CENTRAL OHIO Blog

Attic Nightmares: Mice, Raccoons and Squirrels, Oh My!

Most of us have been in that uncomfortable situation when you're lying in bed about to fall asleep and you hear a small scratching sound in the wall or ceiling. You dismiss it at first. And then you hear it again. And again. It's usually at that point when I start praying that my wife hasn't heard it. Then I usually make the fatal mistake - I roll over on my side, facing my wife, only to see that her eyes are the size of saucers. I need not ask. She heard it.

Such was the case for my in-laws. Well, almost anyway. They didn't hear a small scratching or squeaking. Their problem was in their garage. And it wasn't small. Actually, it wasn't only small. In addition to finding mice droppings, they started noticing much larger scat in the garage and insulation had started falling from the rafters above. Eventually, they noticed a hole that had been dug through the insulation and through the soffit to the exterior of the house.

As it turns out, while they were away on vacation, their son had visited the house and came in through the garage door. While he was inside, a raccoon had made its way into the garage. After rummaging through the trash, it climbed up the wall and found a nook in the insulation to make a home. When it couldn't exit the garage after the door had been closed, it dug a hole out through the soffit, which created a pathway for other vermin like squirrels and mice to make their way into the garage.

Soon, squirrels made the way in as did mice. They burrowed into the fiberglass batt insulation (which they love to do) and made a huge mess. Additionally, they started eating their way through the insulation around the duct work, ruining it along the way. Once they get in, they are insidious. They will chew through wiring, not to mention leaving feces wherever they go.

If that wasn't bad enough, the story gets worse. They then did what anyone would do, they called in the professionals. They called a national brand rodent exterminator. They developed a comprehensive plan to rid the premises of the infestation. What they didn't expect was what came next... they quoted them to reinstall the insulation when they were done - how handy! The problem is that people who get rid of rodents, which own a business that specifically specializes in this line of work, are not also an expert in a completely separate profession - insulation!

They quoted more than $8000 to address the issue. They included all manner of traps, poisons and various sundry remedies. They spent several days across several weeks working on the remediation of the rodent issue. What they did not do was return to finish the insulation work. My father-in-law called multiple times to get them to return to finish the work only to be routed to call center after call center, never finding a resolution.

Eventually, he started getting past due notices on the bill he had not yet paid for the remainder of his service that had not been completed. They could not comprehend that the work was never completed. They even sent his account to a debt collector. At the end of it all, he paid the bill without the service ever being completed. And then he called me. The insulation professional in the family.

In fairness, all this happened as we were just starting out here in Central Ohio, so I don't blame him for having one vendor quote it all at the time. What he's learned is that you hire the right people to do the right job. Once the hole in the garage was fixed, the insulation solution was simple and straightforward and minus the debt collector.

Garages are a common problem area for many homeowners in the Central Ohio area. Most homes in this area have been built without insulation in the garage. In some cases they've even missed parts of the adjoining home, which leads to a single room that's cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Even if you haven't been invaded by small woodland creatures, you may just want a more comfortable area to use if you workout in that area or want to do projects in the garage throughout the year.

Insulating your garage can add immediate impact to affected rooms, provide a much nicer space for working and even add a nice component when you go to sell the house. If you're a weekend tinkerer or want to tighten up the overall building envelope, give us a call and we'd be happy to take a look.

If you have a rabid raccoon running around there, however, you'll want to call someone else for that. After all, the right person for the right job, right?