u/peanutismint

A couple of years ago I installed a bathroom exhaust fan that vents through the roof. The roof cap I used had both a backdraft damper (the little flap that opens when the fan is running) and a mesh/screen over the outlet.

Recently I noticed the screen had accumulated quite a bit of lint/dust buildup, so while I had roofers up there for unrelated work I asked one of them to clean it out. Instead, he told me the screen shouldn’t be there at all and removed it completely.

Now the only thing preventing outside access into the duct is the backdraft damper itself. I’m a little concerned about whether that’s enough to keep out pests like roof rats, squirrels, birds, etc., especially if the damper ever sticks open or weakens over time.

So my questions are:

1. Is it actually correct that bathroom exhaust roof vents should not have screens/mesh installed?
2. Is this advice maybe being confused with dryer vents, where screens are known to clog with lint?
3. Are backdraft dampers alone generally considered sufficient protection against pests?
4. If screens are discouraged, what’s the preferred modern solution for keeping critters out without restricting airflow?

Anybody have a favourite place for stuffed crust pizza in Tacoma?

I feel like the past few chain places I’ve tried over the years (Dominos, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut etc) have fallen prey to the same enshittification as every other franchise and started putting some weird cheese substitute in their crusts that ends up like some gluey cheese sauce rather than having that toothsome low moisture mozzarella bite.

Anybody have a favourite place for this in the area or on the way back from Seattle?

Anybody have a favourite place for stuffed crust pizza in Tacoma?

I feel like the past few chain places I’ve tried over the years (Dominos, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut etc) have fallen prey to the same enshittification as every other franchise and started putting some weird cheese substitute in their crusts that ends up like some gluey cheese sauce rather than having that toothsome low moisture mozzarella bite.

Anybody have a favourite place for this in the area or on the way back from Seattle?

I would love to take my two-year-old son swimming on Saturday mornings but most of the local pools I’ve checked have specific classes or other designated time on Saturday mornings that would mean it wouldn’t be possible for us to swim at that time.

Does anyone know of a local pool that is open at this time on Saturday mornings? Bonus points if it has one of those zero entry slopes that would allow him to get comfortable with the water before taking the full plunge, and hopefully obviously I’m looking for indoor pools this time of year.

Backstory first: We’ve had a rat problem in our attic for the past few months. We sometimes hear them and often see them on a camera I’ve installed up there; seems to be one adult and two possibly three juveniles.

We followed all the typical Reddit advice, like baiting (but not setting) traps with peanut butter, letting them get used to it and then setting the traps, and placing multiple traps all along their typical routes, along walls etc, covering them with the same insulation they use for their bedding but despite the fact that the traps shouldn’t seem ‘new’ to them (they’ve been in the attic the whole time since the last time we had a rat problem about two years ago) they just never seemed to go for the bait. We’ve tried using cat and dog food, Nutella, peanut butter, no interest.

The final straw was last week when they managed to chew a hole through our roof, ripping off a couple of shingles in the process, and potentially creating a rain leak hazard. We got someone in in an emergency to patch up the hole and cover it with metal meshing to stop them from gaining access again, but within a couple of days the little burgers had chewed another hole right next to it completely wasting the $500 we hardly had to spend….!

Anyway, as I’ve always heard the number one piece of advice is “don’t use rat poison in your house” because if the rats die in your walls they will make an ungodly smell for months while they decompose, especially in the heat of an uninsulated attic in the summer, but I’m kind of nearing my wits end with these guys and just want them gone so I can stop worrying about them chewing through my roof, or worse my old wiring causing a fire…

TL;DR: has anyone ever had a rat die in their attic or walls and still not regretted using the poison? And, if so, what would be the best kind of poison to use? The fast acting stuff or the slow acting that acts as an anticoagulant and kills them over a few days or weeks? And, if they tend to die in the area where they’re nesting, and that’s far away from the rooms we occupy in the house, does that make it any less risky to use poison?

We deal with some light water intrusion in our basement maybe once every 18 months. It typically comes up through a few cracks in the concrete slab and a few gaps around the edges, but never forms more than a few puddles.

We don't have much of value down there; it's only partially finished, but I would like to be able to put rugs down without worrying about them when it rains, and I'm hoping a sump pump would help. My neighbor installed one himself and said he hasn't had any problems since.

Out of interest, I got a plumber in to give me a quote. It came back around $6,500, which would include digging the hole (but not disposing of the waste product), and installing the pump (but not wiring it in). I was expecting it to cost around half that amount, and I already have experience with home plumbing and electrical, so I'm wondering if I really need a plumber in order to just cut my slab, dig a hole, put a pump in it, and then wire it in or connect piping to divert the water outside my house.

Is this the kind of project that, maybe if I just got some help actually digging the hole and selecting the right collection drum/filtration/pump I could pretty much do myself and save money?