A Constant, Quiet "Tapping" Noise Is Driving Me Insane, Please Help!

lordezekiel on 06/08/2022 - 12:28
Last edited 09/08/2022 - 08:36 by 1 other user

Hi all, for the last week a noise has begun that is audible inside my office and the adjoining bedroom.
It is a quiet noise, but it has not stopped for over a week. Best way i can describe is it sounds like a distant tapping sound, almost like someone tapping a wooden table rapidly with one finger, but much quieter. It is a rapid sound that does not seem to vary in rhythm or sound level and is at a rate of about 5 "taps" per second.

It is driving me nuts, as while it is a quiet sound, it does not stop, and is just invasive enough to be audible even while watching a youtube video or listening to a podcast at a reasonably low level and is audible when i try to sleep at night.

I have been unable to locate the source of the sound, though my best guess is it must be in the wall that the office and bedroom share as they are the two places it is audible.

I have read lots about water pipes and such making noises, but no one ever describes them as consistent non stop sounds that last over a week.

Things i have tried:
- Shut water off at the main control - made no difference
- Shut power off at the mains switch board - made no difference
- Shut down both mains water and mains electricity at the same time and ran water at a tap till nothing came out - made no difference
- Disconnected my NBN HFC cable from the main board outside - made no difference
- Removed every device in my room that could possible be running on battery power and making any sort of noise (laptop, UPS, etc) - made no difference
- I even used a stethoscope on the wall where i thought the sound might be coming from but it's completely quiet

I am all out of ideas so if anyone has advice i would gladly welcome it!

Update: In response to all the whirlpool level, completely useless "funny" comments, a big, sarcastic thumbs up.
To the other almost relevant comments, i am not actually insane, so yes my partner can also hear it, and my hearing is excellent, had a hearing test in the past month.

Update #2: Thanks everyone for your responses, i have tried many of the suggestions over the past few days and had still not been able to locate the sound, but then i woke up this morning and it appears to have stopped! (at least for now).
I really appreciate those who left genuine helpful responses, as a friendless nobody it was actually a little heartwarming to have a bunch of relative strangers trying to help me out, even if i sounded a little frustrated at some of the joke comments :P

Home & Garden

Comments

  • Wayne7497 on 09/08/2022 - 09:45
    +1

    Although you turned water off rubber seat valves in toilet cisterns cause water hammer noise, drain cistern turn off tap to cistern , cistern would still be full if not flushed with water off, see if it goes away it can be constant or intermittent noise. If it turns out to be culprit pm me n ill post cheap fix.

  • Hangryuman on 09/08/2022 - 11:07

    yesterday I heard a weird tapping noise - kind of fast ticking - I was in the bin room of our complex checking some recently-rerouted electrical wiring for the light, and I was weirded out looking at the new conduit boxes thinking WTF what could be in the white junction box making that noise … !?!?!?

    I moved my head around to try to locate the source near the wiring - finally looked down at bags of rubbish someone had just tossed into a big bin - and went 'someone's just tossed out something like an alarm clock, or a small consumer electrical device like a faulty smoke alarm'

    I left it ticking - figure it will be gone next rubbish collection day tomorrow

    • ald on 09/08/2022 - 11:25

      Hey, a spent smoke alarm might be it too

  • lordezekiel on 09/08/2022 - 11:48
    +7

    UPDATE: Thanks everyone for your responses, i have tried many of the suggestions over the past few days and had still not been able to locate the sound, but then i woke up this morning and it appears to have stopped! (at least for now).
    Probably a little disappointing for some of us like myself who were wanting to know what/where on earth the noise was coming from.
    I really appreciate those who left genuine helpful responses, as a friendless nobody it was actually a little heartwarming to have a bunch of relative strangers trying to help me out, even if i sounded a little frustrated at some of the joke comments :P

    • device host on 09/08/2022 - 16:21

      Great I hope it doesn't come back - If it does I suggest trying to record it with some specialized audio processing app / equipment - most recorders like phones may only capture (or keep) a small part of the audio range (same as our ears) as they are designed for voice recording. so my suggestion would be to find some app / recording gear which can cover a lot more of the sound spectrum and then analyse the output on a computer (free software like Audacity could help) - then you can see if the noise is being caused by sources outside the human hearing range (which are rarely a problem however there are ways for them to become audible in the right situations even when the sound source is far away like the pool cleaner comments)

    • Bedgrub on 09/08/2022 - 20:27

      Some other things to consider:

      • downpipes dripping within the pipe
      • water ingress in your walls dripping
      • a clock. this one drove me insane for weeks, and I could only hear it at in the dead of night.
      • a radio turned down to almost all the way (drive me nuts at work once)
      • a record player stuck in the run out groove (done this)
    • BewareOfThe Dog on 10/08/2022 - 15:36
      +1

      Maybe it was a battery operated device, that was emitting a low battery warning. Hopefully the sound is gone now, and one day, when spring cleaning, you find a device with a flat battery, and solves the mystery. :)

      • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 10/08/2022 - 20:38

        It's OzBargain policy never to imply ownership in the event of a dildo, we have to use the indefinite article 'a' dildo, never 'your' dildo.

  • bamzero on 09/08/2022 - 13:09
    +2

    Do you have a whirlybird on the roof? The bearings seize after a while and they tend to make a ticking noise as they spin. Mine was driving me nuts, swapped out the bearing with one from a junk collection scooter, no more noise.

