Oh my goodness, what IS this noise?

Having reread your post, it sounds more like rats to me as you say it stops when you go upstairs. Hope I’m wrong, but worth considering.

Have you checked for bird entry/exit holes?
I had a similar experience of a noise that sounded like bricks being moved around in a roof cavity. (It was a workplace by the way not home!)
It turned out to be starlings that had worried a loose brick to the extent of dislodging it into the ceiling cavity. They then continued to move loose bricks and mortar around presumably to build a nest at some time.
Incredible but absolutely true.!

We had bats in one house but that was more of a scratching noise.
You're not allowed to disturb them.
I thought the ship's engine noise could be tinnitus but it doesn't always happen.

I’d be inclined to think it’s water pipes expanding with heat. Sometimes they can slightly move floorboards which could explain why it stops when you go upstairs. You’re weight on the floorboards would stop them moving. Just a guess of course.

A poltergeist?

Is your house a semi? If so does the noise happen when your attached neighbours are out?

I also thought it could be squirrels finding a way in they are very noisy and seem to return to the same place once they get in.

I have heard this kind of noise too, i have no idea what it can be, but it sounds like something heavy sliding down the wall upstairs
I have a TV aerial in the loft and i thought it might be that but it is still in place
This doesn't help you though i know,unless you have something in your loft that could move with vibration or wind or something

Kircubbin and Annep1, do you perhaps have tinnitus? I used to hear an engine noise regularly at nighttime, after a few years I accepted it was inside my head, by then it had been joined by other tinnitus sounds. Good luck. Try to ignore it if you can x

If the noise stops when you go upstairs then it sounds like a creature of some kind that doesn't want to be detected by you. Do you have a loft? Are your roof slates and flashings secure? If it is a creature and you know someone with a terrier, a Jack Russell would find and despatch any rodent in seconds.

I had a noise like this many years ago, I only heard it at night and I was the only one who heard it.
I was often roaming the house at night trying to track it down.
Many months later engineers turned up to dig a large hole in the road outside as a burst pipe had been reported.
One of them said to me "Im surprised no-one heard as as they are very loud".
I didn't own up.

We had mice in our extension ceiling a few years ago, they made the most unbelievable noise. It sounded exactly as you describe, we used to say they had the furniture removers in!
They also used to move around the cavity walls right next to where we sat and used to bang on the wall to shut them up.

I also have an intermittent loud noise which I can't get to the bottom of - it sounds like a very large water boiler coming to the boil. I'm pretty sure its not the central heating, I think its coming from my freezer. I am the only one that can hear it - I have exceptionally sharp hearing, my OH tells everyone I have ears like a bat! Its so annoying.

If you lived here in Australia I’d say you had a possum in your roof. We have one and it often sounds like he is renovating the ceiling. Husband put a camera in the roof so now we watch him.

If you do in fact live in an old house; any part made out of wood expands and retracts making creaking and groaning sounds. Also I have had squirrels n the attic and they sounded like Elephants in the still of the night!!

Re kircubbin2000’s problem, my gas meter (outside) makes a rumbling noise. I had complained about the previous (old style) one casually to a Gas person once and they immediately replaced it ‘in case it was faulty’ - the more modern one is worse. I can hear it clearly if no other noises in the house.

Hurdygurdy - could your noise be squirrels?
My mother-in-law had some once who eventually came right into the living room down the chimney !!

Death Watch beetles only settle in damp wood. If it’s not damp they will not be there. If you dry it out they will have to move on. They don’t like heartwood so usually in a lived-in house the beam structure isn’t compromised. The noise could be beetles as they tap their heads on the timber - but they only do it in the springtime/ early summer during ‘courtship’. It sounds like dragging furniture in a juddery way. I expect you could google the noise...
Here’s one:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=oBEt2lvwUt8

The ones I heard weren’t so regular but fairly similar.
If you have them, don’t panic. My architect friend was converting /renovating an old house and barn (for herself), she had them the first year but once everything was dried out nicely they left. She was totally unconcerned!

X posting gagaville - sorry

Could be many things besides the plumbing noises:
Tree outside scraping roof
Birds/Crows on roof ( our noises were them scraping the moss off)
TV aerial wires flapping around
Neighbours (our Nbr has an open fire which sounds like scraping when they are cleaning it out)
Is all your guttering secure & not scraping the walls somewhere?
Good luck finding the noise. I think we are all intrigued.

I had a noise like that in a former house and it was plumbing - pipes running across the house from one corner to another. I can't quite remember what precisely, but it was intermittent, and a plumber sorted it out.

I too have been wondering how near your nearest neighbours are and if the noises could be an extractor fan or the like, heard at a distance.

What kind of heating do you have? If it is hot water from a municipal heating plant it might be worth while reporting the noises to them and asking whether others have reported something similar.

If the noises started recently it probably is some bird or animal who feels living indoors rather than out will be warmer over the winter.

Try to check whether anything has got in, because if it can't get out again, you will have a nasty smell to cope with when it dies. Mice eat the insulation on electric wiring and can be a fire hazard, but the noise you describe sounds to loud too be mice.

Do let us know if you find out what it is. By now we are all curious.

You say we, so it sounds like you are not living alone, so has anyone else heard this noise?

would go with squirrel, or rat.
Alternatively, birds nesting outside and working their way in...wrong time of year for a nest with little uns though...
might be bird trapped?

Noise is a funny thing, it isn’t always coming from where you think. We had the toilet flushing vibratory noise, after my husband changed a washer or something. It’s so vague though, that if we called a plumber, he would probably never hear it! Have you got work going on any where near you, like building? I think if it were animals, there'd be other evidence! Can you hear it any where else in the house, or just the dining area? Have you tried opening windows/ patio door, to see if it could be from outside? The fact that it’s random could also rule out animals. They tend to be quite structured. I hope you can solve this mystery soon.

Of course, animals could be inside the wall cavities, and not actually in the house, and then you wouldn’t see them. We had mice like that. They finally venture out when they’re desperate for food.

Yes, maybe it’s haunted.

white noise....that`s what they call the sound of a fridge or central heating boiler going about it`s business

Our toilet sometimes makes the most appalling, screeching, grinding, churning noises when we flush but after a short pause when we've left the room. It does it every time we flush for weeks and then stops for weeks and then suddenly begins again. It's weird.