Humane Animal Removal for Pompano Beach Chimneys
An open flue in Broward is prime real estate for wildlife, we evict gently and make sure there's no re-let.
- American Owned & Operated
- Free Written Quotes
- Upfront Pricing
- Same-Day Service Available
To Broward wildlife, an open flue might as well be a hollow tree with a welcome mat. Raccoons treat warm-month chimneys as dens, swifts and songbirds settle onto the smoke shelf, and the occasional squirrel drops in while working the power lines. The residents bring nesting material, noise, odor, and a genuine blockage where your smoke is supposed to go.
Our approach is humane and permanent, in that order. Animals leave alive and unharmed, including respecting the timing rules that protect nesting birds, and then the actual fix happens: nesting debris cleared from the flue, and a screened cap installed so the vacancy sign comes down for good.
What the Work Involves
What Your Visit Covers
Humane eviction
Animals are removed or encouraged out unharmed, with nesting seasons respected.
Nest and debris clearing
The flue is cleared of nesting material and blockage down to clean passage.
Odor mitigation
Animal-related smells are addressed at the source, not masked.
Permanent exclusion
A screened, properly sized cap closes the entry point permanently.
Warning Signs to Watch
- Scratching, chittering, or thumping from the fireplace wall.
- Persistent animal or ammonia-like odor near the hearth.
- Debris or droppings appearing in the firebox.
- Birds seen diving toward the top of your chimney at dusk.
What to Expect
Identify
We confirm who's in residence and where they've settled in the system.
Evict humanely
Removal without harm, timed lawfully around nesting protections.
Clear and close
Flue cleaned of nesting debris, screened cap installed, story over.
Ready for honest chimney animal removal help?
Free written quotes · Same-day service available · No hidden fees
Frequently Asked Questions
There's scratching in my chimney. What is it?
In Broward, most often a raccoon (especially spring and summer) or nesting birds. Either way, don't light a fire; call and we'll identify and handle it humanely.
Can you just smoke them out?
No, it's inhumane, dangerous, and with some birds it's also unlawful. Proper removal gets animals out alive and keeps you on the right side of wildlife protections.
Some birds can't be moved, true?
True. Chimney swifts, for instance, are federally protected while nesting; sometimes the right move is a short wait, then clearing and capping. We'll tell you honestly which case you have.
Will they come back after removal?
Not through the chimney. That's what the screened cap is for. Removal without exclusion is a revolving door; we always finish the job.
Does the flue need cleaning after animals leave?
Yes. Nesting material is a blockage risk, and animal residue is an odor generator in our humidity. The flue clearing comes with the visit, it isn't an add-on.
You Might Also Need
Waiting out a protected nest against acting now
Sometimes the honest answer to a chimney full of birds is that nothing can lawfully be removed yet, which turns the problem into a scheduling decision rather than a repair one. Your choice is between a wait with the fireplace out of service and that same wait made livable: closing the damper where the design allows it, sealing the fireplace opening from the room side, moving air near the hearth. None of that removes the occupants. It buys you an ordinary house until removal is lawful and the young have flown.
The wait is not always the right answer, though. A flue that also serves a gas appliance or a water heater changes the character of the problem, because a blockage on a vented appliance is a combustion matter rather than a nuisance, and that appliance should be taken out of service until the path is proven clear. A dead animal in the system is the other case where patience gains nothing, being a health and odor problem. Noise and the smell of a live nest genuinely are a waiting game.
What a removal quote should cover beyond the removal
Eviction on its own is the cheapest version of this job and the one most likely to repeat, so read any estimate for what it says about closing the entry point. The line you want is exclusion: a properly sized cap, fastened rather than pressed on, with mesh that stops birds and raccoons alike. If the cap sits in a separate estimate to be decided later, you are being quoted half a solution, and the half you paid for expires the next time something comes looking for a dry place to den.
Ask who is clearing the nest itself. Wildlife work and chimney work are often done by different companies, and nesting material packed onto a smoke shelf is chimney work: it comes out from inside the firebox, it is dirty, and it happens in your living room. Get it in writing whether the price includes clearing the flue back to open passage, protecting the room while that happens, and hauling the debris away afterward. A quote covering only the animal leaves you buying the second half at a second visit.
Empty first, closed second, and why that order is not negotiable
One sequencing mistake in this work carries real consequences, and that is fastening a cap over an animal that has not actually left. A sealed-in raccoon will test the damper, the chase, or whatever framing is weakest, and sealed-in nestlings become an odor problem that has to be opened up and cleared anyway, at greater cost and greater mess. Anyone working properly confirms the flue is empty before anything is closed, and you are entitled to hear that confirmation said out loud rather than assumed.
Decide beforehand what happens if the confirmation cannot be given. Raccoons in particular use more than one way in, so the animal may be out of the flue while still inside the chase or the framing around it, which is a different opening and a different repair. Agree whether the visit ends with the cap fastened, or whether it ends with the flue clear and a return trip once the rest of the structure has been checked. Two visits taken in the right order beat one visit taken hopefully.
How far to take the cleanup afterward
Once the flue is empty, a scope question arrives: clear it and stop, or keep going. The floor of that decision is not really optional, since nesting material and droppings have to come out and the surfaces beneath them have to be cleaned, because residue left in place keeps generating smell through every warm month that follows. Above that floor sit real choices, and they should be offered to you as choices: odor treatment, sealing the fireplace opening while the smell fades, refinishing whatever the animals stained.
Treat a recommendation to reline with more care. Animal residue on its own is seldom the reason a liner has to be replaced. What does justify the work is a liner already cracked or shifted at the joints, which is frequently how the animal reached the smoke shelf to begin with, so the fair request is that the finding be described in specifics: which section, in what condition, and how the condition was established. A relining recommendation anchored to a described defect deserves serious consideration. One that follows automatically from the word raccoon does not.
Part of our Chimney Cap Installation work in Pompano Beach and across south Broward County.