Ask the Architect

This house is making strange noises

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Q. It may seem strange to ask, but my wife and I have been hearing a lot of creaking in our old house and have no explanation for it. It can happen on a perfectly still night, with no wind, and sometimes there are even banging sounds and crackling noises. It always seems to happen more at night. My wife is convinced our house is haunted, and even though I don’t let my imagination go there, I am starting to wonder. Can you offer some reasonable explanation?

A. I checked your village records, and based on what they were able to dig up, your house was built over an old cemetery that had to be relocated because of flooding back in 1938. They could have missed a body or two, though, which may explain the creepy noises.

Just kidding.

You have to separate the paranormal from the normal. Even though I’ve written about this daily phenomenon, sounds like the ones you’re hearing are caused by the movement of your home as it settles in for a good night’s rest. The sun warms the atmosphere and the exterior of your home each day, but the earth beneath remains cooler and, just like a balloon subjected to warmer air, your home expands in all directions. As it puffs out, the materials, all resilient enough to accept the expansion, stretch in all directions.

If you could watch this in slow motion, you’d see the changes. They’re very slight, though: A change may only be 1/8 or 1/4 of an inch. Your house also moves upward, out of the ground, about a quarter-inch as well. With all the noises and activities around us, we don’t notice the sounds during the day, but at night, the quiet of settling in to go to sleep allows us to focus more, and every little fiber in the lumber of your roof rafters, wall studs and floor joists begins to settle back to its less expanded shape. Add the movement of nails in and out of the wood, like a bow across the strings of a violin, and the banging sound occurs, because the nails grip until they cannot hold and the wood jumps a little, just enough to make that banging sound.

I know this may spoil the fantasy of things that go bump in the night, but part of designing buildings properly is working with the character of how each of the 10,000 parts move and figuring out how to make them either move and breathe together or watch them create cracks, leaks and drooping. That is the part of building design that makes me wonder when I see a truck with the words “Architectural” and “Design” on them. The full scope of building design includes these microscopic science- and engineering-based details to work with the spooky unknown. Sweet dreams!

© 2015 Monte Leeper. Readers are encouraged to send questions to yourhousedr@aol.com, with “Herald question” in the subject line, or to Herald Homes, 2 Endo Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530, Attn: Monte Leeper, architect.