Unfriendly ghost? (with a hacksaw).

I'm sad that you have this extra load to carry, in addition to all of the other stuff, Raven.

Good wishes as you settle into your renewed home.

o j

I think you must have a mouse or rat! Put out some traps! That is terrible!

Looks like a rodent has been busy!

That is bizarre! I'm so glad that you were in the house and caught it before it caused even more damage than what you have now. You poor thing, you must feel like the house is cursed after all you've been through.

It definitely looks like something chewed on it. I can't imagine any other way it could have been damaged like that just sitting in the attic unless it was like that when installed which seems highly unlikely.

Hang in there, Raven!

What's that phrase.........."If I didn't have any bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all"?

That is very strange. I am glad you were home when it happened!

Sue

Thank goodness you were in the house at the time! I can't imagine what would chew a pipe like that...squirrel maybe? Do you have mesh behind all of your roof vents? Sounds like you need an inspection of the entire attic to see if there is an opening somewhere.

How awful. So glad you were both home and your contractor was next door. I'm thinking like Fun2BHere - maybe squirrel.

I was almost afraid to open this thread. And that looks chewed to me, but I can't imagine what kind of critter may have done the chewing......! I'm so grateful it wasn't worse, that you were there...so maybe your luck is turning after all. It's about time, wouldn't you think?

As for the priest, we went to 'sort of' a housewarming this year with a priest present to do a blessing. My SIL bought a house, dock with fishermans building on it a couple of years ago along a historic waterfront, hoping to make the dock shed an entertaining space and do a total remodel on the house. It was a 'go' on the dock and shed, but the house (neglected) couldn't be saved and was a tear down, rebuild new. Almost done now.

The former commercial space on the refurbished dock finished first is beautiful, with full bath (toilet had been a hole in the floor boards over the water), gourmet kitchen, gas fireplace, view.. She had a party for about 40 last summer there, and the priest carefully worded a blessing that took in the people who would enjoy it, treat each other with kindness, love each other. Decades ago, he would have blessed the structure that was providing the security, income for the loving family that owned it, the safety and prosperity of the fishermen....he improvised. Carefully. As to not quite bless her 'party space' that has come full circle from a work space.

That is a great a great failing of pex. It's very attractive to mice. You can Google it. I wouldn't have it in my house.

Raven I'm glad you caught it before it damaged your furniture. I was considering pex, at some time I will have to replace the plumbing pipes in my house. But after your thread and picture, I'm with kentrees12, pex isn't going in my house.

So glad you caught it when you did. That has definitely been chewed by something.

This stuff is hard as metal. My husband and contractor inspected the entire attic and found no evidence of any type of rodents or holes and all vents have metal mesh. No droppings no smells nothing. Contractor said it looks like a reciprocating saw blade marks. And he said they were working up there with one. He thinks someone put a piece of lumber over the pipe with out noticing and sawed through the lumber and part way into the pipe which would explain the remnants being right there around the cut. Rodents would have probably eaten the bits. Close up it looks more cut not chewed.

At any rate I am very happy it was caught!

I'm somewhat 'glad' it was human error. At least it's not rodents. What on earth makes this type of pipe attractive to squirrels? I've never heard of it, nor seen red plastic piping.

Thank God you were both home, and able to reach your contractor on Sunday.

If it doesn't kill us it makes us stronger? You are one Fantastically Strong Woman! Hoping for only happy things for you from now on.

I agree...that's human damage. Someone made an error, an accident. I set things on a block of wood when I'm sawing something small...but I've damaged things before. It's part of the job. I hope it's the only careless error you find. Fingers crossed... and I love all the new stuff...GREAT leather chairs Raven!

We just had a pest control company in the house and containers before we moved anything in. He was in the attic and treated all areas of the house and property so we definitely have recently been treated. I am going to call them and ask them to come check again just in case.

Thanks Nicole we love the new furniture.

