Knocking in my loft at night...

[sarah189]

Help! There’s something alive in my attic at night! Over the last few weeks I’ve heard a tapping/knocking sound in the ceiling above my bed that starts at around 10pm-midnight and continues on and off until 4-6am. It’ll be a few continuous knocks, then silence for a few minutes, then it’ll start again. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the sound comes from - sometimes seems more like the top of one of the walls than the ceiling. Sometimes a few hours (or even days) can go by without me hearing it but when it does happen it’s always the same sort of sound. I don’t really hear scampering or rustling, or any vocals. Sometimes there’s a bit of scraping as if whatever it is is dragging something through the attic - but that was only once or twice. It keeps me wide awake at night as the knocking is very loud in the silence of night time (I live on a very quiet residential road). So I’ve been sleeping terribly recently. I feel like mice and rats don’t really knock, a bird I would expect to make a flapping/vocal sound, and squirrels aren’t active at night I don’t think? I don’t know though. I’m not sure what other animals are common in lofts/walls in the UK, especially in this boiling hot summer. Thanks for any suggestions! I’ve recorded the sound below:

1- imgur.com/lp7TnV0 (you'll need to flick sound on in the corner)
2- clyp.it/ntj40pmb
3- clyp.it/hcmzwuee

Squirrels can definitely be active at night. I can’t listen to the recording but there were squirrels in the loft above my room in a university house and it was a tapping, scratching sort of sound.

I also used to live in a very old house where the bricks in the wall would make a sort of crackling noise after a very hot day, something to do with them expanding and contracting.

Could it be something knocking in the wind? Cable from aerial or loose bargeboards?

Or it's a ghost.

Without wanting to ask the obvious, why have you not gone up there to check it out? Or had someone else do it for you if you can't?

Hi op

At night in highish winds our areal knocks against the chimney pot
Also when the birds land on it, which could be around dawn?
It echos down the chimney pot through the house, took me years to
Work out what it was

That sounds too rgular for an animal, unless it is sth that knocks when a creature moves past it. Have you been up there? (Not martens they sound different.)

We regularily hear sb move through our living room opening cupboards that aren't there - the sounds travel from a totally unexpected direction. Could be your sounds travel too and don't come from the attic at all.

Bats?

Hmmm, interesting. It does sound like something blown about, but there is another element to the sound that is more animal like . An animal scratching itself?
I am going to get DH to listen in a minute. I could only open clips 2 and 3

That doesn’t sound like an animal.
Do you live in a terrace house? Sometimes the roof spaces run along the terrace, or used to if no fire walls put up. Sound might be travelling.
You, or someone else will have to go up and look.
Might be an Ariel wire dislodged and knocking ?

I think someone is doing some home improvements and the sound travelling.
When did you first notice it?

Are you in a terraced or semi-detached house?

I don’t want to alarm you but my friend had this happen to her at her terraced house, and she lives alone. She didn’t have a loft ladder so couldn’t get into it to find out what was causing the noise. One morning she was having a lie-in and idly staring up at the ceiling and noticed a small hole. It turned out that the next door neighbour’s 17 year old teenage son was spying on her via the loft space!

It was

Actually I would agree that the third recording could be an animal scratching.

Likely mice, we had them in the loft when I was young and I thought it was something big, honestly thought it sounded like a body being dragged around! My dad chucked some mice traps up and caught tiny mice.

Most likely things in the loft are
1.Mice.

1. Squirrels.

3.Rats. 4.Bats. 5.Birds. Doesn’t sound like a bird to me, unless you are very rural and could have an owl on your roof. Squirrels need a way in, so trees fairly close to the roof . Is your house detached ? Village /town/rural ?

The other very likely thing is something blowing, a branch maybe ?

That doesn’t sounds like animals really. It’s too regular.

This is exactly what I had a few weeks ago was quite a loud knocking/scratching noise every night! I was convinced it was a bird building a nest or bats so I had pest control out and turns out it was a wasps nest! They said the scratching/knocking noise is them building their nest!
You wouldn’t believe such small things could make a noise that loud

Squirrels, rats or bats.

It is similar to the noise my resident thrush makes, bashing cherries to get the stones out, or snails. But it isn’t that as it is happening in the night.

Have you been up there and looked around?. Surely that's the first thing to do.

We had creatures in our loft (a bit more obviously creatures) and bought a movement sensitive spycam. Caught the cheeky squirrels on camera tearing up the loft insulation 🙄
Have you been up there in the night to take a look? The sound reminds me of a rabbit's emergency thump but they'd be doing well to get up there!

Could it be a squirrel etc scratching itself? You know how animals use their back legs to scratch, well my dog thumps the floor as part of her scratch and it is similar to the recordings ie in short bursts of scratch.

Squirrels sleep at night like we do, so I doubt it’s them, rats more likely but they would make scratchy sounds on the ceiling. You could ring your local council for advice. Not sure how they are are going about visiting homes at the moment though. But local council may be a better and cheaper option, than a private pest control company.

DH is asking if it is the same pattern of knocks each time ? Also only between those hours ? As that would rule out a branch tapping in the wind.
Do you live in an old house ?

I do think an animal scratching itself is the most likely thing, but go up and have a look, leave a wildlife camera up there if you can’t see anything.

Could only hear clips 2 and 3.

The patterns of the '3 knocks' are too regular to be an animal, in my opinion.

I'd be going up there (with somebody else too!) firstly in between the times you hear the knock and if no luck/nothing obvious, then during the times you hear it.

Please come back and tell us what it is!