What is that snapping and banging?

[newfieannie]

I'm wondering if anyone else has this. is it because of the cold? I bought this house last sept.it is 53 years old. i dont recall hearing anything last winter. except some sounds from the pipes which have all been replaced .also a new furnace. and anyway it's not the same sound. i only hear it faintly on the lower level but upstairs is really bad.sounds like it's coming from the roof. i spent all last night running from room to room looking for cracks. i spent too much money on this place to have it fall apart. i hope someone can tell me it is nothing to worry about so i can get some sleep tonight. p.s. it was really cold last night. ...Georgia.

[Tracy Rimmer]

Last winter, I heard the same thing in my house, Annie. Being here alone with the boys for weeks at a time, it was disconcerting, to say the least. I asked a neighbor about it who lives in a similarly-aged house, and he said that the frost builds up in the walls when it gets cold and creates a natural, frozen layer that builds up into an ice layer as the winter progresses. What you're hearing is the house shifting (as old houses do) in the cold, and the ice buildup in the walls cracking, bits falling off and "banging" against the interior wall as they fall. I would suspect that your older house has some sort of insulation in the walls that has "settled" to the lower level (sawdust or similar) leaving the upper level walls empty and prone to this.

Or, my neighbor could have been spinning me a line, and we've both got gremlins. Who knows?

[canfossi]

Don't worry it happens with new houses also. Mine is 2 years old and when it gets down to -30C there are snapping sounds in the joists. I can usually hear it around 3 am or so, that's how I know when it's really cold, without looking at the thermometer. Chris

[newfieannie]

Thanks chris and Tracy. i did have blown-in insulation in august. it was seaweed before. guess i'll just go to bed shortly and forget about it. perhaps i'll put in ear plugs so i wont hear it. ...Georgia.

[arabian knight]

It is the give and take as the boards shrink some and pull the nails out just a fraction of an inch, and that movement is the sound you hear. The rafters and such are moving just a tiny bit, as the cold shrinks the wood, just like in an earthquake, tension builds up at nail, and then Bang, it lets loose around the nails, even if it is only a small fraction of an inch.

[newfieannie]

Thanks AK . i feel better by the minute. ....Georgia.

[palani]

Poltergeist?

[WindSongAcres]

Our furnace snaps and bangs when the cold air return filter needs changing. Scared me the first time it happened, but now I know what it is.

[diane]

Those sounds of the house responding to the cold can be very disconcerting!! The wind is blowing here and the temperature is -9 and falling and my house sounds like it is on it's last leg. Had I not been use to it from past years it would be quite alarming.

[no1cowboy]

living trees will do this also when it is really cold

[Paquebot]

Water from melting snow leaks into cracks on warm days. It freezes and expands causing nails to pull. Next cycle, crack gets a bit larger. After that,......

Martin

[Quint]

Mine starts making horrific noises when it first gets down to the single digits. Not just creaks and groans but loud bangs that sound like someone just smacked the roof or wall with a sledgehammer. If you believed in ghosts and such it would scare you to death.

[haypoint]

I don't know anything about frost building up in walls and breaking loose or ice building up in cracks.

When the ground freezes, it puts pressure on the foundation. When the sill plate builds up pressure against the foundation it can snap and pop.

Roof trusses can pop too, just due to temperature differences being so great, expansion and all.

I had a housse that had an attached porch. The porch didn't have a deep foundation, so when the ground froze under the concrete base the porch would be shoved up a tiny bit, just enough to get the creak and pop going.

On a big lake, during days like this where it doesn't get above zero, the ice swells and creates pressure cracks. They can run for miles. Makes a loud echoing sound when it breaks.