Puzzled By Ceiling Noises

[Ed Scolforo]

Hi All: I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. I recently bought a small 50 year old Cape house with 2 bedrooms upstairs. At nighttime we notice a "popping" kind of noise coming from random places and at random times in either room ceiling. It sounds like the rafters expanding and contracting rather than a scratching sound an animal would make. The roof appears to be fairly new and has ventilation on both ends. On one night, following a rainy day, I didn't hear the noise as much. I'm thinking the rain may have cooled the roof off enough that the expansion/contractiion was minimized. It's been hot here lately.I can't imagine this noise is normal shifting and am looking for help in identifying and fixing the noise. Thanks for any help.
Ed

[Peter Stahl]

Hi All: I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. I recently bought a small 50 year old Cape house with 2 bedrooms upstairs. At nighttime we notice a "popping" kind of noise coming from random places and at random times in either room ceiling. It sounds like the rafters expanding and contracting rather than a scratching sound an animal would make. The roof appears to be fairly new and has ventilation on both ends. On one night, following a rainy day, I didn't hear the noise as much. I'm thinking the rain may have cooled the roof off enough that the expansion/contractiion was minimized. It's been hot here lately.I can't imagine this noise is normal shifting and am looking for help in identifying and fixing the noise. Thanks for any help.
Ed

Ed,

The last house I was in had brown aluminium siding. When it was hot out and then cooled down in the evening it made a lot of noise. Sounds like yours is a expansion/comtraction situation too. This will probably go away when it gets cooler out, but may be back on a hot sunny day. I was at the point of redoing the houses siding and roof as the house was >20 years old but moved instead. Wish I had stayed now, taxes in the area I'm in now are getting really high.

Pete

[Ed Scolforo]

Pete: Thanks for the response. I didn't mention ,but the siding is wood shingles. I still think it's the rafters moving from heat changes. I'm wondering if it's where they're nailed together and it's the joints moving. If so, I'll just have to live with it and hope the cooler weather brings quiet. My wife's boss thinks it's the ghost of the old lady that had lived there and died five years ago!

Ed

[Joe Pelonio]

Mine's 25 years old and does it too, only during the summer when it's
dry here. The rain stopped it because the humidity expands the wood.
Usually only noisy in the evening, that may add to the "ghost" theory.

[Ed Scolforo]

Joe: You brought out a good point. It's been VERY dry here this summer. That one day of rain quieted the noise and it's been pretty dry since. Thanks.

Ed

[Don Baer]

Most of the two sory houses in my neighborhood have that problem.I thankfully have a ranch style so it not a problem for me. One of my neighbors took up several floor boards and put screws in in place of the nails. This cured the problem.