Remediation & Insulation in Farmington Hills, MI
Challenge
The homeowner explained that they had a critter problem in their attic and mice have made a mess inside the attic with droppings and urine. When the weather would warm up you could smell a foul odor coming from the attic hatch inside the closet of her son's bedroom. They are also experiencing mouse dropping in the basement around the perimeter of the basement floor. The symptoms was mouse dropping all over the insulation on top floor along with the smell of urine in the attic. When the attic would warm up the smell would permeate into the bedroom with the attic access. The basement floor was contaminated with mouse droppings and they wouldn't let their kids go downstairs because of it. The problem was caused by access points in the attic where the flashing against the gable walls was separated allowing mice to easily enter the attic. Holes were also present in the rim joist around the piping to the outside that allowed mice to get into the basement and nest in the fiberglass batt. The homeowner chose to have the problem fixed because the smell of urine would get really strong on warm days in her son's bedroom and she wouldn't want him to stay in the room. They also wanted to be able to utilize the basement and finish it but they didn't want to do all of that if mice were still able to get inside the home. The homeowner's biggest concern with the problem was the odor that was coming into her son's bedroom.
Solution
Our homeowner chose our company because she was referred to us by one of her very close friends who also had our company come out and remediate droppings and reinsulate the attic and was told how great and professional work we did and that they haven't had an issue since we corrected it. Our solution was to remove all of the fiberglass batt insulation from the attic floor, Vacuum the entire attic floor to get rid of all of the mice droppings and start with a clean surface. We then treated the entire attic with a disinfectant to clean and remove the odor of urine. We closed the gaps in the flashing with screws and then sealed the flashing along the gable wall with a roofing caulk. We covered all of the open drop soffits inside of the attic with the OSB and sealed them with ZypFoam. We sealed the chimney chase flashing with a fire caulk and wrapped the metal chimney with rock wool for fire safety. We created insulation dams with foam board in front of the porch overhang and around the hatch opening to ensure the insulation would not taper off and stay a consistent R-value. We installed all new duel wide rafter Vents (baffles) and then air sealed all of the top plates, bond plates, wire and pipe penetrations and then insulated the attic floor with cellulose to a depth of 14" or to R49. We then went into the basement and removed all of the fiberglass batt insulation from inside the rim joist and perimeter of the basement to clean any remaining mice droppings. We then air sealed with 2 part Spray Foam. Some of the challenges that we faced during the installation process were; The vaulted ceiling made it difficult to remove the existing baffles and fiberglass batt from the eave. One of the technicians had fallen ill and was not able to work on the job making it more work for two guys on a three man job. We used a combination of products to achieve our solution. We used Mold X2 products for disinfection. Roofing caulk and screws for sealing flashing on gable walls, 7/16" OSB for covering the ceiling drop soffits, metal flashing, fire caulk, metal wire, Ez roll rock wool sleeve, 1/2" Foam board, SilverGlo, weather-stripping, adhesive, DuroVent rafter vents (4'x22" and 6'x22"), 14" TruSoft Cellulose or R49, Zyp Kit 2 part Foam Kit, 205 board ft. The homeowner now has a healthy clean attic that has been insulated to an Energy Star Rating R49 and all of the gaps that were allowing pests to enter the attic have been closed off. The rim joist in the basement has also been sealed with 2 Part Spray Foam providing superior insulation then the pre existing fiberglass batt as well as preventing unconditioned air from leaking into the home via Stack effect, as well as closing any penetrations the mice have been getting in.
