Crawlspace tales are guaranteed to creep you out
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Q: What is the nastiest or scariest thing you have ever seen or heard of in a crawlspace? Fortunately, mine is fairly decent, but I know older houses can get pretty gross.
A: Personally, I have experienced huge spiders, massive colorful mold colonies, virtual swimming pools of sewage, lint-filled wonderlands, dead rats and cats, face-to-face opossum encounters, a 20-unit rat condo, animal feces galore and mud up to my hips so thick that I got stuck and had to be extracted without my boots. The worst was when I suffered a panic attack from claustrophobia half-pinched between ground and floor framing — 200 feet from the exit. And, hopefully, I won't ever find Jimmy Hoffa.
But my stories pale in comparison to the king of the nasty-space, Chuck Henrichsen, owner of Clean Crawls. He gets to linger and actually clean up these messes. Henrichsen's reputation in the real-estate industry precedes him. If the rumors are true, and they just might be, the nastier the area, the better these guys like it.
Readers, it's time to get nasty with Chuck!
Darrell: OK, Chuck, the world wants to know: What is the nastiest thing you've seen in a crawlspace?
Chuck: Probably the worst thing is the combination of mink and river-otter excrement. For some reason, the combination of the two is unbearable. The fish that the otters eat gets positively nasty after it's been processed.
D: Sorry I asked.
C: I once had a skunk get into a crawlspace and break into a flexible heat duct. The family dog was out barking and barking trying to scare him out. He sprayed all over the inside of the ducts, which, of course, quickly spread the stench everywhere.
D: Did you just burn the house and collect the insurance money after that?
C: No, but after new heat ducts and a complete sanitization of the house and crawlspace, they were good as new.
D: I suppose there is not a lot of competition in your line of work, huh?
C: Not specifically in this niche, but pest companies and other contractors do some cleanup and repair work. In addition to vapor- barrier work and pest exclusion, we specialize in the contaminated-insulation removal and replacement that many others don't have the training or equipment for.
D: How do you recruit, motivate and retain employees?
C: Profit sharing. And hot showers.
D: What is the percentage of rats versus mice in our area?
C: Eighty percent rats and 20 percent mice. Rats obviously do a lot more damage to buildings due to their size and weight, but fortunately they eat mice.
D: And cats eat rats. Ah, the circle of life. Rats love to burrow in the insulation and make it into their own personal toilet. What is the deal with that?
C: There was a test done once and they concluded that the itchier the insulation, the more they enjoyed it for nesting. Rats have no bladders, you know.
D: No, I didn't know, but now we all know. Rats can squeeze into openings the size of a quarter and mice the size of a dime. If their heads fit, they get in, right?
C: Rats can get down closer to a nickel size sometimes. This is why it is so important to seal openings into attics and crawlspaces with mesh, wood blocks or pest foam. Washington was the No. 2 state in the country for hanta-virus infections recently, so it is more than just a mess issue.
D: Hanta virus is spread by dry deer-mice feces.
C: And 60 percent of the mice in a crawlspace are deer mice.
D: Which is why respirators with HEPA filters are a necessity. Moving right along, how prevalent are bats in attics?
C: They are pretty common in areas above river valleys with standing water, like Carnation and Duvall, for example. They feed on the mosquitoes. Their guano is very irritating to asthmatics. But they are a protected species, so they need to be eliminated with care.
D: Opossums are rumored to be especially stupid and slow. Is that your experience?
C: Opossums and mice are dumb; rats are very crafty.
D: What about rats getting into mole passages and working their way into crawlspaces?
C: It happens. Some will even do the tunnel work themselves.
D: Those soft areas under the vapor barrier — those are pretty much from rat or mole tunnels?
C: That's right. There's really no way to stop tunneling, and it requires tamper-resistant bait stations outside.
D: Getting back where we belong — defecation. Rats have poor eyesight but excellent hearing and sense of smell, right? I understand they mark their territory, but do lingering smells in a crawlspace attract other rats in the future once the initial problem has been resolved?
C: That can happen, yes. This is one reason disinfecting is needed in many cases.
D: And like you said earlier, this is why sealing open areas and gaps in the crawlspace is so important! No snakes in crawlspaces in this area, right?
C: It is very rare.
Darrell Hay answers readers' questions. Call 206-464-8514 to record your question, or e-mail dhay@seattletimes.com. Sorry, no personal replies. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.