Insulation Trails in Attic

[caryseidner]

Approx. 1500 sf attic with these random trails cut through the insulation, throughout the entire attic. My first thought was an animal, but the paths are really much wider than that of any "attic animal" I have ever seen and there was no entryway for something that size either, except for the attic hatch.

Too curvy for wind-wash and it didn't appear to be from human traffic either, but I say that only because the walls of the trails are so vertical. Maybe a drunk with a shovel?

Has anybody ever seen this kind of thing before?

Click to Enlarge

79.26 KB

Click to Enlarge

69.24 KB

Click to Enlarge

64.81 KB

Click to Enlarge

69.86 KB

[Jerry Simon]

A little girl, about eleven or twelve, clutching a doll without a head, lives in the attic and does this to amuse herself. Really.

[Bill Kibbel]

Is that newer plywood decking? If the answer is yes, whatever made those trails did so when it was nothing but bare rafters exposed to the sky.

[randynavarro]

I betcha a cat.

They can get crazy places.

Yes, I've come across that a few times and hypothesized about cats.

[caryseidner]

Good call Bill. 7 year old roof and plywood decking. Thank you...again!

[hausdok]

Looks like a cat to me.

More than once I've found where they'll lie down in attics. There's probably some way for a cat to get in there that you can't easily see or find.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[caryseidner]

From the pictures it a little difficult to tell how wide those trails are. If it was made by something in the feline family, it would have to have been a mountain lion.

On a side note, there was a mountain lion spotted here in Chicago a few years ago and ironically that topic came up during the inspection, but not because of the trails in the insulation. The big cat was spotted in the alley were my clients are currently living, about 15 miles away from the inspection.

I think Bill is right and it happened during a re-sheathing of the roof. The curvy pathways go all over the attic, twisting and turning from corner to corner. No foot, hoof or paw prints in the insulation between the joist or below the top of the joists. A small amount of tear-off debris sprinkled on top as well.

Really it should have been more obvious to me when I was up there. I was a bit uneasy thinking that a big animal was gonna jump out from the insulation at anytime.[:-bigeyes

[Erby]

Hmmm, big rat!

[Jim Katen]

Crop circles.

Look for itchy aliens.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[barlyhop]

Were there soffits on this building? Maybe someone was evaluating the ventilation above soffit vents?

[Rocon]

A little girl, about eleven or twelve, clutching a doll without a head, lives in the attic and does this to amuse herself. Really.

You too, I am also finding them more and more often.