It all started with a strange smell coming from the furnace room of our cabin at Hartstene Pointe. Now all of us know in our heart of hearts that a smell in the furnace room permeates the whole house. I am not a bloodhound however after smelling the same raunchy odor from more than one forced air register, I knew where to start my search.
As I opened the furnished room door the commotion began. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a raccoon leaping towards the door I had just opened. Screeching (not just me)! I did not stick around, I slamed the door, and retreated behind a secondary door.
I called for an exterminator and went online to ascertain what to do next. The inspector from the extermination company came out and gave me his opinion on how to take care of the new residents of my furnace room. He told me they couldn't kill them and they would have to be trapped and released elsewhere. The cold weather and ice storms of this past winter have made crawl spaces the perfect place to stay in Western Washington.
At this point I didn't care. We set a time and a date to attack the problem. Not only did we have raccoons, we had possums. A regular zoo! The exterminator could only do so much and we decided to bring in another contractor.
This is not the end of the problem. This was a side effect while we had a much larger problem in the crawl space of our cabin. It's kind of like a doctor, who only treats the symptoms rather than the cause. We had a vent in our foundation that should have been accompanied with an open house sign. It had been weakened by a contractor when installing the heat pump and it took little time for the wildlife to chew through the remaining grid to gain access.
I was lucky (being sarcastic) enough to be able to go under the cabin twice (2 contractor supplied bids) and see the devastation that these critters had done. They not only pooped from end to end, they tore down all of the insulation and inflexible insulated ductwork which gave them access to our heating system and vents. It was nasty to say the least. Our high electric bill reflected that we were heating not our cabin but our crawl space and Hartstene Pointe. Yes, we were contributing to global warming!
It took all of three days, four truckloads of waste, and $2500 to give rid of (knock on wood) this problem.
Lesson learned! If you ever smell a distinctive odor for more than a hour; call in an expert and don't just get rid of the critters themselves, go after the cause or the point of entry.
This post was authored and picture taken by Paul Henderson ©2012, All Rights Reserved, This content may not be reproduced or reprinted (Except for ActiveRain Re-blogging) without express written permission of Paul Henderson, RE/MAX Professionals, Tacoma, WA.
Comments(15)