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The Rodent Revolution

~queen_city_nerd

So, the wife noticed Tuesday that there was an off organic smell in the

basement. Not the cat box creeping back for the increased humidity but something

else. Wednesday evening it was more pronounced and we went to investigate. There

was a hint of the telltale dead rodent odor on the air but not a for sure, dead

thing smell. Even so, we've had critters get into and not get back out of the

dryer vent in the past and that was the first thing to check as there was the

sound of some seeds rattling in the aluminum pipe again.

Climbing behind the dryer and unhooking everything I set to work with the

shopvac and assumed the worst, another chipmunk mummy and all the assorted

grotesque crypt-keeper goodies that accompany this scent... I powered up the

little machine, a cloud of concrete dust shot forth from the last job making it

extra pleasant, and opened up the vent pipe... Nothing but some seeds and lint.

We decided that due diligence was done and might have to let it get a little

worse after prowling about with flashlights and all the lights on. There was a

cloud of fine particulates in the air anyhow and it was, and continues to make

for a scratchy throat.

Later in the evening as I was went down to the pantry for a restock on the

tinned catfood I hit the odor again. It was as I descended the stairs. No, it

was at the transition line for the floors, in the floor joists. Now I got

nervous.... I work in the natural gas/methane business.... For those who've

never thought about this the natural gas has no real odor, what we've all been

trained on as "the smell" is added by the distribution company, i.e. your local

utility shortly after what's called the city/town gate. That's where they buy it

off the transmission system. Methyl mercaptan is the common additive in North

America though it does vary by geographic region, and here it carries a rotten

egg, cabbage, organic smell....

Having worked for years in methane I've got some sense of the stuff, but I can

tell you that lesson 1, day 1 is this: The product is only worth something

because it burns. It's also lighter than air, so it tends to rise in an

enclosure...

I used to have a personal unit called an MXIV Ventis (4 gas detector) it picks

up O2, CO, Methane, and monitors the LEL (Lower Explosive Limit) That's the

minimum fuel air mix for combustion. And yes there have been times when gas

crews were safe to work because it was over the UEL Upper explosive limit! You

could clip these into a little pump body and screw on a wand and "sniff" for gas

or we also had SENSIT units that did the same thing for us. I however was no

longer a field guy...

I did the next best thing, I made up a soapy water solution in a spray bottle

and started bubble testing all the fittings in the house. We have hook up for

dryer, stove, water heater, furnace and they had recently moved the meter

outside of the house. Domestic hook up pressure if measured in inches of water

column in the US as we run pressures under 1 PSI but that being said if there's

a leak out side the house it can chase the disturbed soils and pipe into the

house over time. You usually see some chemically "burned" lawn where it's

bubbling up and killing the grass. But it's the end of winter... the lawn looks

as it had in the fall and nothing smelled out at the meter or by the old inlet

pipe, abandoned in the basement wall from the initial install in the mid 50's

Trust your nose, that's why we flavor this stuff. I bubble checked and smelled

my way around the basement deciding it was really strong near the water heater

and furnace. Getting closer and closer I was looking at the top of the water

heater. Plastic flanges had some melting damage and there was an odor here... I

reached up to touch the vent pipe and it was cold, but then again the unit

wasn't calling for hot water... Still, something felt wrong. It's a 3"

galvanized steel vent pipe up to a steel thimble unit someone installed eons

ago. I replaced this water heater in the last 5 years and plumbed it all in

myself. Something didn't seem right. Looking around I saw I had plenty of the

metalized tape for duct joints so I decided to cut loose the galvanized section

and look at it.

.... BIG DEAD GREY SQUIRREL ....... BIG DEAD GREY SQUIRREL ....... BIG DEAD GREY

SQUIRREL ....... BIG DEAD GREY SQUIRREL ....... BIG DEAD GREY SQUIRREL .......