How to Keep Animals Out of the Crawl Space
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What services keep animals out of the lower part of the home?
An on-site assessment will identify the vulnerable areas of your home's foundation and what repairs or preventive treatments are most appropriate. The active access points will need to be repaired and susceptible areas can be preventatively reinforced.
The crawlspace or foundation wall is ground zero for entry into any place in your home- from the attic to the living space itself. Wildlife can slip in where foundation brick meets siding or travel through the crawl space drainage pipe, for example. Once inside, the subfloor is like Swiss cheese, allowing them to travel throughout the home and end up anywhere. Our approach is to fortify this exterior wall to prevent entry in the first place.
To secure various areas of the foundation we offer a process we call a Foundation Detail. During Foundation Detail, technicians inspect your foundation inch by inch sealing any small singular holes (which larger animals can use to excavate further).
Separation in foundation filled with mortar to keep mice out
But don't worry, no need to change the aesthetic of your home! If we've done our job right, repairs and preventions are essentially unnoticeable unless you know what to look for. We like to say, "Make it invisible. If it's visible, make it pretty."
Who's in your crawlspace, you ask? Mice, mice and more mice! Where there are mice, there are, or will be snakes. Rats and raccoons are also common uninvited guests. And opossums. Opossums seem to love crawl spaces. Old and dirty or clean, encapsulated and pristine - either way, opossums love crawl spaces. Once in there they will poop and pee all over the place, roost in the subfloor insulation, soiling it and stuffing areas with leaves. They are also notorious for damaging duct work. Who knew they were so industrious?
Crawlspace Vents
Vents help control moisture under the home. Crawlspace vents may have an intact screen that’s tight enough for bugs and looks tough enough for mammals but this screen is often easy to push in and is no longer attached. Flimsier screen can be chewed right through, as well as the vent itself, usually made of plastic. A quarter inch is all mice need to get inside the crawl space. A few inches is plenty for almost anything else, from snakes to raccoons. We will securely screen the outside, can replace the interior bug screen, and will make sure the vent is firmly attached to the wall.
Crawlspace Doors
Crawl space doors are for humans and service crews but animals use them all the time! Doors come in a variety of creative sizes and styles. There are a lot of different configurations that leave gaps and wildlife will use any of them. We can rebuild the door frame, the door, and attach appropriate hardware to tightly close the door when not in use.
Sealing Around HVAC
Heating and air systems have various components that require holes in the foundation wall to run electrical cables and ductwork. A sheet of galvanized steel (a metal flange) usually covers most of this opening from the HVAC to the wall. Gaps are common however. Just pull back the leaf litter and check. We frequently find there is easy access under the sheet metal directly into the crawl space.
Door Sweeps & Rodent Shields in the Garage
Exterior home doors and garage doors are designed to seal out (or in) big things. The lower corners of the garage door often have gaps where rodents can pass through. A Rodent Shield is a specifically designed strip of metal to cover this gap and create a tight seal. The bottom of the garage door itself has a seal that is often compromised. We offer specialized rodent proof garage door sweeps to close off these areas, too. The hinged doors to the garage from the kitchen or the exterior can also be fitted with rodent proof door sweeps to keep the mice out and the snakes in pursuit!
Barrier Fencing
Raccoons taking over your porch? Opossums being opossums and roosting under your deck? How about foxes? Squirrels ripping open your screened porch? Many clients prefer not to harbor wildlife under their decks and on their porches. The solution is wildlife barrier fencing. We use hardware cloth, a flexible welded (as opposed to woven) steel grid with quarter inch openings, to seal under decks, reinforce screened porches, and protect other areas.
Want to discourage snakes in your yard? We also offer barrier fencing along existing fences around the yard and garden. It reaches 3-4 feet high and is sunk 1 foot into the ground. This effectively deters venomous copperheads who are heavy-bodied and not good climbers, and can also help with other unwanted wildlife.
Screened porches are wonderful to enjoy the outdoors without mosquitoes and other insects. However, these thin layers of bug protection are nothing for a gray squirrel to chew through. We will install reinforcement screens over the existing bug screen to secure the and maintain the comfort of your mosquito-free porch. And they are designed to look nice!
Other Structures Checked
Crawl space drains
Siding gaps
Weep holes
Side exhaust vents from kitchen, bath, or laundry
Under kitchen sinks & other interior spaces
Get In Touch With Us
What's in your attic? ℠
Just call. We will restore peace and harmony.
Call Us:- 919-903-6825
Humane Homes provides wildlife removal, repair, remediation and prevention to areas within 1 hour of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, including:
Apex, Bahama, Bonlee, Bonsal, Butner, Burlington, Bynum, Carrboro, Cary, Cedar Grove, Chapel Hill, Durham, Efland, Eli Whitney, Elon, Fearrington Village, Feltonville, Fuquay-Varina, Friendship, Garner, Gorman, Graham, Haw River, Haywood, Hillsborough, Holly Springs, Mandale, Mebane, Moncure, Morrisville, New Hill, Pittsboro, Raleigh, Saxapahaw, Siler City, Silk Hope, Snow Camp, Swepsonville, Sanford, and Wake Forest.
We also service the following counties: Alamance County, Chatham County, Durham County, Granville County, Lee County, Orange County, and Wake County.