SHEFFIELD LAKE, Ohio -- An Ohio family was in a smelly situation after finding unwanted visitors had moved into their home.

A family of skunks chewed through the utility room and had babies underneath the house, WEWS TV in Cleveland reported.

The skunks caused so much damage that a large area of the house has to be renovated, officials said.

Kerry McCullough said the property in Sheffield Lake was the house in which he was raised and where he raised his three children.

"It's a nasty odor that shuts down your lungs. You just don't want to breathe. It's all you can do to get from room to room," McCullough said.

The family of skunks moved under the home, tearing, scratching and eating up everything in sight, McCullough said.

"What you smell on the road after somebody hits a skunk is nothing like what a real skunk smells, especially when it's trapped in an area. It literally smells like burning plastic," McCullough said.

But what really stinks is how much damage the skunks caused. McCullough said his family had to hire contractors to rip out the floors, tear down walls and dismantle the entire kitchen.

Since the house was built in the 1940s, it didn't meet all of the current construction codes, meaning that the family has to rebuild instead of replace.

So far, the skunks caused $75,000 in damage, most of which is covered by insurance, McCullough said.

"We thought insurance is a bet. You are betting something is going to happen, they are betting something isn't. This was a good bet on our part," McCullough said. "Thank God they have been there because if we had to do this on our own, we never would have made it."

McCullough said his family still has a lot of work to do. He said they plan to install heavy-gauge chicken wire under the perimeter of the house, just in case the skunks want to come back.

The McCulloughs said they hope to move back into their house soon, but construction could take six more months to complete.