DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hey, wondering if someone can advise.

We've had a couple of nights of high winds, and when gusting, we get terrible banging and thudding noises coming from our bedroom ceiling, from several different places. I've been in the loft and the noise is almost non existent, the noise all comes down stairs. It's loud enough to keep you awake.

My hunch is that it's the wind hitting the gable end wall and the force travelling through the roof, onto the main support post in the middle of the loft,which is in turn connected to a joist that runs the width of the house. I'm guessing these slight movements are the bangs and thudding I'm hearing. The main noise comes from directly where this main beam connects with the main ceiling joist.

Any ideas how I can reduce this noise? Can I add extra support somewhere to reduce movement?
Would putting up plasterboard on the loft rafters reduce wind getting in and roof movement?
What sort of tradesmen could come and check this out?

Any advise would be appreciated as the noise is driving me mad whenever it gets over 30mph.

Chris

Just as a thought, is there a chance it's the roofing felt. When the roof is built a felt/membrane is nail to the rafters then battens & then the roof tiles. After this, the fascia boards go on & then the gutters. The felt should come out & lay in the gutter. The felt is not fixed in any way at this point & if the wind picks up & in the right direction it creates a loud & very strange noise. If your old enough, I can only describe it as when kids used to clip a playing card on a bicycle fork so it clicked in the spokes when going around, or also like a football rattle. I get it on my roof sometimes. Took me ages to find out what it was.

Hi Chris,

I've just found your post. We're experiencing what sounds like the exact same problem. Did you ever get to the bottom of it and resolve this? We're similarly being driven mad by what sounds like noisy footsteps in the room above. Cheers, Jack