We Let a Squirrel Live in Our Garage

When Karla and I bought our first house on Elmo Place in Middletown, Ohio, we were pretty new to this whole homeownership thing.

It was a gorgeous little Cape Cod with a detached garage out back. The garage was clean and orderly and had a little loft above it where you could store things you didn’t use very often.

We moved in toward the end of summer, and naturally we started putting things up there—the Christmas tree, some yard stuff and whatever else we figured we wouldn’t need until spring.

A little later that fall, I went out to the garage and heard something rustling around above me.

Karla came out, and the two of us started investigating.

We had a squirrel.

And not a big one, either. He looked pretty young.

Now, remember, we were brand-new homeowners. And apparently a little softhearted.

We started talking about what we should do with him, and Karla said something along the lines of, “If we kick him out now, he’s probably going to freeze to death this winter.”

That seemed perfectly reasonable to us at the time.

Looking back, we were incredibly naive.

So we made a decision:

We let the squirrel stay.

We figured he’d basically hibernate up there for the winter. How much trouble could one little squirrel possibly cause?

For the most part, he was actually a pretty quiet tenant. Every once in a while we’d hear him rustling around in the loft, but otherwise we didn’t think much about him.

Then spring came.

One Sunday morning, Karla and I were in the kitchen making breakfast when we looked out toward the garage.

There he was.

Our little winter houseguest was sitting on the garage roof.

And then we noticed something else.

There was a hole in the roof.

Now, in fairness to the squirrel, I doubt he sat there and chewed his way through perfectly good shingles and roof decking. There was probably already a deteriorated area that gave him an easy place to work with.

But he had definitely turned that weak spot into an opening.

And now rain, melting snow and everything else had a direct path into our garage.

Our arrangement with the squirrel was officially over.

A neighbor came down with a humane trap, we caught the little guy, and he was taken to a park down the road.

We never saw him again.

Then We Cleaned Out the Loft

Later that summer, we finally decided to clean everything out and see exactly what our winter tenant had been doing up there.

Apparently, he had been busy.

I think that squirrel had collected every walnut in the neighborhood.

There were nuts stored everywhere, along with nesting material and plenty of other things that I won’t describe in detail.

That’s when I learned something I’ve remembered ever since:

Wild animals don’t make very good houseguests.

And that brings me to the reason I’m telling you this story.

Take a Walk Around Your House

Squirrels and other small animals don’t necessarily need a big obvious hole to get into a house.

They look for weak spots.

And some of the most vulnerable areas are right around your roofline, gutters, fascia and soffits.

Those areas take a beating over the years from rain, snow, ice, clogged gutters and ordinary deterioration. Once wood begins to soften or a small gap develops, an animal may be able to turn a minor problem into a much bigger opening.

Take a few minutes every once in a while and actually look at your house.

Look along the fascia behind the gutters.

Look underneath the soffits.

Look where different rooflines come together.

Look around vents and penetrations.

And if you can safely get into your attic, take a look around up there occasionally too.

Sometimes the first indication of a problem isn’t something you see from outside.

It’s that unmistakable sound:

prance, prance, prance…

across the ceiling above your head.

And suddenly you realize you’ve got an uninvited guest.

A Little Hole Can Turn Into a Big Mess

Once squirrels get into an attic, they aren’t simply looking for a warm place to sleep.

They can disturb insulation, chew on electric wires, build nests, store food and leave waste behind. They can also enlarge openings that were originally relatively minor.

And unlike our little friend on Elmo Place, they don’t pay rent.

So here’s a friendly piece of advice from a guy who once willingly let a squirrel spend the winter in his garage:

Don’t do what we did.

If you notice a damaged soffit, loose fascia, deteriorated wood or an opening around your roofline, don’t ignore it. Figure out why it’s happening and get it corrected before somebody with four legs and a bushy tail decides you’ve built them a very nice apartment.

Sometimes a $200 repair today prevents a much more aggravating repair later.

I learned that lesson from a little squirrel in Middletown, Ohio.

And he got free room and board while he taught it to me.

Birch Bishop
Mariemont Remodeling Co.
Serving Mariemont and the surrounding villages.