House Sounds

[Qiana Thieklin]

Poppingand cracking sounds are often more noticeable during temperature fluctuations, such as the transition from fall to winter. Building materials can emit sounds when expanding and contracting occurs depending on the makeup and age of the home. Common areas where these sounds are emitted include basements, attics, or the first floor.

This guidance and advice is not error-proof and not applicable to every home. You are responsible for determining the proper course of action for your property and neither Hippo nor Hippo Home is responsible for any damages that occur as a result of any advice of guidance.

I once read a book detailing an architect who purposely designed and built new houses to mimic the sounds of older homes. So, you could walk into the newly constructed space and hear the squeak of the wood floors beneath your feet. Clearly, I am not alone in loving the sounds of an old home!

Breaking in wood plank floors to pre-squeak might be an extreme move for some. However, there are many other design considerations to keep in mind when it comes to conducting your symphony of home sounds.

My experience was incredible with in house sound and Ultimate ears. From the ear scanning to product delivery, In House Sound went above and beyond to deliver the parts needed and answered my technical question in a crazy quick time to get their product up and running.

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No, you're not crazy, your house is making noises, and it's not just a squeaky floor. Most noises from your home are inconsequential, but many noises aren't, and it's important to know the source of the noise and what it might mean.

Before we get much further, many people have approached me with strange noises they think come from supernatural forces or ghosts. I can assure you it's not a ghost making noise in your home because ghosts don't make noise - but that's another story for another day.

One of the most common noises in homes is the sound of footsteps, and the most common cause is from thermal expansion and contraction of either ducting, pipes, or structural framing. When the furnace or air conditioner comes on the temperature of the ductwork changes, causing the metal to expand or contract, and it creates a periodic popping or tapping noise, similar to footsteps. A similar noise occurs when we use hot water (or if your home has a boiler system) - the metal water piping expands or contracts due to temperature changes, which also creates clicking / banging and/or popping noises that carry through the pipes.

When the wind blows, air can enter and exit a home around windows and doors, and it can create a whistling noise. I once lived in a home with thin metal weather-stripping around the front door, and when there was a big gust of wind it would vibrate the metal at a high frequency, like the reed of a woodwind instrument, and it made a sound like a bellowing cow.

A homeowner called me earlier this year with a mysterious sound he wanted me to diagnose. His house had a foghorn-like noise that occurred when the wind blew. I never had the opportunity to inspect his home or diagnose the noise, but speculated it might be wind blowing into his attic through soffit vents. He messaged me months later after he finally figured out the cause - it was his synthetic Trex outdoor deck vibrating when the wind blew through it.

Other sources of whistling could be water valves, such as an exterior faucet hooked to a hose (AKA sill cock or hose bib) that's being used to water plants or wash a car, the faucet at a sink, or the filler valve inside the toilet tank, especially when the valve is almost closed to the point that there's only a tiny passageway for the water to travel. When water passes through valves the speed of the water changes (because the flow is restricted but the pressure is the same), which can make a high frequency vibration and create a noise similar to a whistle or horn. Another phenomenon of water valves is a machine gun sound when water pulses through a faucet that's open slightly.

There are a variety of causes for a rattle or tapping noise in walls and ceilings. Dampers on exhaust fans (flaps intended to keep air, birds, insects, and/or water out) open and close when there are gusts of wind, which creates a periodic "tap... tap" or a rattle. Another source of rattling can be loose siding and trim, especially on homes with vinyl siding. Vinyl siding is not fastened tightly to homes because it has to be allowed to expand and contract with thermal changes (vinyl stretches a lot when it's hot, and shrinks a lot when it's cold). Because vinyl is installed loose to allow for expansion/contraction, it can rattle in the wind, which can be heard through walls and windows.

If your house has turbine vents, AKA "whirlybirds," you might notice a noise when the wind blows and the vent cap rotates. Usually these types of vents are relatively quiet, but they have bearings that can go bad and squeak, or will "hum" when the vent is turning fast.

