Rodent droppings scattered all over the attic- Dealbreaker?

[Rob C.]

A house I'm considering purchasing has a pest problem, and there are a lot of rodent droppings in the garage and attic. If I go through with purchasing it, I'm planning to hire a pest control company to get rid of the pests. But what about the droppings they've already left behind? I imagine it would be rather costly to clean the droppings scattered about the insulation throughout the attic. Is this a health hazard? Do they make a house legally uninhabitable? And do average homeowners (i.e. not investors) consider this a dealbreaker when looking to buy a house?

Thanks, Rob

[Steve Babiak]

Originally posted by Will Barnard:

... Using some expanding foam will also aid in the sealant.
...

Will Barnard are you saying that expanding foam is by itself useful? Can't the rodents just chew through that? Or does the foam need to be used with something like steel wool too?

[Will Barnard]

No, I am not stating that, Rodents can chew through it, they can not chew through the steel wool. I was merely stating that adding that to the hole and the steel wool will better insultae, seal, and protect the hole.

[Kim Mattingly]

Rob,  what did you decide to do?  We have a mouse problem.  I have 2 exterminating companies but they want to do different things.  One wants to clean the attics and crawl space and replace insulation, but isn't concerned with the openings.  The other isn't concerned about attic and crawl space but only wants to seal openings.  Cost is higher with doing attics.  Wasn't sure if I should do both or just close the openings.

[Matthew Paul]

If the insulation is loose ,not rolled , have a company that blows in insulation remove the old and put in new . They just use the same blower as a sucker like a shop vac and they blow it in a dumpster . They will suck up the droppings at the same time .

My best friend died 11 years ago from a lung infection caused by rodent droppings while helping clean out a building for his girlfriend in Florida .

[Kim Mattingly]

thank you Matthew Paul!  I appreciate the advice, and sorry about your friend.

[Damon Duperre]

I would have agreed with everybody who says it is no big deal until recently. I still might agree with them sometimes but now I know that it can be a VERY big deal. You have to have a pro get rid of them first and then plug up every single entry point with metal or they will just chew right through it and return. My experience was with rats though. If they are bad the entire house will always stink no matter how much you clean it. All they need is a hole the size of a quarter to enter so I imagine mice only need a much smaller hole (or the crack under a door).

It can be a serious health risk also.

[Damon Duperre]

Rats (and mice) can actually enter a house through the bathroom drains or the toilet. I am not kidding. They can actually swim through the pipes and come out the toilet or the drains. It helps to keep the toilet lei closed and make sure you have good drain covers securely attached. 

[Damon Duperre]

I meant to say it helps to keep the toilet lid closed.

[Rob C.]

Kim, I actually ended up doing nothing. However, that was because the deal fell apart. Long story with bizarre turns (details @http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/79584-hard-knock-1)

I'm surprised you heard from one of the exterminators that the openings didn't need to be sealed. As I recall, all my research at the time pointed to that being a must do. Otherwise the pests are bound to return, and the problem will persist. Did the exterminator explain why he didn't think the openings needed to be sealed?

How to approach the cleaning is not as black and white. Huge gray area if you ask me. I got so many mixed opinions (not just from investors, but from professionals and online sources as well). Frankly, I'm pretty sure at this point no one truly knows what level of decontamination is sufficient. Personally, I would have been sure to do some level of decontamination. And as close of escrow was drawing near, I started leaning toward the L3 decontamination (i.e. including full replacement of insulation). My reasoning was that the numbers for the deal still looked good taking the extra cost into consideration, and it would give me further peace of mind knowing I did as much as possible on a subject with so much uncertainty. With that said though, I'm almost positive the L2 decontamination (i.e. spray of disinfectant and cover with additional insulation) would have been sufficient (at least for the issue I was looking at). Ultimately, it's a personal decision (i.e. guess)

[Rob C.]

btw, I just came across these comments in regard to decontamination:

The good news is that most insurance companies will pay for this under damage to the home. Also the federal government is giving a tax break of up to $1500 for increasing your insulation powers. And the power company will normally give you a credit of up to $400. What all this means is that you play the cards correctly, the insulation removal/replacement process may not end up costing anything.

Copied from http://www.allwildlifecontrol.com/InsulationRemoval.php. For what it's worth, the owner of that company was the guy I came to trust the most when I was gathering information on the subject a few years ago

[Jason Tylor]

I found this thread trying to find quotes to replace insulation in an attic for a customer.  We are a restoration company in Chicago land area and our customer had some slow growth mold problems. We ended up having to remove the drop ceiling on one of the floor's and found 8 dead mice, nasty stuff. We inspected the attic and turns out there is a mold issue so we muse clean and encapsulate all of the beams. There is also mice dropping in attic. To effectively remediate all of the mold it is best to remove installation otherwise we will need to cover all expsosd installation with ploy and that will greatly add to time and labor. 

[Deanna McCormick]

Bats also cause droppings in attics so check that out.....