Why do you have plumbing in your attic?

Ravencajun, leave it to you to have rodents who carry their own power tools. I wouldn't worry about calling a priest, I'd just call Bullwinkle J. Moose to give his Eenie meenie chili beanie, the rodents are about to saw. Are they friendly rodents? Just listen...

Every house in this part of the country has pipes in the attic we are on a concrete Slab foundation.

It certainly doesn't look like chew marks to me.Squirrels do a real number on every & anything that they can chew thru here......and their marks are really noticeable.Thank God that you caught it when you did.

My goodness. After all that you have been through. So glad you found it on time.

I still think you need to go buy a lottery ticket. The odds are in your favor. Lol!

Never a dull moment. Take care.

If that was rodent damage, I'd expect to find other locations where they might have chewed. That cut does appear a little like tooth marks and maybe more like an accidental nibblings from a saber saw. If that is the only point of damage, suspect it was accidental by a tool.

I suspect a rodent--the 'tooth marks' seem to follow the curve of the pipe--I would expect marks from a saw blade to be in the same plane, and to have made a bigger slot. Could the pipe have been chewed before installation--at the warehouse or in the contractor's truck? To be safe, put out some traps. I hope you don't catch anything, and it never happens again!

No the bits from the cuts are laying on the wood at the pipe so it happened in place and the bits are not chewed looking they are very uniform slivers. I would think a rodent would have chewed them up and eaten them or they would be mashed up.

I had mentioned that too but since the bits are laying there it definitely happened there.

I need to ask my contractor to use his reciprocating saw on a piece so we can see what it looks like. He is going to think l lost my mind lol. But he is installing pex in his home now so it would be to his advantage to know as much as possible.

Huh. I lived in Arkansas on a concrete slab and my plumbing was under/in the slab. I've never heard of pipes in the attic!

If all pipes were in the slab you would have a really big problem if you have to replace or repair . Septic lines and some pipes are in the slab of course . Many have hot water tanks in the attic . We did at a previous house . I have never lived in a house that didn't have pipes in the walls and attic. Well I did live in the Denver area for a short time and that one probably didn't it had a basement . The line that had the leak went from the hot water heater in the laundry room across the house to the master bathroom.

I've never heard of piping/plumbing problems in slabs. My entire subdivision was built that way - more than 50 years ago. All intact and no damage. :)

It could well be saw damage from a careless worker, followed by installation by a plumber not paying much attention, but to me the tiny scratches at the upper right and the center left on the pipe fragment look like little bitty claw marks as a rodent gnawed on the pipe. I'm having a hard time deciding which of these two possibilities would be worse.

I do know that rodents can and will gnaw on PEX pipes

Here's a snapshot from a YouTube video

Arkansas is quite a bit colder than Houston. But I remember one winter, it must have been at least 25 years ago when it got below freezing and stayed below freezing for a couple days. There were busted pipes everywhere and everyone's houses were flooding. If they didn't think ahead and turn the water off or drip the pipes, they had busted pipes in the attics and flooded houses and ruined ceilings. I remember my in-laws had a ton of damage but luckily the insurance paid for it to be repaired.

Our 1950's subdivision ranch in northern Illinois was on a one-foot crawl and had pipes in the attic. (It also had ZERO insulation in the attic or in the walls and aluminum-frame windows. Fuel was cheap back then.)

Yes on the rare occasions that we get freezing temperatures we have to leave the water dripping. We also have heat vents under the sinks or you can leave the cabinet doors open for warm air to circulate. We would get big freezes in Oklahoma and we had pipes and a hot water heater up in the attic never had anything freeze. In fact we have never had any damage from freezing pipes. But I am worried about our house in Oklahoma since no one is living in it right now. The heat is going to be kept on low and the outside spigot drained. It will be winterized as much as possible. Luckily we have family there to keep checking on it.

