"James" wrote in message
.. .
A few days ago I started to smell an odor coming out of heating ducts --
from all vents. This reminds me of rotten chicken.

If some animal did die in the heating ducts, how do you find and get rid
of it?

Can I hire a furnace vacuum truck to suck it out? They said they attach
the vacuum hose to the fan compartment of the furnace. I don't quite
understand. Do they remove the furnace to do this? And would this allow
them to suck out a small animal? This cost $250 and I'm not sure it would
work.

Other suggestions?


Just a guess, but I think a trapped animal would head toward the light for
an escape route. So, I would remove each first floor heat vent cover and use
a hand mirror & powerful flashlight to see if the creature was near the end
of a horizontal duct run just below a vent. Next, I'd investigate the
horizontal ducts in the basement to see if any were screwed together,
instead of riveted. You could unscrew them, and the rest should be self
explanatory. If you don't understand this idea, you may want to call your
regular heating contractor. Those people can easily disassemble riveted
ducts and put them back together.