    My neighbours actually started doing it last week, was really loud, but the recent storm blew so hard it must have freed the bearings as it fixed itself :D

  • zombie hunter on 09/08/2022 - 14:42
    +1

    It is 5G put your tin foil hat on

  • Poor Ass on 09/08/2022 - 15:10
    -1

    I push my fingers into my eyes

  • [Deactivated] on 09/08/2022 - 15:18
    +2

    Damn, didn't know Edgar Allen Poe frequents OzBargain

  • Antikythera on 09/08/2022 - 17:52

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6i3b97

    @1m30s in

  • Oz em on 10/08/2022 - 00:37

    I thought there was something in my wall. It ended up being the ikea silent clock. The batteries have run low and it’s trying to go from 9-12 with the second hand.
    It probably should go in the bin, it can’t ever keep time.

  • YodaBaby on 10/08/2022 - 08:11
    +3

    Check the roof area (the triangular tip where the ceiling floor and the roof gutter meet). There might be birds (e.g. rainbow lorikeets) nesting in there.

    A few years ago, we had a pair nesting their egg in the area I mentioned. Constant tapping all the time, day and night and went on for about two years (they return to nest at the same place annually). It got to a stage where we have electrical trip-outs constantly. When we got the electrician to investigate, he found the birds were able to squeeze through the tiny gaps into the attic and chewed off some cables. If this wasn't discovered, we probably would have a roof fire. The solution was to get the pest control and roof experts to come together, open up the roof/gutter area, locate the nest and have the bird egg removed safely (lorikeets are protected bird species), then affix gutter guards all around the roof to stop future recurrence. It was an expensive tedious problem but was finally solved.

    In the third year, the birds returned to the same nest but couldn't get in. We could hear them 'cursing and swearing' on the roof and after a day or two, they gave up and went away.

  • Hangryuman on 10/08/2022 - 12:01

    here's an example of a mystery noise - neighbour complained about a noise disturbing their sleep, and assumed it was coming from another unit - but from outside it sounded like his vent - so I asked to check his internal bathroom ceiling extractor fan that is designed to come on with the light switch - he said 'it's off' and turned on the light and we heard a whooshing sound of a (hmm - I recognised the sound as not-original type) fan somewhere unseen above the false ceiling

    OK - so - with the light off, I grabbed a square of toilet tissue - held it up to the ceiling vent, and zip - the tissue got sucked up to the vent - a fan was still ON despite his thinking it was off - there's a second fan ! - jaws dropped

    knowing the history of our building where owners have not contacted strata and just installed new fans separate from the original, I was not surprised, and advised the tenant to contact their agent/owner to fix the problem with the second fan wiring resulting in the original fan running 24x7 making a noise near his pillow while he tried to sleep.

    • redslert on 10/08/2022 - 12:28
      +2

      To make sure there's no backdraft for shared vent with multiple inputs there's usually a constantly running fan at the end.

  • TransportPosters on 10/08/2022 - 12:53
    +1

    I bet 5 upvotes it comes back!

  • Vater Woods on 10/08/2022 - 13:47

    Have you tried turn off your fridge?

    I know it unlikely, but maybe, a screw could be loose around the compressor.

    • Tekon on 10/08/2022 - 14:09
      +3

      Do you suppose the fridge remained on after they 'Shut power off at the mains switch board'?

      • Vater Woods on 10/08/2022 - 15:15
        +3

        You're right, I forgot this. Ignore my post.

  • goraygo on 10/08/2022 - 22:01

    I have a rain water tank pump in the backyard mounted on the outside wall.

    One night it decided to play up at 11pm, I can hear the constant sound from the pump unit. It’s not pumping water, it just made sound.

    The sound travelled to my bedroom which is upstairs in a room but not directly above. The sound was very hard to find out. I ran around the inside of the house and can’t determine the cause. I was even in the room directly behind the pump but I can’t hear it besides my bedroom (which is upstairs).

    It was weird.

    Took me a good hour to find the bugger and unplugged it.

    Could be your alarm system as well, I remember a friend’s one was doing some stupid sound for weeks until the battery in the alarm ran out.

    Hopefully it won’t come back and good luck.

  • Adz81 on 09/07/2023 - 16:24

    Satisfy my curiosity please, OP… Has the sound remained silent? Did you find out what it was?

  • Sundayy on 04/07/2024 - 01:27
    +1

    I know this is an old post but did you ever find out what it was? I am in a newly but cheaply built town house and currently hearing this! I have been googling for a while and this is the only post I have found that describes the sound I am hearing. It only started a week or two ago but at night and early in the morning it is constant. Weirdly though, in summer my roof clicks constantly in the mornings as it starts to get warm, but at a much slower rate and much louder. I thought maybe it had something to do with expansion in the heat but I don't know, this wall sound is wigging me out.

    • OBone on 04/07/2024 - 20:49

      Hi Sundayy.
      If you scroll up this page a number of posts, the OP (lordezekiel 09/08/22) has actually said that the noise just stopped and he never did find out what the cause was.
      He also says the same thing in the original post on the first page (Update #2)
      If you haven't already, maybe read the whole thread, you might just find a clue for your own noise in the responses.

      • peteru on 04/07/2024 - 21:13

        I've spent a long time tracking down the source of sporadic ticking noise in our house. I knew that in our case it had to be some kind of an insect because every time I'd go looking for the source it would stop. Eventually I tracked it down to tiny little insects called book lice.

        • peteru on 04/07/2024 - 21:18

          BTW: If you go looking for info on book lice, it seems that they like new houses because of the high humidity/moisture content.

          See if you can dry out the house as much as possible and avoid things like aroma diffusers, air humidifiers, gas heaters, etc.

          In terms of pesticides, it seems that pyrethrum may be effective.

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