Wildlife division · Raccoons
Raccoons in the attic.
Heavy, deliberate movement at night, and usually damage you can see from the driveway — a torn soffit, a pushed-in roof vent, a ripped gable screen. It's often a mother with a litter, so the timing matters. We inspect, get the whole family out, and rebuild what they tore open.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front
Signs it's a raccoon
Raccoons are the easiest attic animal to identify, because they're the only one big enough to sound like a person. If you've caught yourself thinking someone is walking around up there, it's almost certainly a raccoon.
- Heavy, slow, deliberate movement overhead at night — thumps and drags rather than scurrying
- Visible structural damage: a torn soffit, a roof vent pushed in, a gable screen ripped out, shingles pulled back
- Chittering, purring or crying sounds — that's a litter, and it changes how the job has to be done
- A latrine: raccoons return to one spot to defecate, often on a flat roof section, in the attic, or at the base of a tree
- Vertical scratch marks on downspouts, siding or trim where they climb
- Bins turned over, or a pet door being used by something that isn't your pet
Why your house
A female raccoon is looking for a den, not a snack.
Raccoons in an attic are overwhelmingly females looking for somewhere secure to have and raise a litter. An attic is warm, dry, elevated and defensible — from a raccoon's point of view it's better than any hollow tree in the county.
That's why raccoon calls spike in late winter and spring, and it's why the very first thing we establish is whether there are kits up there.
They don't chew their way in. They pull.
This is the practical difference between a raccoon job and a squirrel job. A raccoon is strong enough to tear a soffit panel out with its hands, lever up a section of roof decking, push in a plastic roof vent, or peel back a gable screen. The result is a much larger opening, made much faster — and repairs that are genuinely structural rather than cosmetic.
What they do once they're inside
- Flatten and tunnel through insulation, wrecking its R-value across a wide area
- Crush or pull apart flexible ductwork
- Establish a latrine inside the attic — which is a contamination problem, not just a mess
- Tear at wiring and anything else in the way
- Leave a large open hole in your roofline that rain then uses
Worth knowing: raccoon latrine material can carry a parasite that's genuinely hazardous to handle. Don't sweep out an attic latrine yourself. Let us identify what's there and deal with it properly.
How we handle it
Kits first, always
If there are young in the attic, simply opening a one-way exit is the wrong move — it puts the mother outside and leaves kits that can't follow her inside your ceiling. So we determine whether there's a litter before anything gets mounted or sealed, and we plan the job around getting the whole family out together.
Out, then sealed
Where the situation allows it, the raccoon lets itself out: it leaves to forage as it does every night and can't get back in. That's the outcome we want on every job, because a raccoon is a large, strong animal and the less contact anyone has with it the better it goes for everyone. Virginia also restricts what can legally be done with trapped wildlife, so hands-on removal is our last resort rather than our opening move — and when a situation genuinely requires it, we'll tell you straight what the law requires before we start.
Then the repair — which with raccoons is most of the job
A torn soffit isn't sealed with mesh and a squirt of foam; it's rebuilt. We repair the structure as part of the exclusion, in heavy-gauge material chosen for an animal with hands and real strength, and we screen the vents and rooflines they'd otherwise simply try again. You don't need a second trade to come out and close up after us, and the work carries a 1-year warranty unless we've discussed otherwise.
Raccoon questions we get asked
I think there are babies up there. What now?
Tell us when you call — it's the single most important detail. Opening a one-way exit with kits still inside separates them from the mother and leaves you with dead animals in a ceiling. We plan the job around getting the whole family out together, which sometimes means working with the litter's timeline rather than against it.
There's a raccoon in my chimney.
Common, and it's usually a female denning. Don't light a fire and don't try to smoke it out. Call us and we'll get it sorted, then cap the chimney so the next one can't repeat it.
Will my homeowners insurance cover the damage?
Some policies cover the resulting damage and some specifically exclude wildlife, so it depends on yours. What we can do is give you photographs of everything we found and a written estimate — the documentation you'd need to submit a claim, whether or not it ends up being covered.
Are they dangerous?
A raccoon that can leave will leave. The real risks are a cornered animal, and the contamination they leave behind — latrine material can carry a parasite that's hazardous to handle. Don't corner one, and don't clean up after one yourself.
Do you repair what they tore up, or do I need a contractor?
We repair it. Rebuilding the soffit, vent or roofline is part of the exclusion — closing the hole properly is the only thing that stops the next raccoon, so it isn't a separate job.
Related
If it sounds like someone's walking around up there, it's a raccoon.
And if there's a litter, the timing matters. Let's get it looked at.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front