Hi,
We've got an ongoing rat issue in the loft on our 50s mid-terrace property. With the help of a rat man and his bait trays the number of rats have been greatly reduced but the issue of how to block access from the HMO rental next-door is giving a slight issue. The soffits on next-door are in a sorry state and there's a visible hole from the outside that looks like you could fit a rat through it so this is also possibly a route of entry from outside.
We thought they were coming through to ours from next door as we've heard gnawing that sounds like it's coming from the other side of the wall and the rat guy has confirmed our suspicions. There's a few issues, the sarking has dropped down from the party wall and looking at old photos this damage isn't new, we've not had any leaks but you can clearly see a set of gaps between the battens (as shown) going over the top of the party wall all the way down to the eaves which looks like it's may have created a rat superhighway of sorts.
I've rung the agent for next door to try and encourage them to do their bit but it's been an uphill struggle.
Do I try to block each of the small gaps with wire mesh/wool? Do I/someone else try and fit mesh between the wall and the rafter top to bottom? The difficulty is that the eaves are very tight so it might be tricky to either of these all the way to the bottom potentially making the whole effort pointless.
We've got an ongoing rat issue in the loft on our 50s mid-terrace property. With the help of a rat man and his bait trays the number of rats have been greatly reduced but the issue of how to block access from the HMO rental next-door is giving a slight issue. The soffits on next-door are in a sorry state and there's a visible hole from the outside that looks like you could fit a rat through it so this is also possibly a route of entry from outside.
We thought they were coming through to ours from next door as we've heard gnawing that sounds like it's coming from the other side of the wall and the rat guy has confirmed our suspicions. There's a few issues, the sarking has dropped down from the party wall and looking at old photos this damage isn't new, we've not had any leaks but you can clearly see a set of gaps between the battens (as shown) going over the top of the party wall all the way down to the eaves which looks like it's may have created a rat superhighway of sorts.
I've rung the agent for next door to try and encourage them to do their bit but it's been an uphill struggle.
Do I try to block each of the small gaps with wire mesh/wool? Do I/someone else try and fit mesh between the wall and the rafter top to bottom? The difficulty is that the eaves are very tight so it might be tricky to either of these all the way to the bottom potentially making the whole effort pointless.
