Spent 6 hours on a flue that was just a raccoon's nest

Got a call from a house in Bakersfield last Tuesday. Said they had smoke backing up into the living room. I ran my brush through, pulled out some debris. Still had a blockage. Spent three hours trying different rods, cameras, even a drop light. Finally got the camera past a tight bend and saw it. A whole raccoon nest wedged in the middle. Took another three to pull it out piece by piece. Six hours for what should have been a 45 minute job. Has anyone else had a critter cause way more trouble than it should?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley8731mo ago

...and what gets me is people don't think about the damage those critters do before they even get there. That raccoon probably chewed through some wiring or insulation getting to that spot, and you just know there's urine soaked into the brick that's gonna smell every time it gets damp. I had a job once where a squirrel had been nesting in a chimney for months, packed it so full of leaves and acorns it was basically a solid block. Took me and my buddy two days to clear it, and we found a dead baby squirrel in there too. Ended up having to reline the whole flue because the ammonia from the waste had eaten through the clay tiles.

lucas1651mo ago

Did the homeowners have any idea what was going on? Seems like something like that would make a hell of a racket, scratching and thumping around the flue all night. Hard to believe they just ignored it until it got that bad.