# Attic Soffit Vent Repair



## JRMN (Aug 19, 2009)

I have two repairs that I have to make and was wondering if someone could give me some advice. I need to make some repairs to soffit vents in my attic. I already caught one squirrel and the other night I’m pretty sure I heard something else in my attic. I’m not sure if the noise that I heard the other night was a squirrel, but it sounded a lot heavier than a squirrel. So it might be something bigger than a squirrel.

I also have issues with birds entering my attic through a small hole right above the soffit vent, where the gutter and roof meet. As far as I can tell, the birds are only living in the soffit vents.


Looks like I have to repair both sides. This is the left side of my house that needs to be repaired.


This is the right side of my house that needs to be repaired. i believe it'll need to be repaired in the exact area as the left side.


This is a close up view of the right side of the attic that birds are entering the soffit vent area of my attic. I had no clue the holes were this big.


This is on the side of my house to the right of my fireplace. I think this is how the squirrel was entering my attic.


This is a closeup view of the hole from the outside.


This is a photo from the inside of my attic. I couldn't get to the hole from the inside, but there was another hole on the opposite side of the fireplace. Maybe some sort of passageway? Since I wasn't able to get to the soffit vents, I think i will have ro repair the hole from the outside.


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## seeyou (Dec 12, 2008)

1st, you have to get whatever is in there out. You might have raccoons. If you trap ***** or squirrels in, they'll find a way out and then you'll have another hole to patch and it might be in the drywall.

edit: or they might die in there. You'll know that for sure.

The birds or squirrels found some rotten wood where the digging was easy. You'll need to remove the rake/soffit boards and replace them. For the short term, you can install a sheet metal patch over the holes to keep them out after you get them out.


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## JRMN (Aug 19, 2009)

I’ve had a cage trap in my attic since I’ve caught that squirrel. I was just up in my attic two days ago and the trap was empty. So the noise I heard might have been the birds. Oh and I’ve been using peanut butter for bait, heard it was good for catching squirrels and raccoons. 

So you think I should replace the entire board for the soffit vent? I'll have to take another look to see how easy that would be. I was thinking I would be able to just nail a thin piece of wood on the soffit area and paint it and call it the day. What about the front of the house?


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## seeyou (Dec 12, 2008)

JRMN said:


> I’ve had a cage trap in my attic since I’ve caught that squirrel. I was just up in my attic two days ago and the trap was empty. So the noise I heard might have been the birds. Oh and I’ve been using peanut butter for bait, heard it was good for catching squirrels and raccoons.
> 
> *So you think I should replace the entire board for the soffit vent*? I'll have to take another look to see how easy that would be. I was thinking I would be able to just nail a thin piece of wood on the soffit area and paint it and call it the day. What about the front of the house?


Maybe not the whole board, but at least a rafter to rafter (truss to truss) section. Once they've been in, just filling the hole might not stop them from coming back. Also, there very likely wasn't just one squirrel up there. They're pretty crafty. If the others saw the 1st one trapped, they might not be too swayed by the peanut butter. Try putting the trap in a different location. 

I've been through this. I finally had to hire a pro. They put the traps on the roof near the entry hole in different location each time. Between the two of us, we caught 6 females, one gigantic male, and a raccoon.


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## JRMN (Aug 19, 2009)

I'll move the trap to another location of my attic. I sure hope I don't have any more squirrels up there and I don't even want to think about raccoons. I might have a professional do the repairs since patching it doesn’t seem like the way to go.


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