What the London Rat Service Is
It is a booked visit to one address, not a survey you pay for separately and not an estimate that changes on the doorstep. You agree the price and a time, someone works through the parts of the building rats are actually using, and you are told plainly afterwards what was found and what comes next. How quickly a property goes quiet depends on its size and how long the rats have been settled, which is why no honest figure can be given down the phone. To try a few things yourself first, our London rat guide covers what is worth doing before you spend anything.
The Two Answers That Decide a London Rat Job
Nearly everything follows from two pieces of information. One sets what you pay; the other decides whether this is one job or a job plus a second trade.
Flat or house?
The price follows the building, not the postcode and not the borough. A self-contained flat is charged at the flat price whether it sits in a mansion block, above a parade of shops or on the lower ground floor of a converted terrace. A whole house is charged at the house price. For anything in between — a maisonette over two floors, or a house let room by room — describe the layout when you call and you will be told which price applies before you commit.
Above ground, or up from the drainage?
Rats either walk in at ground level or arrive from underneath, and that difference is worth more than any other detail. A route above ground follows a fence line, a shed, a bin store or a stretch of decking, and there is normally a gap outside you can find with a torch. A route from below shows itself as noise beneath a ground-floor bathroom or kitchen, or repeat activity in a building with no opening anyone can locate. A broken or disused pipe under the slab is a drainage contractor's work, not ours: they put a camera down, then repair the defect or fit a one-way blocker. We will say which of the two we think you have, including when the answer means your money is better spent elsewhere. How a drain fault is confirmed sets out that process.
How the Job Differs by London Property Type
The service is the same everywhere; what changes is where the work happens. The building tells us where to start:
- Victorian and Edwardian terraces: timber floors and drain runs shared with the houses either side, so the void under the boards matters more than the room you saw the rat in
- Houses split into flats: old chimney breasts, boxed-in soil pipes and floor voids never closed when the building was divided
- Purpose-built blocks: bin stores, service risers and the cavity behind a fitted kitchen, where what one flat reports may have started elsewhere
- Flats above shops: the yard, the waste and the deliveries behind the parade, which no tenant upstairs controls
- Interwar suburban houses: gardens that join end to end, a garage at the side, and the joint where a rear extension meets the original wall
- Basement and lower-ground flats: light wells, vents and hatches, all at rat height
In a shared building the reporting matters as much as the treatment, and who normally deals with what in a flat is worth reading before you speak to a managing agent. If the droppings are small and the noise light and quick rather than heavy, book mouse control instead.
Booking, and What Happens Around the Visit
What to tell us when you call
Whether it is a flat or a house; which rooms or outside areas the signs are in; whether the noise is overhead, under the floor or inside a wall; whether there is a garden, basement, garage or yard; and whether anyone else in the building has reported the same. What each sign tells you will help you describe it.
Getting the property ready
Clear the cupboard under the sink and the space in front of the kitchen kickboards, make sure any loft hatch or basement door opens, and move stored boxes back from the walls where the signs are. Keep pets in another room while the work is going on.
Afterwards
You will hear what was found, where, and what still needs doing, including anything that is another trade's. Get back in touch if fresh droppings appear, if new gnawing shows up, or if noise returns somewhere it had stopped. Closing the way in is a separate booking: rodent proofing deals with small accessible gaps once activity has ended.
Where We Work
All 33 boroughs, north and south of the river, from terraced streets to new blocks. Brent is the borough written up in full so far: Pest Control Brent is the hub and Rat Control Brent the borough page beneath it, with area pages under that. The rest are covered on the same terms, their pages simply not written yet. Commercial premises are quoted per site.
