Where the House Stops Being Tidy
Kitchens get cleaned every day. The room next to the kitchen does not. A utility with a washing machine pushed back against the wall, coats and boots along one side and a chest freezer humming in the corner gives warmth, cover and, very often, food stored in paper sacks — and it is the room most likely to have had its plumbing added long after the house was built.
The door between the garage and the kitchen
An attached garage is outside as far as a mouse is concerned: the up-and-over door never seals along the bottom, and the side door has a threshold that has been walked on for decades. Once inside there is cardboard, insulation in the roof and dry food in bags. The internal door into the house is then the only thing left, and it is usually the one door nobody has ever adjusted. How mice get in runs through those openings in order, and rat control in Dollis Hill deals with what else uses a garage.
Service holes where an extension meets the house
A rear kitchen extension brought waste pipes, heating flow and return, a gas run and cabling through what used to be an outside wall. Those holes were cut generously so the pipes would go through, and hardly any of them were filled afterwards. They sit behind units, inside cupboards and above a boiler, so they stay out of sight for years. Where mice nest lists the other places worth a torch.
How a Mouse Gets From the Back Door to the Landing
People expect mice on the ground floor and are surprised by droppings on a landing two storeys up. In a house like this the route is already built in: the pipes serving the bathroom and the hot water cylinder run vertically through the joists, often boxed in beside a chimney breast, and the airing cupboard sits at the top of that run — warm, dark, full of folded fabric and opened perhaps twice a week.
From there the openings around pipes and cables carry on up into the loft, which is why a house can be quiet downstairs and busy above the top bedroom. How mice reach a loft explains the climb, and mice, wiring and pipes explains why chewed cable is the part to act on rather than watch.
Where to Look in a House This Size
- Along the back of the utility, behind the washing machine and under the chest freezer
- Inside the garage, on shelving and in the corners where cardboard is stored
- In the cupboard holding the boiler, and in any cupboard the extension pipework passes through
- On the floor of the airing cupboard and among stored bedding and towels
- Nibbled corners on sacks of pet food, bird seed or grass seed
The signs of mice describes droppings, smell and gnawing properly. Anything noticeably larger and tapered means a different booking, and daylight thumping above a bedroom ceiling usually means squirrel control in Dollis Hill.
Worth Doing This Week
- Move pet food, bird seed and dry goods out of paper and cardboard into tins or hard plastic tubs with firm lids
- Pull the washing machine and the freezer out far enough to sweep behind them
- Clear the cardboard and soft storage out of the garage, or get it up onto shelves off the floor
- Empty the airing cupboard and wash what has been sitting in it if there are droppings
- Leave the openings as they are for now: sealing a route while mice are active can shut one inside a floor
Around a Mouse Visit in NW2
When you book
Say whether it is a whole house or a flat in a divided one, whether there is an attached garage and a utility, and which rooms the droppings are in. Mention any extension or loft conversion and roughly when it was done, because the openings that come with building work are the ones worth looking at first.
Getting ready
Clear the utility floor and the cupboard under the sink, open up the garage so the walls can be reached, and make sure the airing cupboard and the loft hatch can both be opened. Somewhere with three floors, say which of them the signs are on so nothing is walked past.
Afterwards
You will hear what was found and what needs doing next. How long it runs depends on the property and on whether mice are still coming in from outside, which how long mouse treatment takes goes into. Come back to us if fresh droppings appear after a quiet week or two.
Shutting the Working End of the House
The openings that matter here are nearly all at the back and in the middle of the house: the holes around the extension's pipework, the open ends of boxed-in pipes beside the chimney breast, the gap behind the kitchen plinth and the foot of the door between garage and kitchen. Small reachable ones are what rodent proofing is for, and mouse-proofing a property covers the rest. Mouse Control Brent is the borough-wide page, and neighbouring Cricklewood looks at flats over the shops, where the pattern is a different one.
