Start at the Outbuildings, Not the Kitchen
A rat or mouse indoors has usually been living outdoors first, and in these gardens the accommodation is the shed, the decking and the garage. Take away the space underneath them and the animal has to find somewhere further off, which is a slower, weaker start than one made from ten feet away. That is why an hour spent along the outbuildings and the boundary is generally worth more than an hour spent in a cupboard. The most common entry points lists what gets missed.
Under sheds, decking and the garden store
A shed on timber bearers or concrete blocks has a shallow, dry, undisturbed space beneath it, and so does a deck laid over a joist frame. Where the sides can be reached, a mesh skirt taken down into the ground and turned outwards stops anything digging in, and the work is quicker when the perimeter has been cleared of pots, logs and bags first. A shed whose floor has already rotted through is a different matter and needs rebuilding before sealing is worth doing.
Garage doors and the gaps at their sides
An up-and-over garage door is meant to sit on its threshold and rarely does after thirty years: the concrete lifts, the door drops, the seal perishes and there is a finger's width of light along one edge. The side and rear doors are often older still, with a gnawed bottom rail or a frame that has pulled away from the brickwork. A small gap under a sound door can be closed within the hour; a buckled door or a broken threshold is a joiner's or builder's job.
Bin stores and where the bins stand
Bins standing on soil against the back wall, next to an air brick, put food and shelter in the same square metre. Hard, level standing a little away from the building is the change that does the most, and a timber bin store wants the same treatment as a shed — closed at the base, with a door that shuts. Lids that will not close because the bin is overfull undo all of it.
Air brick grilles and waste pipe holes
An air brick is never simply blocked, because the floor void behind it needs its air or the joists suffer. A cracked or missing one is replaced, or covered with something that still passes air freely. The holes where waste and overflow pipes leave the wall, and the notch where a later cable or heating pipe was taken through, are sealed around the pipe rather than over it. Stopping rats at air bricks and proofing pipe and utility gaps describe both.
Where the Hour Stops and Another Trade Starts
Some of what people ask about is building work, and saying so plainly saves everybody time. Fence panels with a gap along the bottom, a new gate, relaying a patio or a path, rebuilding a shed base, hanging a new garage door and repointing crumbling brickwork are for a builder, a fencer or a joiner. A drain fault is different again: a drainage contractor surveys the pipe and either repairs it or fits a one-way blocker, as rats and drains explains. You will be told which of those applies rather than having an hour spent on something that will not hold.
Treat First, Then Proof
Closing gaps while rats or mice are still active shuts them inside the structure, where they gnaw a fresh way out or die somewhere nobody can reach. Book rat control or mouse control first and let the activity stop; before or after treatment explains the reasoning, and which holes rodents are actually using helps you tell a live route from an old one.
Booking Proofing for a Neasden Property
What to tell us
When you book rodent proofing, say whether it was rats or mice and when treatment finished, and list what you already know about: the shed, the decking, the garage door, the bin standing, a broken air brick, a pipe hole. Say whether the garage is attached to the house and whether there is a connecting door, and whether anything is against a boundary with commercial land.
Getting ready
Cut back the growth along the base of the rear wall, move the bins clear, empty the strip along the garage wall and pull pots and bags away from the shed. If there is a hatch into the space under decking, open it. A gap that cannot be got at cannot be sealed, and the hour runs either way.
After the work
You will hear which gaps were closed, which were left and why, and what needs another trade. If gnawing or fresh droppings show up beside something that was sealed, say so. Rodent Proofing Brent covers the borough, and the interwar houses across the water in Kingsbury have the same weak points.
