We Weren’t Expecting To Find That In This Huntley Attic

The smell had been there for a long time

Some jobs stick with you.

This one definitely does.

The homeowner in Huntley had been dealing with pest issues for years. Not the occasional noise in the attic. Years. They’d had people out before. Multiple companies. Multiple opinions. Yet the same conversation kept coming up.

“Something still smells up there.”

Nobody had really figured it out.

Or at least that’s what everyone thought.

Darren called me after he got up there

The funny thing is, Darren wasn’t even talking about insulation when he first called.

He said, “You’re not going to believe what I found.”

Never a sentence that leads anywhere normal.

The attic itself looked pretty much like you’d expect. Old insulation. Evidence of critters. Dust everywhere. Hot enough to make you want to climb back down after about five minutes.

Then he found it.

Well…that explained everything

A dead animal.

Or what was left of one.

The homeowner had no idea. Honestly, neither did we when we first arrived. Several companies had already been through that attic over the years and somehow nobody spotted it.

I originally thought the odor was probably old contamination trapped in the insulation.

Nope.

I was wrong about that.

The source was sitting right there.

That was it.

Not exactly the kind of thing people put on a quote sheet

Darren removed the remains at the homeowner’s request.

Not glamorous work.

Nobody gets into the insulation business thinking they’ll spend part of their day bagging up a rotted animal from an attic. But sometimes that’s how these jobs go.

I’ve been around enough attics to know they all have their own personality. Weird thing to say, maybe.

But it’s true.

Some are spotless.

Some tell stories.

This one was telling stories.

The attic had been through a lot

And that’s really where the project started.

The smell wasn’t the only issue. Years of pest activity had left behind a mess. The insulation wasn’t in good shape, and there were plenty of signs that unwanted visitors had been treating the attic like a long-term rental property.

You could see it.

You could definitely smell it.

The homeowner actually laughed a little after we found the source and said, “I thought I was losing my mind.”

Honestly, I probably would’ve felt the same way.

A side note that probably matters

People usually think of attics as storage space.

Holiday decorations.

Old boxes.

Maybe a suitcase nobody has opened since 2014.

But we spend enough time in attics to know they affect a lot more than people realize. Temperature. Air quality. Comfort. Even smells that somehow seem to end up everywhere in the house.

Anyway.

Back to this one.

We cleaned it up and closed it up

After the removal, we disinfected the attic, removed the contaminated insulation, and sealed areas where pests had likely been getting inside.

Nothing fancy.

Just doing the work the right way.

The attic felt completely different when we finished. Quieter, cleaner, fresher. Hard to describe exactly. It just felt better.

You know it when you walk into the space.

And that’s probably the best way I can explain it.

We were glad we could help this homeowner in Huntley finally solve a mystery that had been hanging around for years, and if something about your attic just doesn’t seem right, call us or visit our website for a FREE evaluation.