Anybody else up at 2 a.m. because your house is making funny noises?

[mnhtnbb]

It's currently 12 degrees outside here in Chapel Hill. Our normal winter overnight
low is usually 20-30. The house is making 'cracking' noises, I think, from the difference
between the inside/outside temps. We're built up on steel beams--so it gets pretty
cold on the underside of the house--just like bridges and overpasses are subject to icing
when the streets won't be.

Anyway I woke up to the sounds of these 'cracks' and they were scaring the shit out
of me until I figured out what it was. Reminds me of the house we lived in
when we were in Nebraska. It had been built in the 20's and still had a boiler
for steam heat. First time the heat came on the first fall, those pipes were clanging
away in the middle of the night. Scared the bejesus out of me then, too.

Anybody else awake with funny noises from this cold?

[mnhtnbb]

1. Or maybe the ghosties have moved inside because it's too cold out?

[Agschmid]

2. I'm just up... not due to cracking tho?

[mnhtnbb]

4. Hi!

I'm going back to sleep--I hope. Turned the heat up some and it seems to have helped. Or maybe
I've just been absorbed reading stuff on DU and not hearing the noises.

[adirondacker]

3. Funny you mention this. It was near 30 below out the night before last and my deck boards were

making really loud "popping" noises. It's from the deck boards shrinking in size and releasing their frozen selves from the joists. Lot's of movement (expansion and contraction) in wood from both moisture content and temperature.

[mnhtnbb]

5. Yes. We have hardwood floors. There's one spot in the 'great room'

where the boards are not quite as tight--it will creak when you step there--and I think
that's where most of the funny cracking sounds are coming from.

[hlthe2b]

6. Woke up to the wind---(our next big storm is on the way) with 30 MPH or higher gusts, it seems.

I have a decorative house flag hanging outside, so had to go rescue it, then the dog thought she should go out and.....

Damn, I hate it when I wake up in the middle of the night...(1:30 AM my time).

[mnhtnbb]

13. Yeah, that's enough activity to make it hard to go back to sleep.

I finally got back to sleep about 3 a.m.

Now it's time to walk the dog and it's 10 degrees outside, which is going to require
some major bundling up. Can't do that without some coffee first. Hope she can
wait!

[orleans]

7. no. i'm just up because i'm depressed. but i have heard the pops and such lately. n/t

[mnhtnbb]

12. Bummer.

Seasonal? Longer term? Getting some help?
Anything you want to talk about?

[orleans]

17. thanks for the offer. it's just a lot of complex personal stuff

that started when my mom died a few years ago.
all pertains to death, grief, loss, fear (all those happy topics spread out across various aspects of my life from money to pets to people to...well, you get the idea)

i wish it were seasonal. it appears to be long term. and no, i'm not getting help. oh well, huh? and its so damn complicated i can't even begin to explain why.

but thank you for asking.

[mnhtnbb]

18. I hear you.

I'm sorry.

Life sure can be complicated.

[irisblue]

8. I now know 3 different sounds that the furnace makes when it kicks on

and one of the cats needs nails trimmed cause I can hear clicking in between the dogs soft snoring. It's noisy here at night.

[mnhtnbb]

11. Snoring. That sound I recognize, but it's not from the dog!

[DFW]

9. I'm sometimes up at 2 AM

But that's mostly because I cracked up a long time ago.

[mnhtnbb]

10. LOL

When it's 2 a.m. here it's 8 a.m. where you are, isn't it?

My son is in Berlin.

[DFW]

15. Usually

Unless they send me out to the Balkans again. Then it's 9 AM and I'm cracked up worse than usual.

[Demoiselle]

14. When we moved into this house over 40 years ago it had steam radiators.

Good grief what a clanging and banging! We converted to hot water.
My sympathies.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. When I hear weird noises at night it usually turns out to be the cats.

[Ron Obvious]

19. Yeah, the house IS making funny noises...

* creak *

* groan *

* creak *

Ron, I'm going to kill you!....

* creak *

Honestly, who could sleep like this?

[anasv]

20. I think mine is snow or ice cracking off places

but definitely unsettling noises.

[texanwitch]

21. My old house does that also.

It did it alot this winter.

Warm cold then warm cold.

That is not counting the wind blowing thru the attic vents .

There is lot of old stuff up there that makes knocking noises.

[mnhtnbb]

22. Nice to know I'm not alone.

This is a new house--we built it--three years ago to replace the one that burned in 2007.

My dog is getting spooked by the cracking sounds, though, and things like thunderstorms or firecrackers
never faze her. Snowy literally jumps up and runs when she hears these cracking sounds--looking for a place to get away from what's scaring her--and while she normally follows me around all day, she now is settling right next to my feet every time
I get up and go somewhere else in the house. Makes me wonder if it isn't something like the sixth sense dogs and cats
are supposed to have about earthquakes--only she's reacting to the sound which she knows isn't normal.

Anyway, I'm going to be very glad to have the weather settle back into a more routine pattern where we don't see
these very cold temps at night and less swing from the high to low daytime/nighttime temps.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

23. My house has radiator heat ...

... and the boiler has an automatic fill valve. When the valve opens, it sounds like someone hit the boiler with a hammer, and every radiator rings. Same sound when the valve closes.

The first "bang" sometimes wakes me up. The second one puts me right back to sleep, because the system is working as it should, all is right with the world.

Peace.

[hay rick]

24. I got some Steam Heat fer ya

[GoCubsGo]

25. They're not keeping me awake at night.

But, I am definitely hearing cracking and popping when the temps hit sub-freezing. I'm also seeing more cracks in the paint where the ceiling meets the walls. My house is wood frame on a concrete slab, so there's certainly some freezing-thawing stuff going on.