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Original poster

Please help me solve mysterious tapping noise in wall!

63 replies

Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 06:44

Last year from Jan to March I was kept awake most of the night by an intermittent tapping noise coming from the top of the bedroom wall, just underneath the coving. It is an intermittent tap, not regular, that sounds similar to recordings of death watch beetle but again, less regular as sometimes there is just one or two taps and sometimes there are 20 quick taps in a row. I've been told it can't be deathwatch beetle as the house is modern, built in 2000.

I tried all sorts of things to figure out what it was, even bought an endoscope but before I could use that the tapping just stopped in March 2020.

Now it is back again and driving me crazy! I went into the loft and used the endoscope into the cavity wall space but it won't go down far enough into the wall to where the noise is coming from.

Does anyone have any ideas of what it could be, it is driving me crazy and I'm not getting any sleep.

There are no pipes or electrics in that area. I have put down sticky insect traps in the loft but caught nothing. I have put down cheese/crackers/peanut butter in the loft and it isn't touched. You can't hear the noise from the loft, only from the bedroom. It is in one specific place and doesn't moved around, difficult to locate exactly but in about a 30cm square area.

Does anyone have any ideas of what it could be before I abandon the bedroom and sleep on the sofa? Sad

OP posts:
TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 14/12/2020 07:00

I had a similar noise once and it turned out to be a mouse rolling a chestnut about that she had stolen from a bowl of them - but that was in a loft.

Whereabouts in the wall is the noise? Near the ceiling or near the floor? Is it an outside wall?

(I think rodents only eat cheese and crackers at the end of a meal and not as a starter.)

Mumdiva99 · 14/12/2020 07:04

We have similar in the kitchen. But I am convinced it is pipework heating or cooling....as it can't be anything else. I've been outside, inside, switched things on and off. Sometimes it's a regular tap, sometimes just a couple....I would get earplugs rather than resort to the sofa.

Or a la Shirley Valentine....just start talking to it....give it an identity.

@twoleft that was funny!!

Bluntness100 · 14/12/2020 07:07

Isn’t it just the pipe work cooling down? Similar time of year, similar weather?

Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 07:08

It's at the top of the wall near the coving. It's an external wall, the side of the house so no guttering or anything like that above. It happens all night long when there is no heating on and there is no pipework there.
A real mystery and really making me miserable!

Unfortunately I find earplugs really uncomfortable and can't sleep with them. I put some ocean waves noise on all last night in an attempt to drown out the tapping but I could still hear it.

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Okbutnotgreat · 14/12/2020 07:11

We had that and it was a drainpipe from the guttering that wasn’t fixed in place so if the wind caught it, it knocked. Drove me insane till we discovered it but never been a problem since.

Adirondack · 14/12/2020 07:11

This happened in my parents 1980s built house. A specialist entomologist cane and listened. It was definitely a kind of bug, but can’t remember what. After a couple of years of tapping, it stopped

birdseedpie · 14/12/2020 07:14

A tv aerial cable running down the wall that isn't secured.

Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 07:19

There are no cables or pipes in that wall. The TV ariel is on that side but looking in the loft it looks like the cable goes down the other side of the house. Would it be possible for the TV ariel to go down through the cavity wall without being seen in the loft?

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LadyCatStark · 14/12/2020 07:26

OMG we have this and it drives me insane! It only happens when it’s windy though so it’s definitely something banging against the wall.

LazyDaisy10 · 14/12/2020 07:32

I'd say a mouse, could be knocking against something??

Dinosaur19 · 14/12/2020 07:42

Mouse/rat/birds nest/squirrel at a push

Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 07:52

But if it was an animal it would move around? This noise is in one specific place and never moves. But I can't locate any kind of cable/piping anywhere near there that could be banging/tapping. It is driving me crazy as I am completely out of ideas!

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birdseedpie · 14/12/2020 07:56

@LadyCatStark

OMG we have this and it drives me insane! It only happens when it’s windy though so it’s definitely something banging against the wall.
Tv aerial cables go all over the place, ours was on one side of the house and the cable came down the side, along the fascia to the other side and in the house at the furthest point. At least it did until a storm and the whole thing came down.
ADMum20 · 14/12/2020 09:36

Do you have a drain pipe coming from the roof outside where the noise is?

We do - and when it rains, the dripping of the water down it then echos back up it, and creates a tapping noise that can be heard inside.

ILoveYoga · 14/12/2020 09:48

We have had similar. Some times it’s a bird hopping across the flat roof of our bedroom and once I investigated a newish early morning tapping sound that was driving me bonkers - to find a bird tapping at the flashing around chimney breast. Had a handy man paint it black and the tapping stopped as that bird either no longer found it interesting or that bird moved on.

Ariela · 14/12/2020 10:04

It was windy last night - do check the guttering/downpipes.

Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 14:55

There is no guttering or downpipes on that side as its the side gable. Just plain brick, no cables at all. There is a boiler outlet but that's further up.

I've now checked the ariel cable and its not that. I've sat with the endoscope thingy down the side of the cavity wall for ages and can't see anything.

Seriously driving me mad now!

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PigletJohn · 14/12/2020 17:47

does your boiler have a pressure gauge, or are there tanks and pipes in the loft?

Have you ever heard this noise in summer?

Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 19:44

There are tanks and pipes in the loft. I think the pressure gauge is in the airing cupboard. However the noise is most obvious in the night when the heating/hot water is off.

I haven't heard the noise since March. So frustrating that it has come back again! Tearing my hair out over this.

Currently sat in the loft on MN trying to see if I can hear it from up here but nothing yet...

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Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 19:51

Cold water tank and boiler are in the loft. Hot water tank is in the airing cupboard.

We've lived here 10 years and I've never heard it before last Jan - March. I was panicking about death watch beetle as it sounds a very similar tapping noise but we have no old wood, the house was built in 2000 and I think all the beams etc. are pine.

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Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 19:52

There are no pipes in the wall where the tapping noise is or above that wall in the loft.

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DontGoIntoTheLongGrass · 14/12/2020 19:58

Someone trapped in your walls and trying to communicate via Morse code?

Spirit/ghost?

HeronLanyon · 14/12/2020 20:05

Could it be a roof tile? Unlikely from your posts but last year I finally identified a tapping which had been going in fir 5 years. Various roofers came and went and had weights in windows repaired and checked.
One day when it was loud I just sat outside with binoculars trained and saw the tile lifting in the wind. Absurd sense of victory.
Ive also lived with death watch beetle in 1500 house. Noisy buggers !
Good luck

Original poster
Stupidtapping · 14/12/2020 20:49

Thanks, I don't think its a roof tile as I couldn't hear any noise when I was in the loft earlier and it was windy and rainy.

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