Rodent Exclusion and Rodent-Proofing in Akron

Yes, the gaps can be closed. Rodent exclusion in Akron means a tech walks your house, finds every opening a mouse or rat could use, and seals it with something they can't chew.

It's the part of rodent control that keeps the problem from coming back next fall. Trapping takes care of the ones inside. Sealing takes care of the next batch.

Where old Akron houses leak

Most of the homes in Akron's older neighborhoods sit on stone, brick or concrete block. Each has its own weak spots. Sandstone and fieldstone foundations lose mortar between the stones as the ground freezes and thaws every winter. Block walls often have open cores along the top course, right under the sill plate, so a mouse that gets into the block can run the whole wall. Poured basements in postwar homes in Ellet and Stow hold up better, but the garage door seal and the utility holes still wear out.

The tech looks at all of it. These are the gaps that turn up again and again:

• Crumbled mortar between foundation stones and at the sill line
• Open block cores at the top of the basement wall
• Gaps around the gas line, water line, cable and AC lines
• Dryer vents with missing or broken flaps
• Worn garage door seals and bent bottom corners
• Old coal chutes and basement windows that never shut tight
• Gaps where a porch or addition meets the main house
• Roof returns and soffits near tree limbs

Materials that hold up to teeth

Mice and rats chew foam, rubber, vinyl and wood. A good exclusion job uses copper or stainless mesh packed into smaller gaps and then covered with sealant or mortar. Larger holes get hardware cloth or sheet metal. Garage doors get a new bottom seal and sometimes metal corner guards. Vents get proper covers. On a stone foundation, the tech may point out spots that really need a mason to repoint, which is a bigger job than sealing.

Rats need heavier work than mice. A burrow along the foundation may call for an L-shaped hardware cloth skirt buried below the soil line, and a gap under a garage slab may need concrete patch. If rats are part of it, the rat control page covers the trapping and station side.

Up high: soffits, roof returns and the maple by the gutter

Norway rats stay low, but house mice climb surprisingly well. They run up rough brick, downspouts and the inside of a wall, and they'll use a gap at the roofline as happily as one at the foundation. Older Akron houses with deep eaves, a gap where a dormer meets the roof, or a maple branch resting on the gutter give them a way in at the top. Chimney chases on houses whose fireplace hasn't been lit in years get forgotten too.

Sealing up there takes a ladder and some care, and it's a big part of why a full exclusion job is priced the way it is. The tech should check roof edges, gable vents and anywhere a porch roof ties into the main house. Trim branches back a few feet from the roof. If droppings have already turned up overhead, the attic cleanup page covers what comes next.

When to have the sealing done

Late summer and early fall are ideal, before the first freeze in Summit County pushes mice indoors. Sealing in the middle of winter works too, but the tech has to be careful not to trap mice inside the walls, so traps go out first and the last few gaps get closed once activity stops. Our basement sealing walk-through covers what you can check on your own, and basement and crawl space work goes deeper on the lower level.

The price comes from the company and depends on how many openings there are, what they're made of, how high they are and whether a garage or shed is part of the job. Ask for the list of what they sealed. A good tech will walk you around and show you.

Ready to close it up? Call and tell us about the house.

Related: Mouse Control, Rat Control, Basement and Crawl Space Rodents

Serving Highland Square and West Akron, Firestone Park, Goodyear Heights, Kenmore, North Hill, Ellet, Merriman Valley, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Barberton.