Plumbing, HVAC, floors, animals: What sounds mean in houses

The subtle scratching of an overgrown tree branch against a residential roof is a quiet signal. Come wintertime, that branch and its rooftop connection become “a raceway for animals,” said home inspector Rob Byrne.

“Now they can climb up the tree, get on your roof, and in the wintertime they’re looking for warm environments, so they’re going to get into the attic,” said Byrne, of Higher Elevation Home Inspections.

Abrasive branches, creaky floorboards and banging pipes are among signals that a household appliance, structural element or mechanical system might need attention.

“Listening for any sounds going on in your house is something I would caution everyone,” said Jessica Edmondson, director of data journalism at insurance comparison website Insurify.

Edmondson once arrived home to find that her kittens had nudged the faucet into the “on” position. Having run for about two hours, the water caused a pipe backup and flooded the finished basement. 

“The moment I came home I knew something was off, I could smell something was off, and I could hear it,” Edmondson said. 

Animals

“We kind of tap on the access to the attic, and, if you hear scurrying and running around, well, guess what? We’re not opening up that attic,” Byrne said.

On rare occasion, he has found squirrels and raccoons in Long Island attics. More commonly, he said, he has found birds. In the farmhouses of eastern Long Island, as well as the Brookville area, he has come across bats.

“We’ve been in attics where we’ve heard birds chirping because they got into the attic and they nested, and the birds hatched, and there’s actually live little birds in the attic, in the insulation, in a nest,” Byrne said.

Addressing an animal infestation typically means calling a licensed exterminator for further assessment, Byrne said.

Creaky, squeaky floors

The creaking of floorboards can indicate serious structural deficiencies, or nothing at all, Byrne said. In some cases, the sound simply denotes the home’s age, he said; in other cases, it alerts inspectors and prospective buyers to a problem with a complicated solution.

“It could be as simple as just re-securing the plywood to the floor joist, or, going downstairs and seeing that they modified the house structurally,” Byrne said. “It could be the same sound, but different concerns.”

If the issue is not structural, Byrne said, one option to dampen the sound is to install carpeting.

Escobar said an oft-innocuous squeaking sound can also present itself.

“A lot of floors squeak, depending on the age of the home,” Escobar said, recalling an 1800s build he once inspected. Many of Long Island’s older homes will have squeaky floors because of the materials used at the time of construction, he said.

Often, Edmondson said, creaky, squeaky floors are the product of changes in weather, gaps in planks, or the settling of the house. Creaking can turn to cracking, she said, which is sometimes a sign of temperature fluctuation. 

Less commonly, Edmondson said, creaky floors can be a sign of bug infestation. The infestation has to be severe to cause creaking, she said, and would normally be accompanied by wood shavings.  

Gurgling noises, plumbing

The silence of a slow seep of water into a bathtub drain is notable to home inspector Rob Byrne: it means all is likely well.

“If it starts to gurgle, it’s telling us that there’s a problem in the plumbing,” Byrne said. “We’re looking for that, we’re listening for that sound. Because that’s an indication of what’s going on behind the walls.”

During a home inspection, Byrne’s son, Christopher, might flush an upstairs toilet or run the water while the client is in the basement, Byrne explained.

A gurgling sound produced by a bathtub or sink drain might mean improper venting, clogged drains, or restricted drains, Byrne said. Often, a client will later call in a specialist to diagnose a potential problem, he said.

Noisy HVAC, boiler, mechanical systems

If a home’s mechanical systems are making excessive noise, Byrne said, those sounds are worth paying attention to. The type of sound the system will make depends on what the problem is.

A grinding sound coming from an air conditioner could mean a failing motor, Byrne said. A knocking or banging from the boiler is an alert to check the heating system.

Jason Escobar, owner of Centereach-based Jason Home Inspection, said his main concern when inspecting air conditioning systems is that he does not hear a knocking sound from the compressor or a scraping sound from the fan.

“It could be a maintenance issue, they didn’t maintain it, that’s why we hear that noise — that knocking sound,” Escobar said.

A knocking sound could also be coming from the furnace, Escobar said.

Noisy appliances

The sound of an appliance in need of repair can come in various forms. An air compressor might make a grinding sound if it is starting to fail, Byrne said. An exhaust fan in the bathroom or above the stove might produce a rattle.

When Byrne notices these noises, he makes a note in his report: “noisy when operated.”

The same goes for a dishwasher, which Byrne will turn on to make sure it runs.

“If a sound appears, then we document it, or we try to figure out why it’s doing it, but we’re not really looking for it in particular,” Byrne said.