Help needed with unidentified noise

[Capybara]

Hello, I have been having this problem for a while and my friends think that it may be linked to my pipes.

It usually happens at night and it is a sort of scratching noise. It sounds like a guiro instrument (from what I have found on youtube) - like wood scraping over wood. There are usually 4 to 6 scrapes in each instance. Normally it only happens about every 15 minutes or half an hour, but last night it started happening every few minutes. The rest of the time there are no other noises.

Each noise only lasts about a second, it sounds a bit like a scratching noise, with 4 repetitions. It is very consistent in its sound - each sound is the same as the others, but the location seems to vary, sometimes sounding like it comes from the wall and sometimes from the floor or elsewhere in the room. I haven't noticed it in any other rooms.

It is very annoying and a bit disconcerting when I'm trying to sleep, so I wondered if anyone had an idea of what it might be?

Thank you very much!

 

[PlumbBobBob]

rodents?

 

[SimonG]

mice, rats, squirrels, bats,

 

[Rickster123]

Next doors cat?

 

[Capybara]

Thanks for the suggestions - I am a little concerned in case it is animals, though the fact that the noise is always so consistent makes me think it might be a mechanical thing?

 

[Rickster123]

Unfortunately it sounds like you need to call someone out to hear the sound and diagnose the problem.

in the meantime leave a saucer of milk and a cheese triangle in the corner of each room. Just to rule out the animal thing.

 

[Best]

Is there any places rodents can get into the house, or are you joined to other houses?
Sounds like a noise a mouse or other rodent makes.
Try putting a few mouse traps against the walls. Use a Mars bar to bait them with a very tiny bit of toffee/chocolate & set each trap with the nasty part facing the wall.
Let's hope you have no plastic pipes for rodents to sample. :smile:

 

[Dotty]

Unfortunately it sounds like you need to call someone out to hear the sound and diagnose the problem

In the meantime leave a saucer of milk and a cheese triangle in the corner of each room. Just to rule out the animal thing.

And I can't believe I'm admitting this but I agree.

However. If you've ever wondered how you get triangles from a cow, you need buttermilk and cheese, and an equilateral chainsaw.

 

[Capybara]

The problem with asking someone to come out is that I usually hear it at night (which unfortunately probably supports the nocturnal animal possibility!) But I will bear that in mind if it doesn't improve. I haven't heard it yet today, but it isn't very late yet.

We are joined to another house on one side, although not the side of the room with the noise. We did have a problem with flies in our hallway area during the summer, so there was some way that they had got in, though I couldn't find it. I wouldn't be surprised if there was somewhere a small animal could get in, as we have a lot of trouble with mould in the winter so it can't be very well insulated. (This is a rented flat above a shop, in case that is relevant!)

A couple of people suggested leaving food out for possible animals, would that work if they are in the walls?

 

[SimonG]

Get a pest control company out.

 

[Gas]

You ever seen shawshank redemption? i sometimes feel like digging a tunnel when the missus is in a mood

 

[PlumbBobBob]

you probably only hear it at night because most other sounds have stopped or been switched off by then. it probably happens at other times of the day, you just can't hear it because of peripheral sounds.

 

[Koogatubac]

Polterguists? ... :O

 

[stevetheplumber]

does the timing coincide with the heating being on or going off could be a pipe moving against a joist or flooring laminate floors are murder for this