Key Points
What’s that clicking noise in the bathroom walls? Solve the mystery by finding out:
- Why the probable culprit is expansion and contraction of the pipes or siding
- When the noise most commonly starts
- Whether noises in the walls should be a concern
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Transcript
LESLIE: Now we’ve got Damian in Iowa on the line who’s got a mystery noise in the bathroom. Tell us about it.
DAMIAN: Bought a new house beginning of April and it’s my second house I’ve owned. And in my master bedroom, in the closet – master closet and the master bath – it’s just some weird, like clicking/ticking noises in the walls.
TOM: Does that happen when you run water, Damian?
DAMIAN: That does but that’s mainly – I think my plumbing’s in the flooring. And I don’t think this is a plumbing issue.
TOM: So if it happens consistent with running the water or turning the water on/off, it’s almost always the pipes expanding and contracting. If the pipes are rubbing against the wall as it expands or contracts, it will make that clicking sound and then that clicking sound will resonate. So, it could be originating in the floor and you might hear it in the wall and so on. Sometimes it sounds like a drip, sometimes it sounds like a click. But in a bathroom area, that’s the – almost exclusively the reason that that sound occurs.
DAMIAN: Here’s my thing. It happens in the closet and it happens for hours at a time when the plumbing’s not even being used.
TOM: OK. Well, it still could be expansion and contraction.
DAMIAN: Could it be because – I’m kind of facing the west side and it happens in the afternoon. Do you think the sun has anything to do with it? Stuff heating up in the walls or …?
TOM: It may very well because when you’re heating things up, then you’re going to get expansion.
DAMIAN: OK. Yeah, I’m just glad you said – I used to own a brick house and this one’s steel siding, so I never used to hear those kinds of sounds.
TOM: Oh, well, see, yeah, the expansion and the contraction of the siding is very noisy, too.
DAMIAN: Oh, could that be it then?
TOM: Yeah, it could be, absolutely.
DAMIAN: I’ve gotten to the point where I almost want to take a hammer to my drywall and see what’s going on in there.
TOM: I think you’d be chasing it for a long time and probably never exactly find the point. But it’s pretty typical and I wouldn’t worry about it. OK, Damian?
DAMIAN: Alright. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, guys.
TOM: Alright. Try to get some sleep. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
There’s no way to make it stop? I’m in an apartment and it’s driving me nuts!