Is Your House Haunted? Strange Noises, Unexplained Cold Patches?

[Rev.Cambeul]

Cures for a Haunted House

http://www.shopyourway.com/app/1600/l/topicarticle/mml/cures-for-a-haunted-house

... Your neck prickles in certain rooms. Doors open by themselves. Strange noises come from inside the walls. Visions of plummeting property values dance through your head as you wonder: is my house haunted?

Probably not.

Cold Spots

You're walking through the house when you feel a cold prickle on your neck, and a shiver runs up your spine. Is it a sign of the supernatural?

Cold spots have a lot more to do with drafts and poor insulation than they do with ghosts. On a windy day, hold a lighted candle near windows to check for drafts, moving it slowly around the window frame. If the flame flutters, there is a draft. Installing weather stripping is an easy fix, as is fitting the window heat-shrink plastic sheeting or an insulating window treatment (or simply layer a shade and a curtain). If the draft is vigorous, it might be time to repair, rebuild or replace the window.

If the walls are cold, consider adding more insulation inside the walls and planting an evergreen tree outside the cold wall to block the wind. For the short term, hang a decorative quilt on the wall.

Movement in the Night

Do you hear something moving in your house? Is there rattling like the door of a cage being shaken, or scraping like someone trying to dig out of the wall? Do you hear skittering footsteps across the ceilings but see no sign of who's walking? And what about those creaks that sound like someone — or something — is coming slowly up the stairs?

Rattling is most likely your heating system. For hot water systems, bleed off the air. Forced air systems often rattle if the furnace fan is out of balance, the fan belt is loose or the register isn't fully open. If you aren't sure, contact your home service professional.

Scraping? Check for branches rubbing against your roof or siding. Take a pruning saw to them, or have a professional trim them before they damage your home.

Skittering means rodents, and the bigger the skitter, the larger the critter; raccoons, for example, are very noisy. Try to figure out if they're on the roof or inside — they might be in the attic, walls or ceilings. If it's they're inside, it's time for professional help.

As for those creaks, houses expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity. And when they move, they creak. There is no real solution — it's just something houses, especially old houses, do — but its a comfort knowing what you're hearing.

Doors Opening by Themselves

Something is opening your cupboards. You're sure of it. You know you closed them when you left the room, but when you came back, they were open again. And then there's that door that you close every night but find open every morning. You know, the one that leads to the basement that you've never finished because it is perpetually damp and always has a faint odor of mildew and — something else.

Doors that swing open have a common problem: misalignment. The hinges on cupboards doors become worn through repeated use, or might have been hung wrong in the first place. Either way, you must loosen the hinges, shift the door so it is square with the opening and level, and then tighten the hinges again. You might need to wedge a shim underneath the hinge or, if that isn't sufficient, replace the hinges.

Doors into rooms become misaligned when houses slowly shift. Adjust the hinges so the door is level, just like the cupboard. You might need to plane the door, depending on how much shifting has occurred.

Strange Voices

Moaning — there's definitely moaning coming from somewhere. Unearthly moaning, like a lost soul is stuck in the walls of the house. Then there's the whispering, coming from empty rooms, like a hushed, harsh argument you can't quite make out.

Moaning in the walls usually signals plumbing problems. The pipes might be rubbing against the wood frame of your home when they expand and contract. Your best bet is to first figure out when the moaning occurs, then where. Next call a plumber to fix the problem. Valve chatter is the other likely cause. It happens when the internal parts of a nearly closed valve vibrate. Toilets are notorious for chattering just as they finish filling. Replacement parts are easy to install.

The whispering, on the other hand, is probably rodents — when they get to chattering inside the walls, it can sound exactly like whispered words too faint to be understood.

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

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[Rev.Cambeul]

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