Rodents in Ductwork

[labboy]

So, it appears rats and/or mice have made their way into the duct work underneath our house. There was odor coming from one of the vents and we also heard noise coming from the vent/subfloor area one evening. I pulled the vent cover off and found chewed fiberglass insulation, plastic duct lining, etc.

After the exterminator takes care of the infestation, I am going to replace the affected duct work. (I'm normally happy to do the trapping myself but the idea of going into a crawl space with rodents really bothers me.)

My question is: Should I replace all of the ductwork under the house or just the ductwork that is damaged (as well as adjacent ductwork)? It is all flexible insulated ductwork.

It is all about 11 years old. I am thinking (considering how insulation efficiency has improved) replacing it all might be a better bet.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks
Bob

 

[wayupnorth]

Bob, You dont need to remove any ductwork that is not damaged, it just has to be cleaned inside. As long as it is sealed tight, not rusted and goes where you want it to go in the house. Regular ductwork has not changed in many years, only the way of making sure of sealing it up and insulating it has really changed. And it does work.

 

[cuffs054]

Ah, labboy, let me relate an interesting incident along the same lines.
My vacation cabin "Casa-De-Single-Wide" has flex duct servicing the heatpump package unit.
Last fall we get to cabin and smoke alarms are going off. Cabin smells like melted plastic/wire/electrical. I panic. Pull breakers and look around, nothing. Turn all back on, including heat. Smoke detectors go off. I pull apart heatpump. Dead squrrel in connection box. Clean it out, feel manly, fix cocktail, fire up heat. Still smells. Tell SO "it'll clear out". Get up next morn and the cabin reeks.
Start pulling apart heatpump. In the heat strip area I find the worlds largest opossum that committed hari kari by running head first into my energized heat strips. It had already started to 'off gas' and turn to mush. That may well be the worst clean up mess ever.
Oh, BTW, last weekend, damn if there isn't a dead mouse in one of the vents. Here we go again!

 

[stan]

Opossum!

Oh now thats got to be the worst ever! I hope your S.O appreciates your work on that!

Now I'm going to have nightmares LOL

 

[davey7]

If I were you, I'd certainly clean the ductwork if possible. With all the scare in the air about hantavirus from Yosemite it's probably a good idea to have it done, even if it isn't endemic in your area.

 

[whirlcool]

This week we had a Hantavirus scare just a few miles from me.

HGTV was at a house filming a show about Hoarders and they had a crew cleaning up an old womans house that was filled to the ceilings with junk. They had 29 people there cleaning, and one of them came down with the Hantavirus. I guess that's why you normally see people in "hoarded" houses wearing bio suits to clean them up.

I've never heard of Hantavirus being in this part of the country before, usually it's associated with places like New Mexico, Arizona and southern parts of California. And a lot of times it appears on Indian reservations. So this is very strange, but I guess anywhere you get infected rodents you can pick up the virus.