Have you ever done something really stupid?

[Alelou]

Well, in New York State you are not ALLOWED to take nuisance wildlife anywhere else. The state in its wisdom has said you must be licensed to do that.

Can't say I mind that. As it is there are still people who dump animals at our yard, including a mother cat and her kittens, and two raccoon babies who fairly promptly ran out in traffic and got killed. (Maybe that jerk WAS licensed ... he had a white van.)

And given how territorial these creatures are, a quick zap might be kinder.

Also, red squirrels often do commit grievous acts against your wiring, insulation, and ability to sleep at night.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

How hard can it be to trap a small animal and bring it back to the wild?

Well, this can always happen!

[Kotik]

Also, red squirrels often do commit grievous acts against your wiring, insulation, and ability to sleep at night.

Pardon? Where the heck do you have your wiring? It's under plaster. Unless you live in a sheet metal shed in a brasilian favela there's no way a squirrel can reach your wiring or your insulation

[Weeble]

My soon to be dead red-squirels ate their way through my deck, and managed to tunnel in through a minute gap between the original house and the addition. (Anyone looking at the photo I posted awhile back might scratch their head now because the wife and I own two homes. I am usually in northern michigan while the wife splits time downstate and with me. We moved the mother-in- law in (downstate) (6) years ago after putting on the darn addition.)
Years ago the little red bast... chewed a hole in the siding near the peak and I had to concrete that over with mesh to keep them out of the attic. Also know the red squirrels bite the balls of other types of squirrels in an interesting Darwinian touch. Regardless these are on the endangered species list now. I can't trap them outside because with my luck one of the neighborhood skunks would volunteer to be a trap tester.
Of course it could be worse, I could live in the city and have rats...
As far as the plaster comments, does your wiring run in plaster chases all the way back to your breaker box? Critters get in the walls ya know.

[Kotik]

As far as the plaster comments, does your wiring run in plaster chases all the way back to your breaker box? Critters get in the walls ya know.

How can they get in the wall? It's solid, man What do you make your houses out of - styrofoam?? If you lay wriring, you you jackhammer a shallow canal into the wall (which is usually made out of brick or concrete) into which you put the cables then you fill it with plaster before you plaster the whole wall. Heck, not even bacteria can get in there.

[Alelou]

Most domiciles in this country are built frame and timber. That's what we have tons of. It does tend to leave one battling various creatures, especially chewing rodents and woodpeckers. Of course, stonework can settle or crumble and let things in, too (and can mean a total loss in an earthquake). My little brother lives in a house converted from an old schoolhouse converted from an old colonial dairy that has a small cold spring running through the basement, where some of the foundation stonework is quite ancient. He is plagued by flying squirrels and snakes and all sorts of creatures, though the cats and the dog help keep them out of the living quarters.

[Kotik]

Most domiciles in this country are built frame and timber. That's what we have tons of. It does tend to leave one battling various creatures, especially chewing rodents and woodpeckers. Of course, stonework can settle or crumble and let things in, too (and can mean a total loss in an earthquake). My little brother lives in a house converted from an old schoolhouse converted from an old colonial dairy that has a small cold spring running through the basement, where some of the foundation stonework is quite ancient. He is plagued by flying squirrels and snakes and all sorts of creatures, though the cats and the dog help keep them out of the living quarters.

Well if you nail your houses together from wood that at least explains why all your houses are gone after a hurricane BTW. stone only settles if you don't build a proper foundation. My parents house has been built on loose sand. That stuff's about as close as you can get to quicksand without being in the Sahara. That house hasn't sat a single inch. Oh and critters aren't around, too, but that's Aika's fault - me parents' dog. She was a 65 Kilo behemoth - mixture of German Shepheard/Great Dane. While serving in the army I once spent a weekend at my parents in me old room. They had built a little pond in the front yard the year before and sure enough soon frogs ad invaded the thing. So there's me listening to the incessant "ribbit, ribbit" at night when I hear very familiar quadruped footsteps:

*slurp*slurp*slurp* silence...

Our Aika had had herself a midnight French snack

[Weeble]

I guess additions are right out. Must be quite the mess when the building codes change...

[Kotik]

what are building codes?

[Weeble]

Kotik,
if you are serious you can look up the U.B.C. or the Uniform Building Code which is used in most of the US. It dictates all manner of things from wire sizes to how far up the wall the toilet paper roll hanger goes. Please tell me you Germans have toilet paper.

