Cracking, popping noise and poping nails from the wall

Can you get up into the attic and take a good look at your rafters and joists. It sounds like there is some settling going on. What kind of soil is the house sitting on? What part of the country are you located?

I am in NJ. I went to attic and took a look. But since I am a dummy, I couldn't really see anything wrong. As for soil, I am not sure about that either. Can you teach me how to check these?

The house was in pretty good shape previously. But I think after a big and windy storm last year, I started to hear the noises. My friend told me the noise is due to heat. But I also noticed the nail poped out this summer and seems more and more coming. I am really worried about it and so afraid that the house will collapse.

It would be highly hihgly appreciated if any can help me out with this issue.

Please be a little more definitive. Are you speaking of interior or exterior?
By nail pops do you mean drywall nails backing out slightly.

Could you mean the ceiling instead of the roof.

By what type of soil, DR1757 probably meant is the soil in your area generally sandy, or clay, or rocky, or loamy ? Do you know if marine clay is known to exist in your area. That is probably something you would have to inquire about at the agency having jurisdiction over building construction in your area.

What you describe would not be heat related and one would not normally expect settling after 20 years.

Sorry about the confusion. The noise is actually from the ceiling or wall, mainly ceiling. Sometimes the noise sounds like the wood broke or shifted.

And you are right, the nails backed out slightly from the drywall.

I will check the soil type with the community management and let you know once I find it.

Thank you all for your help!

During the hot summers around here with slab foundations we have water around the perimeter of the house especially if the soil is clay or what we call black gumbo to keep it from sinking and moving around which can major problems like you're describing. Your problem still sounds like the house is settling.

To have drywall nails back out slightly is not unusual. This happens when the humidity increases and the wood swells slightly. This can push a nail out slightly. When wood dries out it shrinks leaving the nail protruding. When humidity increases again the same thing happen again. After a while you have a nail pop. This occurs more often when the nail has penetrated the edge of the stud. Just drive them back in and patch before painting.


As far as the noise you hear, the way you describe it, if it sounds like wood breaking, it probably is. Go back to the attic, pull back insulation and look for cracked or split ceiling joist. Look at roof rafters. Houses are built such that horizontal wood members rest on another piece of wood. Not just nailed to it.
Look at ends of joist and rafters, that would be over toward the eves and won't be easy.

I can think of no reason for a piece of wood to just break unless you have something really, really really heavy in the attic. If you just put something up there that you shouldn't, you might bow a joist but not break it.

Give a good look around, paying particular attention to the ends of wood members. Look the entire attic. Sound can be very tricky as to where it comes from. Let us know about the possibility of marine clay.

DR1757
Interesting and new concept to me. Remember however that wluo6129 is in New Jersey. What is hot and dry to them is probably nice weather to you. It's dry in Jersey when the tomatoes only grow to the size of baseballs.

Of course maybe you guys shouldn't build such big barbeque fires. Maybe you should only build half a fire and cook half a cow.

Lets see what wluo6129 says about marine clay.

First of all, thank you all so much for the advice and help. Really appeciate it.

I am still trying to find the soil type from the community association. I will let you know when I figure it out.

At the mean time, do you have any suggestion about what action I should take? Half of the attic is not bright enough for me to see any problem. Should I call a constructor to inspect the house? Or I should wait until I know the soil type and get advice from you?

Again, thank you for all the help!

Hi,

I just searched the web and found that the soil type of my area is silt loam. Is this something helpful?

Thanks!