Removing Chimney Dwelling Raccoons
My sister called with some urgency one evening last week stating there was a raccoon on the patio.
Her kids alerted her to it and, as she looked out the kitchen window, she saw it sitting atop her patio gazebo. It then climbed onto the roof.
“See where it goes”, I instructed her.
She went outside and the response came, “It went down the chimney.”
“I bet she’s living in there and has babies down by your fireplace”, I told her.
“When are you coming over, dear brother?”
Chimney Raccoon Removal Common
Raccoons often use uncapped chimneys as dens during the birthing season here in the Akron, Canton, Kent OH area.
Usually safe and secure, raccoons use man-made structures (when available) as den sights when given the opportunity.
The opportunity in this case was the uncapped chimney you see here.
The farthest flue has a cap connected to duct work as it connects to the furnace and hot water tank in the basement.
The middle flue is capped and has a metal liner in it. It goes to the basement fireplace.
The closest flue is the one the raccoon was using. It is just the tile liner and it goes to the first floor fireplace. As you can see, there is no cap. Chimneys like these are bound to attract wildlife of some kind sooner or later.
Once the female raccoon found the uncapped chimney, she climbed down the flue to the flat space at the bottom above the damper called the smoke shelf. That’s where she and the kits were hanging out.
This diagram shows a chimney and fireplace cross-section and is helpful for terms that are used in this post.
As you can see, the smoke shelf can be an ample space in some designs.
And, since the smoke shelf is just on the other side of the damper, the baby raccoons can often be heard if there are no glass doors on the fireplace.
As a review, the damper is the door of sorts that separates the fireplace from the chimney. It has to be opened before lighting a fire to let the smoke out. The damper is usually closed after the fire has gone out to stop the draft of air up the chimney. If the damper is not closed and there is no cap on a chimney, an animal could come right down the chimney and into the firebox. That would be another problem.
Raccoon Chimney Removal
Solving a raccoon-with-babies-in-the-chimney problem usually consists of these steps:
- Show up during the day when the whole family, mom and kits, are home
- Place a specialized chimney trap into the top of the chimney***
- Pester the adult raccoon from below to make her climb up into the chimney trap
- Remove the kits from below by hand
- Clean the smoke shelf as necessary
- Place a chimney cap
This is the ideal.
But, as you’ll see in the video below, I didn’t catch the mother raccoon until the third morning.
I saw her at the chimney base when I first inspected and put the chimney trap in place. But, I could not scare her from below after I set the trap. I tried to get her to go up into the trap immediately but she wouldn’t.
So, knowing she would eventually need to leave, I let her be, figuring I would have her in the trap the next morning.
But, I apparently scared her enough that she was too wary to come out the next two nights! The best laid plans…
Once she did go in the chimney trap, the job got back on schedule.
Working from inside the fireplace, I removed the damper completely and the babies were right there. They were young enough yet that they were still very easy to control. They did not try to bite or claw me as older ones are prone to do.
The easiest part of the job was clean-up and chimney cap install. That’s because my brother-in-law did it, not me!
There was a lot of raccoon poop on the smoke shelf and it all needed removed, bagged, and vacuumed. Then the damper needed re-installed. This was a dirty job for sure.
Lastly, a new chimney cap was installed to make sure that raccoons in the this chimney won’t happen again.
Here is a video blog of the removal process. Enjoy.
*** A chimney trap is the preferred trap because it is highly effective when the raccoon moves. But, some will ask if it is an absolute necessity. The answer is no. A regular live trap with bait in it set by the chimney or by where the raccoon climbs onto the roof MAY capture her. But, because of the babies, we have learned that mother raccoons will often completely ignore baited traps because of their heightened level of wariness.
Raccoon Removal form Chimneys | Stark, Summit, Portage Counties
Thanks for reading and watching!
If anything, remember that the presence and proper functioning of chimney caps is your best line of defense against unwanted raccoons in your chimney/fireplace.
If you’d like us to install a chimney cap, please give us a call.
And, if you think there are raccoons in your chimney and you want the problem solved, we offer solutions for that too.
For more on raccoon removal:
