In Halloween horror movies, a creaky floorboard or unexplained bang can be the beginning of your untimely demise. In real life, though, your home isn’t likely to be haunted by ghosts or monsters ― but repair dangers might be lurking around the corner if you don’t address that odd drip or scratching noise.
Some noises are usually harmless. Philadelphia-based plumber Kelly Ireland, said unexplained tapping noises while turning on water are often due to your water lines in your house expanding and contracting. “They tend to either make a drip sound or a tap sound,” she said.
If you keep hearing certain noises that you cannot explain, however, you shouldn’t ignore what your house might be telling you.
For this spooky season, home experts decoded which unexplained noises are the ones you actually need to pay closer attention to if you hear while you are alone in your home.
1. Popping Or Creaking Noises
Oklahoma City-based home inspector Melissa Coon said unexplained, repeated popping noises can be a sign of a serious structural issue, because that “pop” noise can be the sound of a house that was improperly framed. In these cases, the cut of the rafter, or roof structural component, may not be properly flush with the wall, and then the walls aren’t secured.
Some floor popping or creaking is usually fine, “but if the attic is what’s above you and you’re hearing popping, that should be a sign for you to get it checked out just as soon as you possibly can,” Coon said. That pop could be a rafter joint snapping, Coon said.
Coon recalled going to a brand-new home where a family had been hearing popping noises in the bedroom. She immediately advised them to stay the night somewhere else after inspecting the home, because the house wasn’t framed properly in the attic.
The next day, “the whole entire roof was sitting in the middle of the master bedroom,” Coon said. In this case, a rafter broke because it wasn’t supported, and then it slipped off of the top of the wall, and the popping sound was the movement of the rafter.
2. Unexplained Scratching Noises
If you hear scratching, rustling or thumping sounds in the walls or attic, that’s usually due to the presence of insects or animals, said Courtney Klosterman, a home insights expert for Hippo, a property insurance company.
If you ignore these issues, these issues can lead to bigger insulation repairs or electrical wiring problems.
“Insects and animals can settle within your home’s insulation which can impact temperature regulation,” Klosterman said. “They can also gnaw on electrical wiring which can cause short-circuits, electrical malfunctions, and even fires.”
Coon said scratching noises are even more serious if they are from hanging trees over your home. “That could be a bigger problem than what they think it is, because those trees cause more roof damage swaying back and forth” than animals, she said.
“If you have an asphalt roof, which most people have,” she noted, then those hanging trees can “tear them up.”
3. Rushing Or Dripping Water Noises
“Sometimes you’ll hear water running, and it’s in the toilet, and nobody’s using the toilet,” Ireland offered as an example scenario some people may encounter in their homes.
A ghost isn’t the culprit of this water noise, it’s likely because your toilet has a poor flapper or bad fill valve. If you ignore these running water noises, it can lead to financial scares. “Sometimes people’s toilets run consistently, and I get stories that they had a $300 water bill,” Ireland said.
A lot of times, people don’t realize they have a serious plumbing issue until it’s too late, Ireland said. Another common spooky water noise is a faucet dripping in the middle of the night, which can be due to a shower mixing valve needing to be replaced, Ireland explained. “It’s just a replaceable part. Once you start having water issues in your shower, you replace that, and that generally fixes it, she said.
In general, if you think that you may have an unexplained drip somewhere, Ireland suggested putting a paper towel under the suspected fixture, and seeing if the paper towel gets wet.
4. Unexplained Lights Turning On And Off
If a light creepily turns on minutes after you initially tried the switch and nothing happened, it’s not because of mysterious astral forces –– it’s because you are overloading your light fixture.
“They’ve got the wrong type of bulb in their fixture,” Coon said. “Most of the fixtures today aren’t made for an LED bulb, and so you can get flickering and odd occurrences.” The fix here is to double-check your light fixture’s designated wattage or amperage, she noted.
Klosterman said flickering lights can be a warning that you have an electrical problem such as loose wiring or a malfunctioning electrical component, “especially if you also hear a high-pitched ringing or buzzing noise, see burn marks, or damaged outlets.”
And if your light keeps randomly dimming or flickering, this “brownout” might also be a conductivity issue between the wire and where it’s touching, Coon added. During winter, she said this often may happen when people plug in an electric heater into an outlet that cannot handle the amperage of this device.
Overall, these unexplained sights and sounds may take hiring a professional expert, but certain house noises are warnings of bigger problems to come. The good news is that they often have a fix –– if you dare to investigate them further.