Animal House

It began mid-morning on Thanksgiving day. My wife and I arrived in Sun Prairie somewhat early for a holiday, about 7:30 am, to get the turkey in the oven so it would be completed in time for the Thanksgiving feast. After getting the turkey in the oven, the dressing made, and the squash warming up, we sat down in the living room to do some reading. My wife, in a chair by the sunshine, and I sitting opposite, by the fireplace icing my feet, while reading.  During this time, I heard a noise in the fireplace. I somewhat ignored it, but then my wife heard the noise. I mentioned that I heard it earlier, but I got up and looked, nothing in the fireplace, but figured something was just above the damper. I did not say anything when I first heard the noise, since my wife hears noises in our well capped chimney and I just think she is hearing things. That is until one day I heard the noise. Back to the present time, I decided to not try and open the damper not knowing what might fall through. I can say, that it was at that time an animal house.

The house, what would best be described as a mid-century (20th) ranch, (knowledgeable millennials use the term mid-century modern) so one story, was built starting in 1957 and occupied in the spring of 1958.It is the house where I grew up. I suppose many years ago, with seven boys, two girls and our parents neighbors may well have considered this an animal house, given all the activity that took place. But, my mom had control of the house and kept it clean and in order. It has four chimneys, three for fireplaces, and one for the furnace. The furnace was replaced for the first time a few years ago, and the furnace flu is no longer used with the high combustion gas furnace which replaced the over sixty year old oil burner. The old furnace still worked, too good, the problem was the controls stopped working correctly and it would not turn the dampers on /off correctly. The motors and damper controls at over sixty years of age were no longer available--hence the need for a new furnace. 

Evidence of critters on the roof has been present for many years. Animal droppings on the roof, which for some reason is always in one of the valleys. And, evidence of the redwood roof side vents being gnawed or clawed at. Those side vents were covered up with hardware cloth about four years ago. I think there was even evidence that some animals had gotten in through the side vents into the attic, as there was disruption to attic insulation. 

From Google Images, but not unlike what I 
saw, minus three raccoons.

As the day progressed and more persons arrived, we pointed out the noise in the flu of the fireplace. In the mid-afternoon, a couple of people went up on the roof to look down the chimney and could see at least three racoons. At that point we really did not know if they fell in while exploring, were hiding, nesting, or what the deal was. We figured they were trapped in the flu. I mean, could raccoons really pull themselves out of a chimney flu? We doubted they would be able to make their way out. A couple of calls were made Friday and a company was found that would come out Monday to assess the situation.  

On Monday, about noon, I got on the roof and looked down a few of the chimneys, and sure enough in the flu for the living room fireplace I saw a raccoon looing up at me. The flashlight I had was not very strong so I did not try to count, one is enough. We had not heard the raccoons from our arrival Monday morning before 9:45 am, so we wondered if they had perished while in the chimney. Monday afternoon a couple of young men from the removal company arrived and got up on the roof and looked down, but did not see any raccoons. The thing is that the area above the damper is larger than the flu so they could sneak to the side and below the flu. The raccoon must have departed sometime after I shined a light in its face, and the arrival of critter control. No raccoon(s) followed me down the ladder. The two men did note they could see paw prints on the side of flus giving evidence that they could climb in and out.  

I tried picturing a raccoon climbing out and wondered how they did it? Do they stretch out and put front paws on one side of the clay flu and back ones on the other and gradually move up, or can they get a sufficient grip to climb up on one side only? Looking at photos on-line it appears they can simply crawl straight up, which makes me wonder if they have suction cups on their paws. Critter control, not having seen any critters in the flu from the roof then came in the house and opened up the flu of each of the two fireplaces on the main floor and took photos with their I-phones, which showed, they said, droppings and racoon hair, but no raccoons. We went to the basement, the fireplace which was converted by a piece of sheet metal to hold the stove pipe for a wood stove that was used to help heat the house for many years, likely lengthening the life span of the oil furnace. We could see evidence in that one too, as we pulled the sheet metal to the side a bit and which they used their phones to take photos. The basement flu was open due to the connected wood stove.

Red shows possible entry points from trees to house
accommodating raccoons access to roof.
The four flu openings are seen in center of house

At this point of the day they only had one chimney cap, so the plan was for them to come back Tuesday to install chimney caps over three openings, and place hardware cloth, screwed and caulked to the concrete cap over the large family room fireplace flu, since it was too large to handle a cap. I was concerned that the raccoons may return and take up residence once again in the flu, so they duct taped cardboard to the top of each opening. I stopped by Tuesday afternoon to see if they had completed their work, but they had not yet done so. They arrived sometime after I departed. I went up to check the cardboard and duct tape and was relieved to find everything in tact with no discernable destruction by raccoon paws. 

The men arrived back late Tuesday afternoon as evening set in on that late November day. Hopefully, the critters in the chimney will be no more. The moral of the story, cap your chimneys, and keep trees away from your roof. I learned that raccoons are more agile and mobile than I had thought. I mean, I never expected them to be able to climb down and up a clay flu. How long the ranch functioned as an animal house I do not know. It may well be TMI.