A bird in the hand is worth a lot or work!

After a very long work week, my plans for the weekend were simple....it included doing as little as possible. After my Saturday run to WalMart I was looking forward to just kicking back, that was until I got a text from my bride.

It read something along the lines of "hurry home, bird in the house". I imagined one of the seemingly million birds my animal loving bride feeds must have flew in the house or something.

I get home to my panicked wife saying that there was a bird in the house, but it was "in" the closet wall. Ummmmm.....say what??? Sure enough, listening I heard that the bird was in fact trapped behind the wall of the closet. Behind the closet was the chase that the furnace pipe and sewer vent pipe went through the ceiling, the attic and eventually the roof.

I scratched my head because I knew the area around those pipes in the attic were well insulated. I've added about 12" of batts over the past 3 years to the attic and knew area around them were covered...and covered good.

First things first. I cut open the back wall of the closet to gain access to the chase.



Sure enough there was a very tired sparrow on the floor of the chase. He hopped around for a while until I got him in my big paws. Now you would imagine this where the story would end. The big hero of the hour takes the helpless little bird outside and let him free. But as you can guess, that's not what happens.

Sure enough the tired little bird summons unimaginable strength and breaks free from my kung fu grip. Now we have a very excited little bird flying circles in our bedroom! After 15 minutes we were able to corral the beast.



With a death grip on him we finally get him outside and on his merry way. None too soon for my liking!

Now as calm sets in I poke my head into the chase to try to figure out how said bird managed to get into the house.

What I was greeted with was that the ceiling and metal collar around the vent and furnace pipes had failed. Before the last set of shingles were put on, apparently there was a leak around the pipes where they penetrated the roof. The old ceiling tile around the vent pipe, had sub comb and collapsed leaving a hole that was covered now with insulation batts.

I'm still not sure how the sparrow was able to push his way through the insulation but there must have a been a gap large enough to do so.



Oh boy, there goes my afternoon.

After cutting a couple more holes to get a better look at the awkward space I also could see there were gaps between the framing that my FIL had built that led right into the attic also.



Some of the gaps were completely open (A), while others had numerous wire runs for the various outlets in that part of the house (B).

I found out that the holes I had cut couldn't be enlarged enough for me to work on it, so I cut yet another hole in the ceiling of the closet so I could get my big head up into the area.

While I moved everything out of the closet I took time to reset the closet rod and curtain rod since neither were put in correctly previously.

This morning the dogs and I headed to Caseys for a donut (they like theirs with sprinkles) and Menards for sheetrock and spray insulation. They weren't much help shopping but they took care of the donut in short order.




The ceiling repaired (B) and the easy gaps filled with blueboard (A) I headed up into the attic, spray foam in hand for the areas I could not properly fill.

As most of us know working in a cramped attic, stepping on the trusses, hunched over below the nail laden roof sheathing, all the while breathing in fiberglass strands is very enjoyable...but for some reason, today I wasn't feeling it. Odd.

Anyway, after pulling the batts back I got the gaps filled completely, the area around the furnace pipe insulated with fireblock spray insulation, put the batts back in place and got my dusty butt out of there.

Not exactly what I had planned to do this weekend, but actually it feels good to know the house is that much more weather tight and insulated. That being said, if I see that little sparrow again, he's in deep trouble!!

 

I would have had a dead bird in my wall.

 

Oh.....how that thought crossed my mind! LOL.

 

Thanks man. My little bride was so happy to see the bird fly away unscathed. If it were any bigger I would have fried it up after all that work.

 

I might have killed it out in the front yard...set an example for the other birds and stuff.

 

Whats that old saying? Something like .. " A Bird in hand is............" well you know the one I mean..............

 

A bird got down my chimney a few years back. After quite a long time I got him out through the clean out which is in the garage. It then took me a while to get him out of the garage. After all this work he stumbled out of the garage and then our cat pounced and killed him. I should have just put the cat in the chimney.

 

I think I understand how the bird got into the wall, but how did it get into the attic? If the flashing for the furnace vent and sewer stack has failed, shouldn't that be repaired from the outside?
Good rescue and quick response to the whole scenario.

 

I think I've known some cats that I would have put in the chimney too....

 

My cat didn't like your post

 

Me too. Especially if'n eye new it was a sparrow!!!!

 

We have a migratory Canuck Goose problem here and the DEC pretty much tells us if you got a problem ,,,,, handle it,,, we don't want to hear about it. Best defense is leaving a few teatsup around yur problem area . They figure it out real fast.

 

Me too.
You are a better person than I, dear schlot!
I can tell by the way you treat your dogs...

 

Cat with an att!

 

He was al hopped up on catnip

 

Wow that was some work! I don’t know if any of you watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but this reminds me of an episode where a cat somehow gets stuck in the walls of their apartment, and the spend the whole episode trying to get it out. First by putting more cats in the wall hoping the first will follow the others out, and then by putting a bird in (which gets eaten). Eventually one of the characters gets into the wall to find the cat, and gets stuck herself.

 

LOL!!!!

We do and that's exactly what we said!

 

I didn't have the energy to write what happened after my posts above.

I grabbed the vacuum to get all the crud off the floor that came down with me out of the attic.

Hit the button...no suction. Spent a half hour cleaning that out.

Boy the bed felt good last night!