knocking in the attic

Client says she hears knocking throughout the attic during the day. What could it be?

Her husband?

no, he is at work.

Or so she thinks, he is secretly trying to make her go insane. Is it working? And how do you know when he is at work?

Lol

ok, this is very funny, but not helpful at all.

I am thinking red squirrels, but it could be something else.

Ghosts.


It's really hard to say when temps get this cold. Every animal is going to look outside and decide if they will use more energy trying to find food than they will get from their finds. Many are going to stay inside and create more noise, and at different times of the day. They are still going to go to the bathroom though. I suggest finding some droppings.

I am thinking non animal related..possibly pipes popping inside of them from low or high pressures

I am guessing raccoon. it's a ranch home with low attic, I don't think there is much on pipes going through, only a few roof vents. knocking sounds are heard moving from one end of the house to the other.
no floor boards in there, about a foot or two deep of loose fiber insulation. I am really not inclined to crawl around in there to dig around for droppings. potentially making the animal skittish, plus I am just not that athletic anymore.
set two cages near the entry hatch with a mix of bait, a little bit of everything, and hope for the best.

I have run into many what I refer to as "mechanical noises" folks have called about over the years. Some as of the last few months.

One was an old gal that lived alone in an old 3 story frame house in town. She had old wooden floors and sat in the same place daily in an old rocking chair in this room. No carpeting. She kept feeling this knocking and tapping noise under her chair area.

She had called in 2 pest control companies prior to calling us. They had put glue boards down, bait and multi catch repeater mouse traps etc.. Not the problem. During my inspection I find the nearest point under where she would sit in the basement and looked over head for a clue. Low and behold there were some copper pipes running against and close to the floor joist. Not strapped in places.

When she would run hot water for dishes, bathing or laundry of course this would put a demand on the hot water tank to run water and in doing so the pipe would jump due to the lack of straps to hold the pipes securely. Therefore hitting the floor joists just under where she would sit often enough to mimic activity of some sort.

She had several pots and pans, brooms and other items she could throw down the basement stairs in an attempt to scare this creature away. She couldn't do stairs due to her age and handicap in climbing stairs.

I found some rags and wrapped them around the loose pipe area I felt was the problem and told her to call me if the noise persisted. We never heard back from the old gal.

We have had many cases such as this, branches hitting the house, loose siding/soffit flapping in the wind you name it. Not saying this is your situation but it may be worth exploring the possibility in an attempt to explain it rationally.

Expansion and contraction in the framing

Your in Wisconsin and it's real cold thus year, these real low temperature make the longer pieces of lumber expansion and contraction have more effect

Once we reach negative 10 my rafters will "pop" and then will "pop" as they return during the "warming" of the day

could very well be it's time to crawl through there and look for actual animal sign.

If it is an animal, you should be able to see trails in the loose insulation.

We live in an old house that makes the same noise. The gas hot water heater is in the basement. While it is heating it sounds like someone knocking up in the attic. Drove us crazy at first but now we ignore it.