Help us identify this annoying popping/creaking noise in our walls and ceiling!

We bought our townhouse 3 years ago (it was built in 2007, so it's fairly new). Everything has been going fine except for one thing- this really irritating popping noise in the walls and ceiling that occurs during late hours. The video shown below documents the issue.

Popping and cracking noise - YouTube

A few things we've noticed about the noise:

• The noise seems to occur during the colder parts of the year, particularly late Fall and Winter
• It occurs in one particular area- the ceiling above the laundry and furnace room.
• It seems to happen in the early morning and late night hours.
• It's definitely not our neighbours. They're not loud people, and the noises have occurred when they're not home, or on vacation. We've asked them about the noise, and they said that they noticed it too. But for them it isn't too loud because the noise is beneath the floor.
• It hasn't gotten better with time.

The video doesn't really do the noise justice. It's really loud. We had some house guests not long ago who couldn't get any sleep because the noise wouldn't stop. Any thoughts about what this noise might be? What can we do bring an end to it? We live in Ontario, Canada if it's at all helpful. This noise wasn't disclose to us during the home buying process and we did have an inspection performed prior to buying the home- do we have any recourse in this regard?

 

I had a similar sound a few months ago and it turned out to be a very difficult to find water leak. So, try to get up in the attic and verify that there is not water dripping and running down in the wall. If it's only happening at certain times I wonder if the building is heating/cooling and the materials are expanding & contracting at different rates. Some stuff might not be attached as well as it should and is creaking as it expands.

 

Sometime ago there was a similar thread. Nose arou nd a little and maybe you can find it. I forget what thre problem turned out to be.

 

Get in the attic if you can... Take a short length of cardboard tube up there with you... like maybe 4ft long. Put it up to your ear to help locate the noise.

I would suspect a creaking truss clip. If you stand on the bottom chord of the offending truss, it might inturrupt the noise, narrowing it down so that you can identify which truss to focus on. Could also be a nail, but I dont know that it would make that noise continuously.

 

I would say the dryer vent or the furnace flue. Expanding and contracting....

 

Lawrosa: the dryer vent, eh... is an HVAC Technician the best professional to consult with?

XSleeper and Pilot Dane: Since it's a townhouse (a single-level unit), we actually don't have an attic. The noise appears to be coming from the space between our upstairs neighbour, and our ceiling. I actually located the noise- it's coming from "behind" the smoke detector shown in the video. I gave that part of the ceiling a firm thump with my hand, which stopped the noise for about 20 seconds before it started up again.

Pilot Dane: Since it's a townhouse (a single-level unit), we actually don't have an attic. The noise appears to be coming from the space between our upstairs neighbour, and our ceiling.

 

I was going to say that popping sounds are fairly common when you get the -30'C to -45'C weather we had the last week here in Northern Ontario.
That being said, the noise in your video is not the same. That is something moving.
In the video, you can hear a something running, more so when you opened the door. What was that (I was listening to this with laptop speakers)?
If I had to guess, I would say it's a dryer vent damper or similar. It's something moving and the quick listen I had, it sounded like it was a consistant pattern or beat. Not a cold weather pop like we've been hearing here.

 

Find out where you dryer and furnace vent exit the townhome in relation to the position of those appliances. May come out a side wall for each unit, but from my experience they all went out through the roof.