quote:

Originally posted by M-11:
Santa Clause?

https://youtu.be/yQS5nAesfGk

Damn it M-11! You beat me to it!

Well, I wasn't exactly hazarding a guess, my conjecture was from experience.

Some 15 years ago or thereabouts, we were in the process of re-doing our kitchen, and the electrician can give witness to this story. He alerted me that there was a funny noise coming from the water heater flue pipe. So I investigated, and sure enough, the minute I opened it up, a little gray head popped out at me from about a foot away only to immediately retreat back up the pipe. There is about a 2' section at about a 30 degree angle before it joins the vertical furnace flue, he was able to make it up the short section, but not up the main pipe. I put my thinking cap on, and concluded that luring him out would be my best bet of regaining some measure of control to the situation. I put a few peanuts on top of the water heater, and closed the closet door (the furnace/water heater closet opens into my living room right by the front door to the house, perhaps I will explore this design decision in a later post). A few hours later, I listened closely for a few minutes, and I was hearing distinctly different noises. I opened the front door which was a straight shot out of the closet for the little guy to escape back into his world. Threw open the closet door, and sure enough, there he was as pretty as you please, perched on top of the WH, snacking away on peanuts. When he saw me, he jumped for the open end of the flue pipe, but missed his target. He was panicking, jumping around like crazy. Just about then, I noticed a different squirrel heading up my driveway towards the open front door. I swear I heard him asking, "hey, dude, have you seen my buddy Snookums?" While all this was going on the electrician was having a laughing fit, fixing to bust a gut is the proper expression I think. The squirrel eventually found his way out of the closet, and rather than head outside through the convenient wide-open door, he started up the stairs with the evident intent of finding where those yummy peanuts were stored. This, and my subsequent reaction, caused the electrician to practically go into convulsions. Mr. Broom finally got involved, and guided the critter out the door, soon followed by me heading to Home Depot for a new chimney cap, one with with smaller louvers, not that I expected that particular visitor to return, but I had my doubts about his buddy.

I have mentioned this more than once this forum. I HATE SQUIRRELS!

"Dead Stinky Something Stuck In My Chimney"

That'll be the theme for our next Poetry Night at the Toke'n'Brew.

quote:

Originally posted by lyman:

I would worry about the smoked up house vs a fire

I'd be more concerned about carbon monoxide (CO).

building a fire would not solve the smell problem. the dead critter is laying back on the smoke shelf and would not get hot enough to cook off.

I've over the past 38 years taken so many various dead things out of chimneys it is hard to collect it all...

Why a chimney would not have a proper rain/animal guard is beyond me. I would humbly suggest you get the one the chimney sweep offered and the crown repair they suggest and not what your 'contractor' would do. What is best with out seeing what you have but assuming you have a standard masonry (brick) chimney is a full size stainless steel cover with wire mesh....

Here is what I'm talking about and also shows the crown repaired with a flexible mastic made just for this type repair:



Another slightly more expensive option is a stainless cover outside mounted:

Install a chimney cap.

Chimney was capped today, sorry squirrels!

Well OP found Squirrel but what about Moose?

So the really nasty smell went away and I stuck a can of Fabreeze up there and sprayed half of it then it started smelling a little weird, not rotting animal smell but more like a very musty stink plus Fabreeze which wasn’t great.

I decided to stick my phone up there above the damper and see what the heck is in there and put it on video mode while I endured a shower of rust and other debris in my face.

I think this is the part of the chimney called the “smoke shelf”? There’s 70+ years of twigs and leaves and God only knows there plus some dead animal skelton with what looks like black fur? Or are those feathers?

Can anyone ID this? I’m having a hard time figuring out what that may be, it’s a still from one of my videos:



Flipped around:

It's the GOT DAMP Wuhan Bat!!!!!!

Years ago I heard some noise in the fireplace at O-dark-30 and went to investigate. Discovered that a pair of squirrels had come down the chimney and were now scurrying around the house. I gave chase, and it's a shame there were no cameras because it would have been hilarious to see an obese man in his skivvies running all over trying to trap the squirrels. I did eventually manage to trap one of them and toss it ourside, but the other remained elusive. The next day I found it, exhausted and starving, lying at one of my closed doors. I managed to toss it outside, too. The furor those creatures created did dislodge things from my mantel with some breakage.

FWIW, I've lived in this place 37 years and have never had a fire in the fireplace.

flashguy

I wondering if this wasn’t a raccoon or something?

The area I have marked in yellow almost looks like an upper and lower jawbone and the spot in red is an eye socket:

If you can get your phone up in there, can you reach in there and pull all of that stuff out? Seems that all that rotting crud is probably not doing your odor situation any favors, and trying to cover it with fabreeze isn't going to work out over the long term.

I know that skull.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
If you can get your phone up in there, can you reach in there and pull all of that stuff out? Seems that all that rotting crud is probably not doing your odor situation any favors, and trying to cover it with fabreeze isn't going to work out over the long term.

I think I’m going to have to have the chimney sweep do that, it’s all I can do to contort my hand/arm up in there past the damper.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
I know that skull.

What is it???

The chimney sweep had already been there and didn't get that out?

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
The chimney sweep had already been there and didn't get that out?

Yeah, that was my fault for not insisting they finish the job completely. I had them come back today and made them remove the damper and get up in there and this is what they pulled out:

Another long dead squirrel
3 bird remains
1 bat remains
A bunch of sticks, twigs, leaves and hickory nuts. The guy said there may have been a squirrels nest in there.

The pulled all that out then vacuumed it all really well too.

2 weeks ago right after this happened I got a (temporary) galvanized cap until we can get a gas fireplace insert maybe later this year. I was told stainless steel was ideal if that was permanent but the insert will have its own cap so this is going to do until that happens:



Try to get through that you stinking tree rats!

Now they will get in your attic.