This Is What All Those Spooky Sounds Around Your House Mean — And How To Fix Them

Convinced your house is haunted because you’ve been hearing bumps in the night? Sure, you might have a ghost on your hands. Or, you could be dealing with a scary house problem that requires your attention ASAP.

Home improvement site Toolstation wants to help you debunk your haunting. The site put together a gallery of sounds you may be hearing and, with the help of a trade expert, identified the issue and estimated how much fixing it might set you back.

If your walls are whispering (or you’re hearing scratching sounds from inside the walls) it’s probably not a ghost running its fingernails down your drywall. Rather, you have a pest problem and need to call an exterminator. Bringing in pest control will likely set you back a couple of hundred dollars, but the whispering, droppings, and pungent smells will vanish just like a ghostly apparition.

Does your house sound like a haunted mansion when the wind blows? Whistling is a common problem and points to ill-fitting windows and doors or broken seals. You can hire a carpenter to replace old windows, or invest in some window sealant for a few bucks to DIY the fix yourself.

When you flick the lights on, do you hear a buzzing similar to the sound fluorescents make in a haunted hospital? You’re not being pestered by a specter — you’re going to want to get an electrician in, stat. Buzzing is a sign of faulty wiring, failed outlets or switches, or a poor electrical connection, which could all cause a fire if left as is. Depending on the situation, buzzing can be solved by either buying a new lightbulb or lighting fixture, or doing some rewiring, which could cost a few hundred dollars (or more).

You can head over to Toolstation to debunk all these (and more) ghastly sounds in your home and learn more about how you can banish these auditory ghouls for good.