Terraces, estates and conversions, side by side
Hackney packs a lot of different housing into a small area: Victorian terraces around Homerton and Clapton, ex-GLC estates nearby, and former warehouses converted into flats around Dalston, Hoxton and Shoreditch. Rats exploit each differently, so the fix looks different too.
Old drain runs under Homerton and Clapton
The Victorian terraces around Homerton and Clapton sit on drainage laid well over a century ago, much of it now cracked or shifted at the joints. Rats use faults like this to climb from the sewer into a floor void, so the giveaway tends to be indoors: scratching under boards, a smell by the stairs, droppings behind a kickboard, no outside hole, as anyone near Clapton will recognise, where victorian terraces rising up from the marshes.
Gardens backing onto the canal
Where gardens back onto the Regent's Canal or one of its towpaths, near Hoxton and Dalston, rats can arrive from the waterside itself rather than from any fault in the drains. A compost heap, fallen fruit or a bird feeder left out overnight is often enough to draw them the last few metres into a garden.
Warehouse and loft conversions
In the former warehouses converted into flats around Dalston and Hoxton, rats more often use old service ducts and gaps around retrofitted plumbing than the original structure of the building, leaving fewer obvious clues than in a straightforward terrace.
Dealing with them, step by step
- Confirm the animal, and note where and when you see or hear it
- Take away easy food: bird feeders, split bin bags, pet bowls left down overnight
- Book treatment rather than laying poison where children, pets or wildlife could find it
- Leave any holes you have found open for now, so no rat is sealed inside a wall
- Once activity has stopped, close the route: proofing above ground, a repair below it
Closing the route afterwards
A treatment visit deals with the rats present at the time, but it does nothing about the gap that let them in - the same pattern holds near Hackney, where victorian terraces around the town hall and Mare Street. At ground level and above, the fix is sealing pipework gaps and any damaged airbricks with rat-proof materials, much as it does near Dalston, where dense Victorian housing and old warehouse and loft conversions around the junction and Kingsland. Below ground, guesswork isn't necessary, a camera survey can pinpoint the actual fault in the drain, true near Hoxton too, where warehouse conversions and estate housing close to Shoreditch. Our rodent proofing service deals with the accessible gaps above ground.
Booking rat control in Hackney
Rat control anywhere in Hackney is £190 for a flat and £240 for a house, and because around Hackney, where victorian terraces around the town hall and Mare Street, mentioning that when you book rat control points us towards the likely route in, with the rest of the detail on the Hackney rat control page.
