My fiancŽ and I just moved into a rental house in mid-November. This house in quite old with the main part being, guessing here, in the 20s or 30s. An addition was built in the 60s or 70s. Anyway, shortly after we moved in our landlord replaced the aging roof. The roofers ended up having to replace most of the roof underneath because of the wood having dry rot. Tonight my fiancŽ heard an odd knocking sound from the addition where our office and living room are, which is a rubber roof I believe, because the roof wasn't steep enough for shingles. I did not get to hear the noise until I got home from work. It comes and goes and doesn't seem to be very consistent. But to me the noise sounds like someone dropped a ball on the roof and it bounced two or three times. The only thing I can think of is the new roof is settling and these new noises are just raising our concern. Earlier this week I did hear a knocking sound in the kitchen (under steep shingled roof) near the bathroom and from what I remember it sounded like what I heard tonight.

I should mention I live in Michigan and we have had a very mild winter with today being the first significant snowfall the roof has encountered. There was some snow about a week and a half ago but it was very windy so there was barely any on the roof. I did go out there tonight to see if any part was sagging but nothing appeared to be and the total amount of snow (the wet heavy kind) can't be much more than an inch. There are no water spots or leaks being found either, as there shouldn't be since it's a new roof.

I do not belief these noises are caused by any critters either because it isn't consistent and I have some experience with animals in the walls/ceiling.

This isn't an answer, it is a confirmation, in other words, the same thing is going on with my bathroom ceiling, and the best thing I can come up with is failing electric circuit or thermal expansion/contraction.