Do you need to replace your attic insulation?

Your attic can be a traffic center for several critters. You might think they are cute, but they all inflict serious damage and deadly health concerns. 

                  Consider rats. They are not the cute white and pink lab rats. No, they are big, destructive, and disease-ridden. Squirrels, raccoons, and bats are no better.

            How do you know if you have any of these ‘free loaders’ in your attic? You may hear cracks or other noises. There may be malodorous smells, the presence of fecal droppings, wall and gutter damage, power problems, or the presence of a spillover of insects or animals inside your house!

You may be infested with small ‘house mice’ that breed in crawl spaces behind the roof insulation and give birth in copious numbers. Their larger cousins, the rats, are nocturnal in their feeding, which is why you hear them at night.

                  Those cute little racoons eat mice, bugs, and foodstuffs stored in the attic. They are noisy and often give birth in that same attic. Squirrels and opossums are similar. They also chew the insulation off electrical wiring, causing shorts and other electrical problems.

Other critters you may encounter include pigeons, snakes (mostly non-venomous but can still bite), feral cats, and bugs (bees, termites, Carpenter ants, wasp nests, wolf spiders, garden spiders, black widows.) Additionally, there may be roaches looking for food – including eating cardboard, or silverfish - highly indicative of a leaky pipe or roof.

 

You need to be a sleuth. You shall know them by their ‘poop’. Snakes, birds, bats and squirrels are liquid in nature. With snakes, you may also find nests, eggs, and shed skin. Racoon and opossums’ feces are like that of a small dog. Bat guano looks like dark shiny, elongated pellets, and are highly infectious.

                  There may be visible racoon or opossum footprints, or acorn shells left by squirrels, or you may see visible rub or smudge marks where these creatures enter the attic, or ‘insulation tunnels’ in the insulation from rats and mice.

But the worst danger comes from disease-causing urine or feces – either by direct contact or inhalation of particulates, which may affect you and your pets, or from contaminated nesting places.

                  You may be subject to Hantavirus (pulmonary disease), Leptospirosis (possibly fatal), Salmonellosis, Rat Bite Fever (10% fatality rate), Eosinophilic Meningitis via rat lungworm.

                  Dispensing these dangers is not for DIY folks.  You need to call in professionals.

First, before you call them, you need to make your attic safe to walk around in. It’s easy to trip on the joists, or misstep and fall through ceiling tiles to the floor below. To keep you, the homeowner, safe, there is a company called AtticBoard that creates a movable, attic safety platform to work on.

                  Heretofore, all there was to tackle this problem were heavy wooden boards that splintered, or small squares of polymer that due to its diminutive size is not near as safe as the AtticBoard.

            The Original Attic Walkboard and Safety Platform solves all these problems by offering an attic safety product that is versatile, lightweight, easy to move around, and has a non-slip surface. And it can hold up to 700 lbs.! How so? It is composed of a polymer blend that can also withstand the extreme temperatures your attic is subjected to.

The dimensions of the AtticBoard allows you to lock it in place so it doesn’t slip – creating an ‘attic catwalk’ to traverse the joists, and an ‘attic platform’ for performing a multitude of positions – even laying down.

So, how do you make the eradication of the pests and the restoration of your attic happen successfully? First, contact a reputable pest control to remove the varmints. Second, contact Insulation Plus, a highly acclaimed service for insulating your home, and they will remove the contaminated ‘old insulation’.  Third, you must acquire the services of a biohazard remediation company to remove the animal droppings or other contaminants.

There is an exceptional biohazard remediation company called Bio-One. They are the go-to company that serves Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery and all of Alabama.

                  Bio-One will remove the contaminants, and clean and sanitize the attic. And if mold has formed, they can remediate that as well. Afterwards, Insulation Plus will then return and re-insulate your attic with new insulation, and your home can be a safe place again.

Call Insulation Plus of Huntsville today for additional information 256-258-8010