North Chicago Illinois Attic Repair/Restoration Job – 60064

Each new job has its own unique challenge and issues. With this job in North Chicago, Illinois, they have raccoons that have gotten into the walls and died. There is a strong stench of carrion which is starting to permeate the home. We will be cutting into the living room wall tomorrow and removing the dead raccoon(s).

The raccoons here have done extensive damage to the soffit system of the exterior of the home by walking on them. Their sheer weight has caused them to bow downwards and buckle in places. We will be removing and repacing most if not all of their soffit system.

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 Above: Entry point for Raccoon in North Chicago, Illinois home. Note the oil buildup on the wood siding caused from the Raccoon coming & going.

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Above:  Temporary repairs done by homeowner to prevent further buckling.

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 Above: More temporary repairs to prevent soffit from falling down. Note the screws as well as the buckling and slight sag.

Raccoons can do immense amounts of damage in a very short period of time. The pictures below show the attic space of this home and as can be seen it is absolute mayhem.

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All of the insulation is trampled, crushed and thrown about as though the Raccoons had the best month of their life. This particular attic had BATT and Blown insulation. The white is the blown and the pink is the BATT (rolled insulation).

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All of this insulation needs to be completely removed and replaced and a new baffling system installed for ventilation. The raccoons have destroyed almost in entirety the baffles which were in place for ventilation. This will compound the damage further over time if not repaired by causing a moisture buildup in the attic which will lead to mold issues.

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 Raccoons usually create a latrine in the attic where they do all of their dirty business. It isn’t a pleasant thought but imagine this is the other side of your ceiling in your bedroom or kitchen.

And it isn’t just the smell which is horrible all in its own right. This pile of feces might contain a few hundred thousand raccoon roundworm eggs which can become airborn and cause blindness and even death. Plus they also contain an entire mix of other parasites, parasite eggs and pathogens. It is dangerous to have something like this anywhere in or near your home.

And damage like this is very costly to repair. This home is 1756 sqaure feet and the damages have come to about 14,178.56 so far. We expect to find additonal damages when we begin the cleanout. This homeowner was lucky and wise to have chosen Triple AAA Insurance rather then a podunk company like Allstate which coincidently has begin to refuse these types of homeowners claims. They will pay claims like these and have done enough Allstate claims to know about how much they will cover. For this job Allstate would pay roughly 800.00. Hardly enough to cover this homeowners loss. And not even close enough to repair the damages. And not even enough to go over this homeowners deductible of 1000.00

So for all of you out there who still have Allstate insurance policies or aren’t sure who your carrier is, it might be time to blow the dust off your homeowners policy to see who it is that insures your home and if it is Allstate or another carrier which finds reasons not to pay for animal damage, to switch to a more reputable insurance company now, before Animal Mayhem strikes your home. I know it is ironic, especially in light of Allstates Mayhem TV Commercial series, which was highly successful and popular, but they have made a corporate decision to screw homeowners who have this type of damage, even though it is not excluded from policy coverage.

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 This video contains nothing but lies from Allstate Insurance company which give people the idea that they are covered from Raccoon damage to their homes, while the stark truth is they deny such claims or pay so little it isn’t worth making a claim, as often it is less then your deductible. but the damage is almost always far, far beyond the cost of your deductible, and you are the one who gets holding the bill for damages.