Blog

House Noises You Shouldn’t Ignore

At any given time, we encounter various “warning signs” that alert us to potential problems. One such sign is the beeping sound newer cars make when a car is on either side of you on a highway and senses it’s getting too close or you’re about to turn into their lane.  Or how about when the smoke detector goes off, pointing out that your cookies are burning inside the oven.  And on and they go, warning signs we can see, hear, smell, touch, or even taste.

Today, we’re focusing on audio alerts, not all of which are super obvious.  Some are quiet and easy to ignore, like those occasional dings and clanks you chalk up to wind noise or your house settling in for a long winter’s nap.

So which sounds should you pay closest attention to?  Here’s just a small sampling:

1. No one’s using the plumbing, but you can hear it anyway. This could be caused by many things, from a leaky fixture to a broken pipe, and even your irrigation system. Try turning off your water main valve. If the noise stops, your plumbing is telling you there’s a leak, and now it’s up to you to figure out where.

2. You hear strange noises from your attic or behind your walls. If you hear scratching or chittering in any area of your home, you need to act fast. Rodents and other animals not only carry diseases, but can chew threw insulation and electrical wiring, putting your family at risk of fire.

3. Your furnace is making a whistling or sucking sound. In this instance, you probably have a dirty air filter causing your furnace to work extra hard to reach the desired temperature. But wasted energy isn’t the only consequence, since a furnace that puts in that kind of overtime might start drawing exhaust gasses into your home. So change or clean the filter regularly – once a month is a good way to play it safe.

4. You hear clinking and knocking when you turn the heat on. While some heating system noises are common, like the clinking and knocking you might hear from your baseboards, any noises from the boiler itself could be a sign of impending failure. Call a technician to check it out pronto, before you’re left out in the cold.

5. There’s a banging sound coming from your hot water heater. This one probably signals that your system’s anode rod has broken off and is bouncing off the walls, literally, inside the storage tank. Not only is it time to replace the rod, but get your system flushed to remove the corrosive elements that caused the rod to rust and break in the first place.

Any time you sense something “funny” going on with your plumbing, heating, or air conditioning system, play it safe and contact Messmer Mechanical for expert troubleshooting, a guaranteed upfront price to fix the problem, and our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.