any cracks in the drywall or basement ? As mentioned it could also be expanding pipes or a "water hammer".
You should hear the acorns from an oak tree hittin' the tin roof here. It sounds like kids throwing rocks out there !
That's not at all normal house sounds. You say no animals but what about birds? They can peck at their food and we had a single crow cracking a nut on the roof that sounded a lot like this but it only happened a couple times and didn't last too long.
Just a quick background about the house. I've lived in enough number of homes to know that most wood frame homes make noises from time to time, but some make disturbing noises all the time. There is NO WAY to know if a house makes these unsettling noises, unless you sleep there for one night. No amount of inspection can detect this problem, because it's hidden. These are structural noises and not related to pipes, water hammer, trees nearby or animals.
House No.1# built in 97, lived in the house for 4 years, never heard a beep from the house. One day, out of the blue, the house started making all kinds of sounds. At first, I used to hear one loud knock from the wall of the master bedroom, after a couple of weeks, the noise spread all over the room, as if someone is making pop corn on top of the ceiling/roof. In just one hour, You would hear 20 snaps, pops or bangs from the ceiling/walls. It was horrible. The noise started spreading from room to room, almost like a virus ...
House No#2: Built in 2001, the house made VERY loud snapping and popping noises most of the time. They seemed to get worse when furnace was running. They were really really loud, the noises could be easily heard over the phone if I were talking to someone. They almost sounded like gunshots, as if some one is machine gunning the ceiling/roof.
House no#3: Built in 95, most of the sounds are not as loud as the house no#2. But they are very very frequent. They happen all the time, day and night, even when the weather outside isn't changing. I hear it all around the room/house, from ceiling, roof, siding, drywall, stucco, as if someone is pounding against it or throwing rocks at it. pop, pop, pop, snap, snap, snap and today was cloudy, there was no sun ... The house never sleeps. It's almost Impossible to sleep here.
But really, How much is too much for the house popping and snapping noises? Isn't your house your sanctuary? Aren't you supposed to find some peace and quiet in there? We are told from early on, that these are normal expansion and contraction of wood or the house is settling ... Who knows what these noises are? Could be loose drywall, weak beams, truss uplift, flimsy roof, 2 by 4s snapping inside the drywall, scaring the bejesus out of you. Using staple guns to hold plywood to beams is usually going to end up shabby. The noises are probably plywood moving in and out of nails. Our houses in America are built so cheaply, the contractors don't even use screws to hold things together., they nail it which is gonna end up shabby. I understand using flimsy wood is cheaper than using stone or concrete, but this is not really evidenced by the prices of houses. Even multi-million dollar new houses in the States are being built the same way.
I know some of you would say that you don't hear these in your homes, at least not with the same intensity or frequency. Good for you, but what does that mean really? Your house could end up with this issue as early as tomorrow and there is no way to fix it, Don't make that assumption that newly built homes don't have this issue. Some do pop, creak and snap ALL the time, say Goodbye to a solid night of sleep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c07aIV-ddR0
It might be movements in a fault line, not strong enough for a tremor. Any cracks in the drywall or basement ? As mentioned it could also be expanding pipes or a "water hammer".
You should hear the acorns from an oak tree hittin' the tin roof here. It sounds like kids throwing rocks out there !
No cracks in drywall (I'm really shocked, this much movement you would assume to see something). There is no basement. No water hammer. No trees, it's desert landscape. You are 100% correct. Sounds like someone throwing rocks against the ceiling or walls. Who needs sleep right?
That's not at all normal house sounds. You say no animals but what about birds? They can peck at their food and we had a single crow cracking a nut on the roof that sounded a lot like this but it only happened a couple times and didn't last too long.
Is this a recent development?
No birds, I've been sanding outside of the house there is nothing on the roof, the noises are more muffled outside compared to inside. Crazy part is that I've been experiencing this in my 3rd home. Moved 3 times to get away from it and can't
House No.1# built in 97, lived in the house for 4 years, never heard a beep from the house. One day, out of the blue, the house started making all kinds of sounds. At first, I used to hear one loud knock from the wall of the master bedroom, after a couple of weeks, the noise spread all over the room, as if someone is making pop corn on top of the ceiling/roof. In just one hour, You would hear 20 snaps, pops or bangs from the ceiling/walls. It was horrible. The noise started spreading from room to room, almost like a virus.
House No#2: Built in 2001, the house made VERY loud snapping and popping noises most of the time. They seemed to get worse when furnace was running. They were really really loud, the noises could be easily heard over the phone if I were talking to someone. They almost sounded like gunshots, as if some one is machine gunning the ceiling/roof.
House no#3: Built in 95, most of the sounds are not as loud as the house no#2. But they are very very frequent. They happen all the time, day and night, even when the weather outside isn't changing. I hear it all around the room/house, from ceiling, roof, siding, drywall, stucco, as if someone is pounding against it. pop, pop, pop, snap, snap, snap and today was cloudy, there was no sun ... The house never sleeps. It's almost Impossible to sleep here.
Were all your houses in the same vacinity? When my next door neighbor reroofed their house in the early 2000's they were upsold a product that was supposed to provide superior insullation, it looked kind of like drywall and it was placed right on top of the rafters. They told me it was noisy and popped a lot but I was never inside to hear it. They moved but I don't know the new folks or if it's still an issue. I just wonder if it's related to some kind of building material used in your homes if they were all built in the same area around he same time. The only other guess is something to do with roof vents. How frustrating it must be!
Were all your houses in the same vacinity? When my next door neighbor reroofed their house in the early 2000's they were upsold a product that was supposed to provide superior insullation, it looked kind of like drywall and it was placed right on top of the rafters. They told me it was noisy and popped a lot but I was never inside to hear it. They moved but I don't know the new folks or if it's still an issue. I just wonder if it's related to some kind of building material used in your homes if they were all built in the same area around he same time. The only other guess is something to do with roof vents. How frustrating it must be!
Thanks for the reply. Maybe it's to do with poor construction, or they used bad wood when they built these homes. different homes, not same vicinity, the 3rd home is 20 min away from the previous place. same noise, different intensity. It's beyond frustrating. I don't know what to do anymore
Three noisy houses? I must say...you're the common denominator!
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