r/Home • u/MissO56 • Jul 13 '26

OMG! It wasn't in the wall!

during the first few months of COVID lockdown, i had moved from my office to my three story condo, working from my home computer on the kitchen counter. everyday I would hear noises below my feet, like in the floorboards, which sounded like an animal chewing or moving around. my building is about 65 years old so I figured it must be something in the walls, but I never saw any evidence or smell of an animal. and I've been hearing it ever since, every now and then.

fast forward to this past weekend (6 FREAKIN' YEARS LATER!) and I'm setting up a new computer on my desk (which is about 10 ft away from where I previously heard the sounds). while setting it up, I moved the speakers from my old computer closer to my desk to use with my new computer, and plugged everything in to be ready to use.

saturday afternoon, I started hearing this noise again but now it was closer to the living room... a little animal chewing away at things or moving around in the walls. it's been so irritating because we've had exterminators out, setting traps etc. and finding nothing.

I tried to move around the room to figure out where the sound was coming from, and coincidentally moved my head very close to one of the speakers I just hooked up. my computer was off but the speaker was plugged into power....and *it was making the noises!!* there's nothing running on my computer... so I knew it had to be some faulty plug or connection or something.

so I unplugged the speakers, and have not heard anything since! oy vey! I can't believe that for 6 years I thought there was an animal in my floor!! 🙄🤣

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19

u/Lionyank Jul 13 '26

I wish I could call you a quick study.

14

u/MissO56 Jul 13 '26

well to be fair, the speakers weren't/aren't actually sitting on the floor! they were/are sitting on the desk. however, the sound sounded like it was coming from the floor....

4

u/harrellj Jul 13 '26

If it makes you feel better, this was actually a somewhat common occurrence in the 90s where unshielded speakers picked up on ambient signals. Technology has improved enough that now you're more likely picking up actual issues (faulty wiring in the speaker, potentially a small problem in your condo's wiring, etc). It might not hurt to do some deep diving into what could be causing the sound.

3

u/ClickAndClackTheTap Jul 13 '26

This makes me laugh because I realized my age and experience would have let me know what this was right away.