Old house goes "bang bang" at midnight: check the pipes first, then everything else

Living alone in an old house, you often hear all sorts of noises in the middle of the night: sometimes a single "bang", sometimes "click, click, click", sometimes like someone walking upstairs, back and forth, then stopping.

Most of the time, it's one of the following.

One is thermal expansion and contraction. During the day the sun bakes the walls, floors, ceiling, and pipes until they're hot; at night, as the temperature drops, they contract, and when they contract they make a "click" sound. Wooden floors, roofs, and metal pipes are the most noticeable. It's usually loudest one or two hours after nightfall, and just before dawn.

Two is the pipes. Heating pipes, water pipes—when the water flow suddenly stops, it hits something inside the pipe, called "water hammer": a heavy "bang", sometimes several in a row.

Three is mice, squirrels, cats, or weasels running around on the ceiling or inside the walls. That "rustle, rustle, rustle", followed by a sudden stop, sounds most like footsteps.

Four is wind, blowing on doors, windows, shutters, or things hanging on the balcony to dry.

Five is neighbors upstairs or downstairs. Sounds travel through walls and floors, and you can't tell what they are—you just feel like your own house is making the noise.

There's one more thing many people don't think of: carbon monoxide. A doctor abroad recorded a family as early as the 1920s: they always thought their house was haunted, suffering headaches, nausea, nightmares, hearing strange noises at night and seeing shadows. It turned out their furnace was leaking, and they were being slowly poisoned by carbon monoxide.

So if your house is always noisy at night and you also get headaches, some people suggest buying a carbon monoxide alarm first and installing it beside your bed.

A simple method: write down the time every time you hear something. If it's always two or three in the morning, or always when the temperature changes, it's probably one of the above.

If the location and rhythm are different every time, check for mice first.

#Paranormal #网络转载 #科学解释