Knowing how a raccoon can get into your attic will help to prevent an intrusion from happening to your Burlington home. Below is a break down of how we address problems with raccoons harbouring in an attic, and how we go about effectively removing them.
In the early days when we started the company we began by inspecting homes in search for a single entry area; we would inspect your attic for signs of raccoons and other wildlife, explain the process as far as removal and attic restoration would go, and finally install a one-way door. What we found in the end was that as time went on the raccoons would end up annihilating the roof and attic trying to re-enter it. We decided it was time to come up with a permanent solution.
The video below conveys various attic intrusions by raccoons and it’s clear how much further damage they can cause if the problems are ignored or if they’re not excluded properly. Raccoon removal is one aspect of the job, but setting up thorough prevention methods must take first priority else customers will be calling us back every six month.
Problems with baby raccoons in the attic
The majority of the time, the raccoon in your home or attic will have babies. In cases like this it is highly advised to utilize the professionals rather than trying to remove the creatures on your own. Doing so could cause more damage to your home, and put the safety of your home or the animals at risk.
The main reasons you want the removal and restoration done by professionals is because raccoons can, and usually do cause a great deal of damage, including but not limited to:
- house fires: by chewing or pulling wires
- spreading diseases throughout the home
- tearing up and destroying your air ducts
- ripping up the attic insulation around your pipes and/or pressing it down by walking over it continuously
- shredding the wall or roof paper
- wood beams rupturing (due to feces soaking in and their heavy weight)
- exposing your home to the elements through roof damage
For the most part when home owners believe they have a raccoon in their attic, they aren’t aware of the resulting issues that usually occur if they let the problem go ignored. We’ve visited thousands of homes in Burlington where an ignored raccoon in an attic ended up costing the home owner thousands of dollars more than it should have.
What to Look For On Your Roof Outside Your Attic
When you are looking for clues that you might have a raccoon residing in the attic, try to find an obvious entry area. They’re not always easy to find, and unless you get up there with some safety gear and a ladder, there’s chance you won’t see it. Once found, this breach, is probably going to be the main point of entry for the raccoon but note there can and usually will be several other ones.
Once the main entry point has been determined, the roof vents, plumbing mats, and the drip edge will all need to be checked too. One of the top areas of a home that’s highly susceptible to raccoon break-ins is along the roof line and directly on the roof at the plumbing mats and roof vents. It’s always interesting to a customer to find that once they’ve discovered they indeed do have a raccoon problem, that damage has occurred in more than one place of their roof and inside their attic.
Roof vents and plumbing mats are raccoon targets
When roof vents are made out of plastic or even metal, they can be easily breeched by raccoons and allow water, condensation, and snow to enter the interior of the attic.
The roof line will also need to be assessed for damage. If there’s older types of drip-edge installed, it will need to be checked as well for weakened and disintegrated areas. Drip-edge is installed for more reasons than just raccoon prevention. Not only will installing the drip edge help protect your home from wildlife break-ins, it will help increase the stability of your roof-line and help protect your home (specifically behind your walls) from water damage.
If you look underneath your shingles and see drip edge there, chances are the raccoon is going to have a tremendously hard time breaking in through that area. If the drip edge is reinforced, it will be next to impossible for a raccoon to make it’s way in.
Are there alternative methods to keeping raccoons out of an attic?
Chicken wire is sometimes used as a preventive measure but unfortunately raccoons are quite able to mangle chicken wire apart and get through to cause more damage to your attic. There are other products on the market like raccoon repellent or ‘high-pitch ultrasonic noise making machines’ but none of these products has ever been proven to keep raccoons from coming back – that’s the problem. Time and again, the only long-term solution to pest problems is prevention implementation around the home.
How do I get wildlife prevention done?
When one of our trained technicians comes to your door, they will have a quote sheet with them. On this quote sheet you’ll see items along the following lines:
- drip edge insulation
- drip edge reinforcement
Further down there is the attic portion which deals with:
- attic inspection
- ensuring attic is up to code (R50)
- feces removal
- attic decontamination
Once our professionals determine what needs to be done, they will take all the necessary steps to remove the raccoon safely and make changes to your home in order to prevent raccoons from breaking into your home again.
The above is a general breakdown of what it takes to go through the process of removing raccoons preventing them from getting into your attic in the future.
For a complete run-down of our full prevention services visit the following page and feel free to contact us with any of your questions: