ticking noise

[homie27]

Hi all, it seems my house is making some ticking noise somewhere between the ceiling of my basement and the floor of my main floor. After trying to figure out where its coming from, I think its coming from this copper braided wire attached to my water heater and travelling along the floor joists under my main floor. here are the pictures. Do you know what this braided looking copper wire attached to the black pipe of the water heater is?

[homie27]

I posted pictures but not sure why they are not showing

[homie27]

ok here are the pictures. the first one is of the black pipe of the water heater. the second one is where the copper wire enters the area above the basement ceiling. There was another picture I posted but didn't come up.

[homie27]

here is a picture of the copper wire where its attached to the black pipe of the water heater

[homie27]

boy did I really mess this post up. lol. Anyways, I think this copper wire is vibrates and taps another pipe. when the noise happens, it seems to make a quick tap noise every 30 seconds.

[Dukie]

Any chance its your heating ducts e panding and contracting during heat cycles?

[homie27]

no it doesn't sound like that. but do you know what that copper wire is?

[gerapau]

That's a ground and shouldn't be making any noise.

[homie27]

Well it does have something to do with the furnace because i turned off the furnace and 15 minutes later the noise stopped. But it doesnt sound like ducts expanding. It sounds more like a solid object hitting another solid object

[gerapau]

It definately sounds like your ducts to me. Tons of videos online that may help. Many times it will be trial and error to see what fixes it. If your basement ceiling is finished it may be difficult to diagnose and fix.