Which Trade Does What
We would rather tell you it is somebody else’s job than take the money and leave you with it.
What is ours
Where We Are The Right Call
Identifying what you have, dealing with the population, and closing the routes into the building. Plus the honest assessment of whether it needs treating at all, which is free and occasionally saves you a visit.
Proofing sits firmly with us: mesh at airbricks, sealing service penetrations, closing eaves and soffit gaps, fitting brush strips, capping a redundant pipe. That is pest work even though it looks like building work, because getting it right depends on knowing what you are excluding.
Drainage
Where It Stops Being Ours
We will tell you when we think a drain is the route - a persistent rat problem with no visible entry point above ground very often is. What we do not do is repair drains.
That is a drainage contractor's job: a camera survey to find the defect, then a repair or a lining. If somebody tells you they can fix a rat problem by fitting something in a drain without ever having looked inside it, be careful.
We also do not deal with the water company on your behalf. What we can do is supply the evidence - a dated finding - which is what you need if the defect turns out to be on the public side.
Electrics, roofing and building
The Damage Rather Than The Cause
Chewed cable is an electrician. Rodent damage to wiring is a genuine fire risk and it needs testing and repairing by someone qualified. We will tell you what we have seen; we will not touch it.
A roof in poor repair is a roofer. We can mesh an eaves gap. We cannot re-felt a roof, replace rotten fascias or re-bed a verge, and where that is what is actually needed, meshing it is a patch on a problem that will reopen.
Structural repair is a builder. Rebuilding a collapsed airbrick, repointing an eroded wall, making good after damage.
Insulation and decontamination after a rodent infestation sits between trades. We can advise on what needs removing; the removal and replacement is usually a specialist or an insulation contractor.
Wildlife
What Nobody Should Be Offering To Do
Some things are not a trade question but a legal one. Bats and their roosts are protected. Gulls, and the nests of wild birds in use, are protected. Badgers and their setts are protected.
If you are offered the removal of any of those without a mention of the law, that is a reason to ring somebody else. The wildlife article sets out what can and cannot be done and what the alternatives are - and for bats the right call is the Bat Conservation Trust's helpline before anybody goes in the loft.
Common Questions
Can you fix the drain you found?
No - that is a drainage contractor with a camera. We will tell you what we think and give you the evidence in writing.
Will you replace loft insulation after rats?
We will tell you what needs removing. The removal and replacement is usually an insulation contractor or a specialist cleaner.
Something has chewed the wiring.
Get an electrician to test it. That is a fire risk and it is outside what we are qualified to touch.
Going further
Advice Worth Reading First
What Happens On A First Visit
Nobody enjoys booking this. Here is exactly what it involves, so there are no surprises on the day.
Read more ›What It Costs, And What Changes It
One published price, and an honest account of why everything else is quoted instead of listed.
Read more ›Pests In A Rented Home: Who Is Responsible?
General information rather than legal advice, and the short answer is that it usually turns on how they got in.
Read more ›Pest Control And Your Food Hygiene Rating
The treatment is half of it. The paperwork is the half that gets scored.
Read more ›Preparing For A Treatment
Some of this genuinely changes the result. Some of it just saves time. Both are worth doing.
Read more ›One-Off Treatment Or A Contract?
Contracts suit some premises and are a waste of money for others. Here is the honest test.
Read more ›Wildlife Law, And What Cannot Be Treated
Some of the things people ring about are protected, and a firm that offers to deal with them anyway is offering to break the law on your behalf.
Read more ›Pests When Buying Or Selling A House
It comes up more often than people expect, usually at the worst possible moment in the chain.
Read more ›Pest Control In A Flat Or A Block
The hardest part is rarely the pest. It is that the part of the building causing it is not yours.
Read more ›Get A Free Quote
Tell us your postcode and what you are seeing. We will come back with a time and a fixed price before anything is booked.
Local Experts You Can Trust
Fast, effective, affordable pest control for homes and businesses across the whole of Kent. Fully qualified technicians, fixed prices, every service guaranteed.