Where Kingsbury Houses Let Rodents In
An interwar semi or terrace has a familiar set of weak points, and most sit at ground level at the back and side of the house. They are small, usually hidden behind planting or bins, and easy to walk past for years. The most common entry points are worth knowing before you go looking.
Air bricks
Air bricks ventilate the space under a suspended timber floor, so they have to stay open. Trouble starts when an old clay or cast-iron grille cracks or loses a piece, or the mortar around it crumbles. A damaged one can be covered in a way that keeps air moving and rodents out, and stopping rats at air bricks explains the options.
Rear extensions
Waste pipes, cables and gas pipes often enter an extension through holes cut wider than the pipe. Where the extension meets the original house there can be a gap at ground level, and higher up, a poor joint where the extension roof meets the old wall can give a climbing rodent a way into the space above the ceiling. Proofing pipe and cable gaps goes into the detail.
Garages and side doors
An up-and-over garage door often does not sit tight to the floor, and the gap beneath can be enough for a rat. Side doors in the passage beside the house wear at the threshold and the foot of the frame. If the garage joins the kitchen, or pipes run through its wall into the house, a gap under the garage door becomes a direct route indoors.
What the Hour Covers, and What It Does Not
The service is up to one hour of work on small holes and gaps that can be reached. On a Kingsbury house that might be a few pipe entries at the extension, a damaged air brick and the gap under a side or garage door, depending on how many there are and how easy they are to get at.
Larger jobs belong to a builder or roofer: rebuilding crumbling brickwork, replacing a rotten door frame, repairing the joint between an extension roof and the house, or levelling a broken garage floor. If your house needs that kind of work, you will be told so rather than having it squeezed into an hour. A faulty drain is a matter for a drainage contractor.
Treat First, Then Proof
Proofing comes after the rats or mice have been dealt with. Sealing a gap they are still using can shut them inside a wall, a floor void or the space above an extension ceiling, where they will gnaw a new way out. Book rat control or mouse control first and proofing once activity has stopped; before or after treatment sets out why the order matters.
Booking Proofing for a Kingsbury House
What to tell us
When you book rodent proofing, say whether you have had rats or mice, when treatment finished and where you think they were getting in. Mention the extension, the garage, the side door and any air bricks you already know are damaged.
Preparing the outside
Move bins, planters and stored items away from the back and side walls, clear anything stacked against the garage door, and make sure the cupboard under the sink and any boiler cupboard can be opened. A gap that cannot be reached cannot be sealed.
After the work
You will hear which gaps were closed and whether anything bigger needs a builder. If fresh droppings or gnaw marks appear near a sealed gap, get back in touch, and how to tell which holes rodents are using helps you spot the difference between an old hole and a live one.
The borough-wide page, Rodent Proofing Brent, covers the gaps found in flats and older terraces.
