Going into attics can be an occupational hazard and it helps to know what some of the dangers are going in. Aside from the structural aspects and potential or placing a foot through a ceiling or crushing a duct, it always pays to be protected. P100 pancake filters on a silicone half face is my preferred breathing protection and clothes that can be taken of after attic inspection to be bagged helps.
I had the pleasure of auditing a 100+ year old house a few weeks back and prior to going up was happy to hear the client had the vermiculite tested for chrysotile asbestos. Results were negative so I went up and discovered something I have never seen in the hundreds of attics I’ve been in:
Standing on the attic floor (see attic hatch upper left) I found this large, deep dark pile of what appeared to be mouse droppings on a deep bed of vermiculite. I’d never seen such a large pile.
Closeup: Two possibly deadly dangers; both invisible. On closer inspection the dark pile sure enough looked like mouse droppings.. but so much in one place? The vermiculite got the green light through testing.
I didn’t make the connection until I found a dead bat on the attic floor. Being related to mice their poop was bound to look a bi similar. Though exaggerated, there is a fungus that can be in the bat guano that causes Histoplasmosis or “Cavers Disease.”
So when your up there, practice good PPE, protect the air your breath every time!