Saturday, July 30, 2005
What is that Noise?
Question: "There is a loud cracking that occurs in the ceiling of our family room. At first, we thought it was ordinary fireplace noises, but we even hear it when the fireplace is not running. The noise is pretty loud. What is it?”
Believe it or not, the cracking that you hear in your family room is a lot more common than most people think. Houses are usually constructed with natural products, most commonly wood. And natural products are subject to contraction and expansion as the humidity and temperatures change. Engineered wood products are also subject to the same reactions to these environmental factors as natural wood. These reactions make for some interesting characteristics of these construction materials.
As temperatures and humidity change, the wood tends to expand and contract around its fastenings, most commonly nails. These changes in structure happen quite rapidly in some cases. When this occurs, the wood grain will split along the line of the nail, causing the loud cracking noise that you hear. And as the folks in the north know better than anyone, lower temperatures and humidity are the prime causes of splitting wood. Cold temperatures cause the molecules in the wood to bind together tighter, resulting in a significant contraction of the material.
That being said, I have good news and I have bad news. Which would you like to hear first? The bad news? There is not much you can do about natural structure changes in the wood of your home. The good news? These changes are most likely not causing any serious structural damage to your home. Most wood is adequately treated to withstand certain pressures cause by natural changes in the environment. So I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you see serious cracking in your walls that start small and run down the length of them, you can rest easy that everything is fine.
Believe it or not, the cracking that you hear in your family room is a lot more common than most people think. Houses are usually constructed with natural products, most commonly wood. And natural products are subject to contraction and expansion as the humidity and temperatures change. Engineered wood products are also subject to the same reactions to these environmental factors as natural wood. These reactions make for some interesting characteristics of these construction materials.
As temperatures and humidity change, the wood tends to expand and contract around its fastenings, most commonly nails. These changes in structure happen quite rapidly in some cases. When this occurs, the wood grain will split along the line of the nail, causing the loud cracking noise that you hear. And as the folks in the north know better than anyone, lower temperatures and humidity are the prime causes of splitting wood. Cold temperatures cause the molecules in the wood to bind together tighter, resulting in a significant contraction of the material.
That being said, I have good news and I have bad news. Which would you like to hear first? The bad news? There is not much you can do about natural structure changes in the wood of your home. The good news? These changes are most likely not causing any serious structural damage to your home. Most wood is adequately treated to withstand certain pressures cause by natural changes in the environment. So I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you see serious cracking in your walls that start small and run down the length of them, you can rest easy that everything is fine.
