There's an Animal in My Chimney — What Do I Do?

If you can hear scratching, fluttering, chirping or thumping inside your chimney, here is the short answer: close the damper if it is already closed and leave it closed, keep the fireplace doors or screen shut, do not light a fire, and call us at 206-453-2045. We handle chimney animal and nest removal across Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and the surrounding Puget Sound, and same-day service is often available. A live animal in a flue is a problem that gets worse, not better, the longer it sits.

The reason the answer is that simple is that almost everything a homeowner is tempted to do from inside the house either hurts the animal, traps it deeper, or lets it into the living room. An open flue is a straight shot into your home. Once a raccoon, squirrel or bird drops past the damper and into the firebox, the only thing between it and your furniture is a glass door or a mesh screen. So the first goal is containment, and the second goal is getting a person with the right equipment on the roof and in the flue.

What you should do in the first ten minutes

• Keep the damper where it is. If it is closed, the animal is above it and contained. If it is open, do not reach in to close it. A frightened raccoon or a panicked bird will come down the moment the metal moves.
• Close the fireplace doors or put up the screen. If your fireplace has no doors, tape a piece of cardboard or a towel across the opening so nothing can get into the room.
• Shut the doors to that room and open a window in it. If something does get loose, you want it to find the outside, not the hallway.
• Turn off any fan or blower on the fireplace. Insert blowers can pull soot and debris into the room once a nest is disturbed.
• Note what you hear and when. Steady chirping in the morning and evening usually means birds. Heavy scratching or thumping, especially at night, points to a raccoon or squirrel. Faint, fast scrabbling that stops and starts can be a trapped animal that cannot climb back out.

Then call. Tell us what you hear, whether the damper is open or closed, and whether the fireplace is wood-burning, gas, or an insert. That tells us what equipment to bring and how urgent it is.

What you must never do

Do not light a fire

This is the one people reach for first and it is the worst option. A fire with a nest in the flue can ignite the nest material, which is dry twigs, grass and fur sitting inside a flue that may already be coated with creosote. A fire with a live animal above it usually does not drive the animal out; it kills it in the flue, and then you have a dead animal, a blocked chimney, and smoke coming back into the house. If the animal is a chimney swift, lighting a fire also means harming a federally protected bird under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Do not go on the roof

Seattle roofs are wet and mossy for most of the year, chimney tops are often taller than they look from the ground, and a raccoon defending a den will bite. Leave the roof to us.

Do not pour water, smoke or chemicals down the flue

Water turns nest debris and soot into a heavy wet plug that is harder to remove. Smoke bombs and repellents make the animal panic and do not get it out.

Do not open the damper to "let it out"

Animals in a flue are usually trying to go up, not down. Opening the damper mostly gives them a new place to fall into.

Which animals end up in Seattle chimneys

Across King, Pierce and Snohomish counties we see the same short list over and over.

Raccoons

A female raccoon looking for a den will climb a brick chimney easily and settle on the smoke shelf, the flat ledge just above the damper. It is dark, dry and protected. If you hear heavy movement and, a few weeks later, high-pitched chattering, there is likely a litter on the shelf. Raccoons with young will not leave on their own until the kits can climb, which can take a couple of months. This is the most common reason we get called out for "something big" in a chimney.

Squirrels

Squirrels fall in more often than they move in. They explore an uncapped flue, drop past a point they cannot climb back from, and get stuck. You will hear fast, frantic scratching that comes in bursts. A trapped squirrel needs to come out quickly; it will not survive long without water.

Birds

Starlings, sparrows and pigeons build nests on the smoke shelf or wedge them into the flue itself. Chimney swifts do something different: they glue a small cup nest to the inside wall of the flue, and they are protected by federal law. We cover swifts in detail in Birds Nesting in Your Chimney in Seattle. Birds also simply fall in, especially young ones, and a bird fluttering at the damper is a common spring call.

Rats and mice

Rodents use uncapped flues and gaps around the chase as a highway into attics and walls. You are less likely to hear them in the flue itself and more likely to find droppings in the firebox.

Why it happened: the missing or damaged cap

Almost every animal call comes back to one thing: the top of the chimney is open. Either there was never a chimney cap, or the cap rusted out, or the mesh screen tore, or on a framed chimney the chase cover corroded and left gaps. A proper cap with a mesh screen keeps animals out, keeps rain out, and keeps embers in. It is the cheapest piece of the whole chimney and the one that prevents the most expensive problems. When we remove an animal we always look at the cap and tell you what we find, with a free quote for replacement if it needs one.

How we remove an animal from a chimney

Every job starts with figuring out what is in there and where. We look from the top and the bottom, and we use a camera where the flue is long or offset. Then the approach depends on the animal.

• Trapped animals (squirrels, birds, juvenile raccoons): we lower a rope or a purpose-made escape line from the top so the animal can climb out, or we retrieve it directly from the smoke shelf through the damper with the firebox sealed off from the room.
• Denning raccoons with young: we remove the kits by hand from the smoke shelf and use them to draw the mother out, then cap the flue so she cannot return. Separating a mother from kits and sealing them in is not an option we will take; it leaves dead animals in your chimney.
• Active bird nests: non-protected species can be removed along with the nest. Chimney swift nests with eggs or young are left until the birds fledge, and we schedule the cleaning and cap for afterward.
• Dead animals: removed, and the flue cleaned of the residue and odor.

Once the animal is out, the flue is not finished. Nest material, fur, droppings and carcass residue are a fire hazard and an odor source. We do a full chimney cleaning to clear the blockage, then recommend a cap. The cleaning is separate from a routine sweep; a sweep removes creosote from a working wood-burning flue, while cleaning deals with debris, blockages and the smell a nest leaves behind.

Signs you have an animal even if you have not heard it

• Twigs, leaves, grass or feathers in the firebox.
• A musky or rotten smell from the fireplace that gets worse on warm, humid days.
• Flies appearing around the fireplace with no obvious source.
• Smoke rolling back into the room the first time you light a fire in fall.
• Droppings on the smoke shelf, the damper, or the hearth.
• Pets that sit and stare at the fireplace.

Any of these is a reason to have the flue looked at before you use the fireplace. Lighting the first fire of the season on top of a summer nest is how a lot of Seattle-area chimney fires start, and an inspection catches it first.

Wood, gas and insert fireplaces

Wood-burning masonry chimneys with open tops are the most common animal habitat. But gas fireplaces are not immune: a direct-vent termination with a damaged screen, or a B-vent flue on an older gas log set, can take in birds. If you have a gas fireplace and hear an animal, do not operate the unit and do not touch any gas controls; call us. If you ever smell gas, leave the house and call your gas utility or 911 from outside. Inserts and wood stoves with a stainless liner usually have a tight cap, but the gap between the liner and the old masonry flue is a favorite spot for birds, and debris there can fall into the smoke chamber.

What to do next

Contain the fireplace, leave the roof alone, and call 206-453-2045. Tell us what you hear and where you are; we run from Renton to Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, the Eastside and across the Narrows to Gig Harbor. The quote is free, and if you already have another company's bid, we will give you a free second-opinion quote and match it with a 10 to 25 percent discount. Once the animal is out, the flue is cleaned and the cap is on, the problem is solved for good. And if you are not happy with the job, we are not done; we come back and make it right at no charge. Homeowners in the city can start at our Seattle service area page.

Related

• Birds Nesting in Your Chimney in Seattle: Swifts, Starlings and the Law
• 5 Signs Your Chimney Is Blocked
• Chimney Animal & Nest Removal service