Our Work
The right steps for a chimney animal problem in Oviedo
A raccoon in the chimney
A raccoon in a masonry chimney usually means the top was open or the cap was damaged. Raccoons are one of the two primary wildlife sources of rabies in Florida, according to the state Department of Health, so no one in the household should try to reach, prod or trap one.
Keep the damper and glass doors shut and the room closed. Capture is a job for a wildlife professional you authorize, and our part is the chimney around it: finding the entry, clearing the debris the animal left and fitting a cap strong enough to keep the next one out.
What to close while you wait for us
Close the damper if it works, shut the fireplace doors or pull the screen across, and keep the room door closed. These steps keep an animal in the flue from reaching the house while the visit is arranged. Setting a heavy object against a fireplace screen helps if a pet might knock it aside.
Keep children and pets out of the room and leave food out of reach of the fireplace. If the damper does not close fully, tell us when you book, because a damper that no longer seals is one of the repairs we check for once the animal is gone.
Finding how the animal got in
Most animals enter from the top: a missing cap, a torn screen, a cap knocked loose by wind, or a gap between a chase cover and the siding. Some find a gap at the crown or at a damaged flue top. A loose flashing gap or an opening in a framed chase can also let an animal into the space around the flue.
Our specialists check the whole top of the chimney during the free inspection and show you the entry point. The fix for that point is priced on its own line, whether it is a new cap, a screen repair or a separate chimney repair.
Caps on factory-built chimneys
A factory-built chimney is sold as a listed system, and the Florida Building Code has it installed and finished at the top the way the manufacturer's instructions say. Those instructions call for the cap listed for that chimney, so a generic screen or wire mesh cannot simply be added to the pipe. The listing covers the whole termination, which is why parts from another maker are not swapped in.
If an animal got into a factory-built chimney in Oviedo through a damaged cap, our specialists identify the correct listed part for the model and price it. The chase cover around the pipe is checked at the same visit.
