Creaking noise from inside wall

Buckster

Buckster

Buckster

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20 Aug 2006
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Moved into a relatively "new" - 2000 build house last year

all has been good except in our spare room - have an annoying "noise" when it is windy outside - its a detached house and the room/wall in question isn't facing the prevailing wind

it basically sounds like someone lying down slowly on an old creaky bed and it is pretty loud

its definitely a metallic noise - sometimes it is a continuous creak for about 2 seconds, other times you can hear it "clicking" like a spring being slowly stretched

I'm guessing its some internal wall brace ? any ideas please ?
 
How bizarre I was going to post similar, have the same issue in my new house

I think I have narrowed it down to there being some flex in the plasterboard in the top corner of our room. Its annoying as its our main room!

Haven't ventured into the loft to take a look if there is any access yet, doing that Saturday as I am starting my loft boarding.
 
I feel guilty here for stealing OPs thread but could be the same issue so :

- Not heating as far as I can tell as its the outside wall furthest from heating and no pipes would logically be there as all heating and hot water taps etc are closer to the boiler than the area that creaks. Its also very easy to associate the wind gusts with the creaks.

My house is brick built as far as I can tell, will tell for sure when I get into the loft but afaik all the houses where I live are brick/block construction
 
So I was working in the loft on Saturday and as it was the first time I have actually ventured up there since we moved in I had a poke around.

Running across the loft is what I believe is a phone extension wire. With everything else being properly in the cavities i suspect it was added as an extra and was run across like this to save time (or the sparky missed it and got away with doing it this way)

Seeing as this cable runs down the wall to where the phone socket is located and its only feet away from the noise I am leaning towards this being the cause of the noise.
So probably slapping onto the back of the plasterboard and/or something else inside the wall when windy.

So now I am debating disconnecting the wire from the phone socket and pulling it up and out of the wall. What I don't know is if it will come out or not. Could easily be "stuck" in the wall at some point.

Brings a few risks, in that its the phone socket that the broadband is plugged into, which incidentally I was going to need to relocate to the adjacent room. Currently an extension is plugged in going round to the office room. Was going to put this through the wall once the jobs list gives me time.

What I was considering if I can pull the cable up is to drill a hole up to the loft from inside the fitted wardrobe in the other room, divert the builder fitted cable down into the wardrobe and fit a phone socket there. Then make a small opening to allow the router cable to pass into the wardrobe and in effect hide the filter and phone socket.

Is it ok to join phone wire, anything special to do so. From rough calulations if I was able to completely pull the wire out it would go roughly half way down inside the wardrobe which would be fine. If I can't pull it out I am still tempted to terminate that connection by cutting it in the loft by the wall and diverting that into the wardrobe, but I would need to extend this wire. We really don't need the fixed phone line in the bedroom, we have another 2 downstairs that if we ever, although highly unlikely, plugged in a landline we would use one of those for the "base handset"
 
Is there not any slack in the cable in the loft that you can try and push down the cavity? It might be moving because it is tight?
 
Mark M said:
Is there not any slack in the cable in the loft that you can try and push down the cavity? It might be moving because it is tight?
Click to expand...

There is a tiny bit from the 50% I uncovered. I am 99% sure its coming from the other side of the house as thats where the 2nd socket is so there could be some more slack under the loft insulation. May head back up and do some tugging :)

But relocating is fine for me anyway, as I said I was going to have to add an extension through the wall. Pulling the cable out if it will is absolutely fine, I have no issue, and if it fixes the noise bonus, 2 jobs done in one.

Im wondering about phone line joins and losses, what also just sprung to mind with you mentioning slack I could cut the wire in the loft, run a cable down and back up from the room I need the phone socket in and reconnect the cable into the bedroom to that. So I would be adding a socket into the chain in effect. But this would add 2 or 3 joins into the equation, initial join in loft, possibly one in wardrobe depending if I can loop the cable into the box, and then rejoin the one in the loft.

Need to google some phone line data I think to see whats recommended in regards joining.
 
Hi there. I’m having the exact same issue and it’s driving me mad - a Google search led me to this thread / forum. Did either of you manage to get to the bottom of this? We’re thinking it’s the roof / loft and looking to get a structural engineer out… anything you can share of your own experience is much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Opps-- long lost thread.

OK - It's no fun having noises in your house.
If you think it's coming from roof you might try and have a look at your chimney if you have one.
A mate had a problem and after a few years he found it was the clay vent on top of chimney pot rocking in wind -Seems base on vent or pot wasn't level and vent rocked on it in wind.
He said they used to lay in bed at night and listen to a clunk clunk.

Hope it helps
 
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