Years ago a client called to inform me that at night he heard scratching noises in his upstairs bedrooms of the home I inspected for him 6 months prior, and that he spent $3500 getting rid of a bat and rodent problem in his attic that I allegedly overlooked. I reviewed my notes, report, and photos, and there was no evidence of mice or bats in the attic, though there was evidence of bats at other areas of his property that I reported on. He said he didn't want to bother me, but his real estate agent told him his inspector should pay for the cost of pest control. He was also venting to me because his pest control person (recommended by the agent) told him (wrongly) the inspector overlooked his attic problems. I scheduled to meet with my client to reinspect the property and resolve the conflict, at which time he informed me the scratching noise hadn't gone away despite the $3500 he spent to eradicate pests. When I arrived at the property I discovered that birds had pecked out a knot in his rough hewn cedar lap siding and created a nest in the upper wall just outside one of the home's bedrooms. The scratching noise he'd been hearing was from birds, not from bats or mice, and he got swindled out of $3500 by the pest control contractor referred to him by his real estate agent.

Birds are common noise makers especially in older homes where there are small openings at eaves or walls where they can nest. Birds also take baths in gutters and create nests at eaves and on top of downspouts. Another bird noise is pecking at windows. Some of the most unusual noises I've heard in homes were created by birds. One summer there was a constant tapping noise in my laundry room caused by a cardinal pecking at his reflection in my washroom window.

The banging noise created when water flow stops suddenly is called a 'water hammer' and it's usually caused by long runs of copper piping installed without enough brackets to provide proper support, so when the flow of water changes suddenly the pipes move and bounce off wood framing, often behind walls or in floors / ceilings.

Water heaters make a crackling noise when they're heating water that sounds a bit like a popcorn popper. The crackling is typical in older water heaters with mineral buildup at the bottom of the tank getting hot and popping. The sound is most common after there's been hot water used - like after doing laundry, taking a shower, or washing dishes.

One of the common creators of house humming is radon fans. Radon mitigation systems use exhaust fans that run constantly, and the noise from the fans isn't too loud, but is noticeable when everything is quiet. Radon fans are often hidden in attics, so they might not be visible, but the noise is often audible.

Another source of humming or a muffled buzz is transformers. Transformers convert 110-volt power into lower voltage power (often 24-volt) to control electronics in a home that don't require high voltage to operate, like doorbells or humidifiers on furnaces. When transformers get older they can become faulty and make a quiet, yet annoying, low frequency hum that can be difficult to trace because the noise carries through whatever the transformer is mounted to.

The sound of water flowing through pipes isn't uncommon, but it's important to know why the sound is occurring. Usually the sound of water flowing is due to a dishwasher, clothes washer, sprinkler system / lawn irrigation system, sink, or toilet in operation. Another source of water flowing could be a water softener that's recycling (usually only once a week or less, and typically scheduled to occur during sleeping hours).

But, sometimes that sound of water running is an indicator of problems, and it's important to know the difference. For example, a friend of mine heard the sound of water flowing in her home, but assumed it something like a refrigerator or freezer compressor running... until the water company called to ask why she'd used enough extra water in a month to fill a large residential swimming pool. It turned out her rarely-used basement toilet faltered and had been running non-stop.

Another source of water flow might be a defective lawn irrigation / sprinkler system. When underground pipes, joints, or valves malfunction, separate, or split they can leak water into the ground, and it often goes undetected for months. An easy way to determine if there is a mystery leak in the water system is to check the water meter (if your house has a water meter) and see if the dial on the meter is moving - if all the plumbing fixtures are off and the meter is moving, there's probably a leak at some component of the plumbing system.

Building materials expand and contract with increases and decreases in temperature, and sometimes this expansion and contraction leads to noises. Sounds due to thermal changes are usually most noticeable when temperatures increase suddenly, or after the sun goes down and temperatures drop quickly. Areas of a home where the temperatures change most dramatically are attics / roofs and wood (or synthetic) decks.

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