Brits are currently battling a cost of living crisis, and looking to keep costs down when they can. Homeowners will know that no matter how careful you are, there are some things you can't plan for.
Appliances and things around your home can break or malfunction, due to their age or the cold weather. Certain things can be incredibly expensive to fix or replace, so it's important to look out for signs that something has gone wrong and needs to be resolved.
To help with this, an expert from Toolstation has shared four strange sounds in your home you should never ignore, what to do when you hear them, and how much it could cost you to repair them.
Bubbling or popping from the boiler
If you hear a bubbling or popping sound from the boiler, this could mean low water pressure, or something that is more serious – kettling – which is when the heat exchanged overheats and produces steam bubbles.
If this happens, you'll need to call in a heating professional, which could end up costing you anything between £75 and £300.
Trade professional, Mark from Cheshire, said: "If you do hear a peculiar sound coming from your boiler, it's always good to call a professional either way just to double-check. Low pressure in your boiler usually just requires topping up."
Whistling windows
A whistling sound coming from your windows most likely means you have a draft coming in.
It won't be so expensive to fix straight away, but with letting cold air in you're likely spending even more money on heating. The problem could cost an estimated £5 to £10 to fix using seals and a draft excluder.
The expert explained: "Stopping draughts is a simple fix, but if ignored it will only get worse. Plus, as well as letting the cold air in, you’re also letting the warm air out so it’s also making your home much less energy efficient."
Hissing from the radiator
Hissing coming from the radiator could mean you have water or air moving through the heating system. This is bad because it can get trapped and stop the radiator from heating up in certain areas, or all together.
In order to stop this from happening, you need to regularly bleed your radiator, which is an easy fix that will only cost you between £1 to £3. Again, this will save you even more money in the long run because your radiator will become more energy-efficient.
Mark explained: "Leaving your radiator to hiss and not bleeding it can lead to other problems that are worse than your original one. Firstly, trapped air means your heating will reduce despite you having it on, wasting your money."
Scratching in walls
If you hear a scratching noise from inside your walls it means you've likely got a pest problem. It's likely either mice or rats have found their way into your home through small openings in the foundations.
You'll definitely know this is the case if you also find small dropping around the home, teeth marks or odd smells.
The first thing you need to do is call pest control so they can assess and help solve the problem, which will cost you between £90 and £240.
Mark said: "To me, this sounds like a likely case of a rodent infestation within the walls. If this is ignored, the pests could create a nest within your walls and start chewing through important wires. This could cause more serious problems and raise the cost to fix as you’d have to call out an electrician."
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