Spooky House Sounds & Noises Explained

Why Your House Probably Isn't Haunted
by C. Jeanne Heida

Are those spooky sounds and noises heard in your house at night the work of ghosts and other spectral visitors? While you and your family might think your house is haunted, it's much more likely that those spooky
ooky sounds and noises have a very earthly explanation behind him.

All houses make noises of some kind or another. Duct work expands and contract loudly, pipes may sing, and even the wood inside the framework of the building may groan as it shrinks. Older houses seem to make more noise than newer homes, which is probably a result of minimal insulation. Without insulation, noises in an old house are amplified to where it sounds much worse than it really is.

If your house has strange sounds and noises that have got you a little spooked, this little guide should set your mind at ease.

Mystery footsteps heard upstairs. Running footsteps is one of the more common of the spooky house sounds and noises many people hear. But, instead of a ghost running around upstairs, it's more likely that a squirrel, rat, possum, or raccoon is running on the roof or the attic floor. The thud of their footsteps is amplified in the pitched cavity of the roof, and makes the soft padding of their feet sound almost human like. To prevent animals from entering the attic, check the second story soffits and eaves for access points and seal them shut with wire mesh.

Scratching sounds. Scritchity, scratchy sounds are usually one of two things; either a branch that is blowing up against the house, or a small animal scratching away behind the plaster of the walls. Again, the hollow space behind the plaster amplifies the noise and makes it much worse than it really is. To stop these noises, prune shrubs and trees away from the house, and set traps in the attic to catch the mice.

Squeaky hinges and slamming doors. Old, poorly insulated houses are naturally drafty and the slightest change of air pressure can open a door or slam it shut. Adding insulation to the house and sealing the drafts can prevent doors from opening and shutting on their own. A little WD-40 can take care of those squeaking hinges as well.

Loud groans are usually nothing more than the timbers inside the framework of the house shrinking and contracting with the fluctuating temperatures and humidity levels.

Clanging chains. As air passes through the duct work in your home, it can cause loose sections of ductwork and the registers to rattle a bit. This rattling noise bounces around the ductwork to sound like chains clanging
and rattling away. While you can't do much about the ductwork, you can check the condition of the registers and tighten up the ones that are loose.

Oooooooo noises. The wind passing over chimneys and around loose windows make a terrible "Oooooooo" noise which sounds quite frightening....until you remember that it's the same kind of noise made when blowing over the top of pop bottles. When the wind passes over the chimney or through small cracks, it makes that low whistle sound whcih sounds much spookier than it really is. To prevent those Ooooooo sounds, close the fireplace damper at night and check the window and door jams for air leaks.

Knocking noises. Ductwork is also the chief culprit for the knocking noises you may hear in your house. As warm air hits the cold ductwork, the expanding sheet metal makes a series of noises that sound like rapid knocking such as what you might hear on a door. The knocking stops after 10 seconds, and may resume once the furnace kicks off and the ductwork starts to cool.

Loud thuds are usually caused by something falling to the floor, having been pushed over not by a ghost, but by a strong draft instead. Thuds also happen when branches drop on the roof of a house or a large animal (such as a cat or coon) leaps from a tree to the roof of your home.

Humming walls. Old houses seem to be particularly susceptible to this, especially older homes with single pane window windows, poor insulation and plaster walls. The humming that is heard in the walls is not a singing spook, but the sound vibrations caused by a car stereo. These low level vibrations can rattle the walls and windows and create a mystical sounding humming noise that can be a bit unsettling. There's nothing that can be done about stereo noise except to ask the neighbor's teenager to pipe it down.

As ooky, spooky as these noises sound, in most cases it's really nothing to worry about. Old houses tend to make all sorts of strange noises that may sound like dead people wandering around, but are really nothing
more than the house shifting and groaning on its own.