The Way Onto a Neasden Roof
A squirrel does not need a branch touching the house. It will take a jump of a few feet from a garden tree, or climb a drainpipe, a rough flank wall or a length of ivy, and use a flat garage roof or the little tiled roof over a bay window as a landing stage on the way up. Once it is on the roof of a 1930s semi it is out of sight from the garden and from the street, which is why the noise indoors is usually the first anyone knows.
Where they get through
The weak points on these roofs are all at the edges: the ends of deep timber fascia and soffit boards where rain has softened them, the joint where a bay roof meets the wall, a tile lifted at the hip or along the verge, the gap where the back addition roof runs into the main roof, and the plastic surround of a roof vent. How squirrels get into a roof helps you work out which of those yours is using, and standing in the garden at first light watching the roofline is the cheapest survey there is.
Making sure it is squirrels
Rats and mice use lofts too and they need a different booking, so it is worth settling the question first. Grey squirrels are busy in daylight, particularly the first couple of hours after dawn and again before dusk, and the sound is weighty — running, dragging and the odd thump — rather than the light scratching of a rodent at midnight. Telling squirrels from rats in a loft covers the other clues; if it turns out to be rodents, rat control or mouse control is what to book.
What Happens, and in What Order
The £280 service is the trapping of the grey squirrels using your roof space, and what it involves and what is asked of you while it runs will be explained when you arrange it. The one thing not to do in the meantime is have the hole closed. A squirrel shut in will chew its way out, sometimes downwards through a ceiling, and in the breeding months there may be young in a nest that cannot leave by themselves.
The roofer, once the loft is empty
Repair follows, and on a house of this age it is proper roofing work rather than a tube of filler: renewing a rotten soffit or fascia end, bedding a tile back at the hip, making good where the addition roof meets the main slope. Line a roofer up early and show them the exact spot while the squirrels are still going in and out, so the repair can be done as soon as the roof is empty. Closing the way back in describes what a lasting repair looks like, and how long squirrel control takes explains what moves the timing.
The trees, last of all
Cutting back a branch is the final step, not the first, because trimming a tree does nothing about an animal already indoors. A large garden tree is a tree surgeon's work, a tree may be covered by a preservation order, and trees on railway land, on a verge or in the street are not yours to touch at all — ask Brent Council before anything is cut.
If the pair shares a roof
Semis were roofed as one structure, and in older roofs the wall between the two lofts does not always carry on up to the underside of the tiles. Tell your neighbour what you are hearing before anything is booked, since the entry point may be on their side of the ridge, and one job arranged for the pair beats two half-jobs. If either house is rented, the landlord or agent needs to know as well.
Releasing a Grey Squirrel Is an Offence
Grey squirrels are an invasive non-native species. Once one has been caught it is against the law to release it into the wild or to allow it to escape, so taking a cage to the park is not an option, however kindly meant. The law on releasing grey squirrels states the position plainly, and the Brent squirrel guide covers the damage side. For the rest of the borough see Squirrel Control Brent; the larger period houses of neighbouring Dollis Hill have much the same trees behind them.
