Venice is Not Sinking: Spooky House Sounds & Noises Explained

Why Your Family Probably Isn't Hauntedby C. Jeanne HeidaAre those spooky sounds and noises heard in your home at dark the form of ghosts and other spectral visitors? While you and your family might remember your home is haunted, it's often more probable that those spooky ooky sounds and noises have a very earthly explanation behind him.All houses make noises of some form or another.

Duct work expands and contract loudly, pipes may sing, and tied the forest inside the model of the construction may groan as it shrinks. Older houses appear to create more disturbance than newer homes, which is probably a consequence of minimal insulation. Without insulation, noises in an old house are amplified to where it sounds much worse than it actually is.If your family has strange sounds and noises that have got you a little spooked, this short guide should set your head 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 probable that a squirrel, rat, possum, or raccoon is working on the ceiling or the garret floor. The clump 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 keep animals from entering the attic, check the back story soffits and eaves for access points and stamp them shut with wire mesh.Scratching sounds. Scritchity, scratchy sounds are normally one of two things; either a leg that is blowing up against the house, or a small animal scratching away behind the cataplasm of the walls. Again, the empty place behind the plaster amplifies the racket and makes it much worse than it actually is. To break these noises, prune shrubs and trees away from the house, and set traps in the dome to capture the mice.Squeaky hinges and slamming doors. Old, poorly insulated houses are naturally drafty and the slightest change of air force can afford a doorway or sweep it shut. Adding insulation to the family and sealing the drafts can prevent doors from opening and closing on their own. A little WD-40 can take charge of those squeaking hinges as well.Loud groans are usually nothing more than the timbers inside the model of the house shrinking and contracting with the fluctuating temperatures and humidity levels.Clanging chains. As air passes through the canal 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 go like chains clanging and rattling away. While you can't do much around the ductwork, you can fit the shape of the registers and fasten up the ones that are loose.Oooooooo noises. The wind pass over chimneys and around loose windows have a terrible "Oooooooo" noise which sounds quite frightening.until you think that it's the like sort 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 actually is. To prevent those Ooooooo sounds, close the fireplace damper at nighttime and see the windowpane and door jams for air leaks.Knocking noises. Ductwork is likewise the main culprit for the knocking noises you may hear in your house. As warm air hits the cold ductwork, the expanding sheet metal makes a serial of noises that sound like rapid knocking such as what you might see 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 normally caused by something falling to the floor, having been pushed over not by a ghost, but by a strong draft instead. Thuds also occur when branches drop on the cap of a family or a big animal (such as a cat or coon) leaps from a corner to the ceiling of your home.Humming walls. Old houses appear to be especially 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 good vibrations caused by a car stereo. These low level vibrations can rattle the walls and windows and make a mysterious 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 almost cases it's actually nothing to worry about. Old houses tend to produce all sorts of strange noises that may sound like dead people wandering around, but are actually nothing more than the house shifting and groaning on its own.