Bob it is definitely a toss up. Either way is not good lol. I called my pest control company and he said he did treat the attic when he was here a couple weeks ago and he saw no evidence of rodents. That is not a guarantee that some sneaky bugger didn't get in. He will be coming back.

I am so sorry to hear this.

I hope this is the very "last" problem you encounter. Sorry for this setback.

It sounds like you're keeping your sense of humor...........amazing but so important after all you've been through. Glad you were in the house and caught it before too much damage was done.

raven: Those gnaw marks look an awful lot like the squirrel bite/teeth marks all around our yard's above-ground sprinkler heads. A few years ago, I noticed the water was shooting out kinda weird; DH said it appeared something had gnawed on the plastic heads of every single one!

I did a bit of googling and found this: Above-ground drip lines are a magnet for thirsty pests such ... squirrels ... sensing there's water inside ... the line, chew through the plastic or rubber tubing to get to the water. Once they know the water source is there, they will return, making patching a never-ending process.

And more here: Ground squirrels will gnaw on plastic sprinkler heads and irrigation lines.

Hey ! I was just thinking about you today ! I was going to email you .

See I would not be the least bit surprised to see that or the garden hose chewed on. The potable water hose that runs from the house to the rv is right across the driveway and there are squirrels all over the place there . But nothing has been chewed. And like on Bills picture you can see other little bite marks along the pipe . Ours had none except right at that point . Lord knows we have squirrels around here . They were running across the top of the rv one day . That's what I have been worried about that they would decide to chew on the air conditioning units on the rv roof ! My neighbor has one of those septic systems that have the sprinklers that go off all the time . I think that would be an excellent water source for the critters . And the neighbor on the other side has a big koi pond in the back yard . She sees lots of critters drinking from it.

Not strange, looks like tooth marks to me. Dont know why you have pipes in the attic. Must be a southern thing. Usually found in a crawlspace or basement, if something happens you know water goes down. Finding the entry point for the rodent is probably the hardest part. What penetrations can you think of? All roof vent screens intact? Soffit vents small enough or screened? Roof penetration flashings intact? Sewer vent terminating in attic? (it shouldnt)

Perhaps look at doing copper in the attic?

Vith, It'd make more sense for pipes to be in the ceiling in the north. Why? To keep them from freezing. We have far fewer problems with freezing in the south ;) It isn't entirely unusual for pipes to be in ceilings.

It's the norm. We are at sea-level and some areas below sea-level here so it's not possible to dig down. You hit water. There are no basements here. Because you hit water! We chose to have the whole house repiped while the walls were stripped open and the condition of the old metal pipes definitely warranted doing it now. They were in bad shape.

Different areas of the country have different building practices and codes for those areas and lots of things influence that. Our climate, our water table level, the type of soil, many things. Here the norm is pipes run through the walls and attic, some things run through the Slab. We not long ago had a problem with the master shower drain not draining. Those pipes are in the Slab. Huge ordeal and extremely costly. They had to tunnel under the Slab a cave system to get to the pipes and re route new ones to the exterior of the foundation and connect to the septic system. The other option was to jack hammer out the entire floor of the master bathroom and the shower, huge construction expenses and a massive mess in the house making a portion of the house totally usable. It was the smarter decision to keep the mess outside. Several thousand dollars later there's now access from the exterior of the foundation to that line. So believe me if you have a problem with any lines in the foundation Slab it's a major big headache. It took about 15 minutes to cut out the damaged pipe in the attic and have the repair done in the attic. Pipes can and do leak for various reasons and causes damage no matter where they are. One blowing out in the Slab can be bad news. I would much prefer doing a ceiling repair than having to jackhammer out my brand new expensive tile and the concrete below and have that kind of construction zone in the house again.

I pray no one has to experience any type of disaster! And I pray this is our last hurdle for a long time.

I asked hubby (a construction professional) to look at your pipe. He said that there is no way that those marks were made by a saw. Rodent damage, sorry to break that news.