Alelou,

Went to Raticator.com, looks like someone bought somebody out and changed the name. Say night, night to the red squirrels....hmmm. i wonder what will happen if I reach inside

[Distracted]

I'm not certain, but I don't think I'd recommend it.

[Kotik]

Kotik,
if you are serious you can look up the U.B.C. or the Uniform Building Code which is used in most of the US. It dictates all manner of things from wire sizes to how far up the wall the toilet paper roll hanger goes. Please tell me you Germans have toilet paper.

LOL, you have a law for bog paper mounting height? And I thought us Krauts were beaurocratic idiots. Well basically in Germany it's like that: If you want to build a house or want to extend an existing one, you need an official permit and you don't get that without a detailled plan drawn up by an architect with static calculations - the whole kaboodle. If you want to nail your house together with wooden planks you can just as well not bother, they won't permit it. German law demands that:

- a houses's exterior walls are made of solid material at least 10 inch in thickness (you theoretically could build a glass house as long as the glass is thick enough)
- any wall with statical load has to be 10 ich in thickness, made out of solid material.
- if any of the rooms are used for commercial purposes, they have to be equiped with windows that allow you to see the sky during daylight hours. (not making that up - it's the law. That's why there are virtually no basement offices in Germany)

That's it. Everything else is your call. You may line your walls with unicorn skin, whatever, as long as the walls are thick enough.

[Alelou]

You ARE kidding about the toilet paper hanger?

After seeing the homemade house clearly built without any regard to building codes that my parents rented in Vermont, I'm a big fan of building codes. Have you ever tried to use a homemade staircase that doesn't meet code for height or depth of the steps? Then there were the door frames at weird heights and widths. The guy who built it used all his own trees and apparently built it according to how he felt that day or could scavenge off a pile somewhere. It was also full of weird gaps. They were nice folks, and it had a great view at the top of a mountain, but it was freaking cold in the winter and in general a disaster waiting to happen.

And you wouldn't believe the illegal crap going on in NJ houses where they stuff illegal apartments in without worrying about code (or bribing the inspector for a drive-by inspection, a NJ specialty). When we were looking for our first house (which meant entry level prices), we'd find horrible stuff like stairs to the basement leaving from a bathroom, at least two separate houses that had weird toilets on giant pedestals to meet basement drains, and 'finished basement' rooms where an adult couldn't stand up straight and someone had installed carpet over a hollow rat slab (had one of those in the house we eventually bought, actually). The worst I saw was in the basement of a Filipino doctor's fancy house in Englewood where my ex-boyfriend moved. There must have been something like 12 separate rooms being rented out mostly to illegal immigrants in that rat hole.

[Weeble]

Alelou,

not kidding about poop paper bracket height. it is commonly used as a chicken sh#t inspection failure if the inspector is hungover.

Kotik,

Where to begin. The UBC establishes guidelines that most any architect can follow. In order to build for human occupancy in most any US jurisdiction, you must submit stamped(by architect) plans to a building department. It is usually a county function unless a municipality has decided to take that on, most cities do. After approval you submit a bond $$ certifying that you will finish and then off you go. Inspections by the local building department are required and in logical steps. Excavation, rough-in, sewer tie in (if applicable), mechanical, electrical and then a series of final inspections.
Our addition only really bit me twice.
1. A code change had mandated that fire alarms (required in every bedroom by code) had to be hard wired and it included the existing house (new holes in plaster ceiling) and 2. the wiring for my hot tub apparently wasn't correct (pre-existing) so I had to move the GFI box 18" laterally. The other inspections went well. Admittedly a pain, but you know what you are getting if you buy an existing house. All of the plans and permits are included on the property number down at city hall.

I also put a deck on years ago, the only permit/inspection was for the post holes as they had to be 36" deep to get below the frost line.

Other logical codes now require new or modified hallways to be 36" wide (for wheelchair access) and bedrooms must have (1) window of a minimum (30") wide ( i think that's right.) to allow emergency egress if say the house is on fire. Lots and lots of little things, 99% make perfect sense and it eliminates much of what Alelou described, although inspectors being human......

[Weeble]

back to the beginnings of stupid,

The Raticator is now locked and loaded. I'll be waiting for the blinking red light!!!