Why Your Deck Makes Loud Cracking and Popping Sounds 

You’re lying in bed when you suddenly hear a loud crack or popping sound coming from your deck. This sound has woken you up several times over the last month and each time you look outside, your deck seems to be in one piece and there is no sign of an intruder. Sounds terrifying doesn’t it? The one common thread among these different occurrences is the cold sub freezing temperatures. Why is this happening to your deck? Are you in a horror movie? Is it damaged? Is an expensive deck restoration job in your future?

The answer is not that you are in a horror movie with a paranormal monster out to get you. And you may not have an expensive deck restoration job in your near future. It is that cold temperatures cause materials to shrink, and some components of your deck are shrinking more than others. This builds up stress that suddenly relieves itself and produces the loud cracking or popping sounds. Usually this doesn’t mean any damage has occurred. The precise reason why your deck does this while your neighbor’s deck doesn’t, depends on the specifics of your situation.

For example, if your decking boards have insufficient spacing between them to allow for the contraction movement in cold weather, some are probably rubbing against each other under pressure much like the rubbing of the earth’s tectonic plates that produce earthquakes.

Nails in wood decking contract at a different rate than the surrounding wood, which causes it to suddenly slip and produce a sound. The cracking or popping noise can also be the result of trapped moisture between the deck boards and the joists beneath. the reason? when water freezes, it expands. This expansion then produces the sounds. This may loosen some of your deck boards which you will have to fix this spring. Sometimes the boards and joists, which are shrinking at different rates, stresses and breaks the ice between them which may produce the sounds you are hearing.

If one or more of the legs of your deck is experiencing frost heaving, then it is being pushed up and is stressing your deck and could be making these sounds. If this is the case, then you will have to get the problem fixed because this causes your deck to slope. You can check this by using a “level” which is an instrument that has a bubble inside that indicates when a surface is not level. Frost heaving shouldn’t be a problem for professionally installed decks.

Again, the general answer is that you probably have little to worry about. Give your deck a look-over for any obvious damage and relax. The cold on its own won’t destroy your deck.

For more information on taking care of your deck, contact us at DeckMAX.