Home renovation is a demanding project that may include several sub-projects that will improve the appearance and functionality of your home. In order to efficiently carry out various activities within these renovation tasks, there are several prerequisites every homeowner needs to fulfill in advance. Taking care of pests, such as bugs and rodents, is one of these important works that require certain care before and throughout the renovation process. Here’s what we suggest on how to control pest problems during renovations.
Removing the furniture
Furniture items usually hide a lot of secrets about pests. Mice, rats, cockroaches, and water bugs like to build their nests behind pieces of furniture and inside them.
When you’re making your renovation plan, you should remove the furniture first. Homeowners need to look behind every closet, armchair, and cabinet to check whether there are any hidden nests.
They’re more common in houses than in apartments. So, if you live in a house, you need to be especially careful in locating and identifying insects, mice, and rats.
If you don’t notice any nests or poops left by pests, it still doesn’t mean that your home is pest-free. Take a look inside all your closets and cabinets because this is where they like to live and hatch.
What’s more, inspect all the wall areas that are usually behind your furniture items. If you notice any holes or damaged parts, it might be a sign that you have some unwanted tenants in your home.
Installing traps and sealing holes
Homeowners who realize that pests are living in their homes need to try to eliminate them before the renovation starts.
For starters, you can make some eco-friendly insecticides and treat bugs, mites, and other insects on your own.
In case insects have entered your closets and cabinets or woodworms have spread throughout them, think about replacing them with new pieces of furniture.
If you notice that you have rodents in your home, you’ll start wondering what to do to get rid of them.
For starters, you can try using some mouse traps. They might be useful if you have only a few mice around your place.
However, a larger number of mice or rats is a sign that you might have a more serious problem with pests. This is where calling a reputable pest control company that specializes in mice control to help you is a smart choice. A professional rodent exterminator will cope with your rodent problem efficiently and much quicker than a DIY mice trap method, so you’ll be able to continue with your renovation works.
Once you’ve treated the bugs, insects, and rodents, the next thing you should do is to double-check the walls for holes and cracks. When you’re certain that you’ve eliminated all the pests and their nests, you can seal all the cracks, holes, and other damaged parts of the walls.
Inspecting neglected parts of the home
Renovation is the right time to repurpose some of the parts of your home to give them a new life. Many people neglect their garages. Instead of keeping their cars or bikes in them, they use them as storage space. Whenever there’s a lot of clutter in one place, the risk of infestation is much higher. So, when you’re cleaning or transforming your garage, it’s necessary to inspect all its corners and see whether there are any signs of the presence of pests.
What’s more, if there are any water inlets in the garage, clean them with some ecological solutions to make sure that any insects and rodents are eliminated from these areas. If you don’t want to use those inlets in your remodelled garage, seal them.
You should apply the same procedure to any storage spaces you have inside your home. From kitchen storage compartments to workshops and the basement, inspect all the areas, eliminate pests, and seal all the potential holes and cracks through which they could sneak into your home.
Keeping outdoor pests away
If you decide to replace the doors and windows during the renovation process, make sure to prevent insects, flies, and other pests from entering your home. Only one door should be used for entrance/exit to the home. Protect all other empty places for doors with screeners. The entire area needs to be covered so that neither rodents nor flying insects can enter your home.
If you remove all the old windows at once, close the window holes and install new windows one at a time. This will prevent flies, hornets, and wasps from entering your home and making nests inside it during the renovation.
Once the renovation is finished, conduct a thorough inspection of the entire home to confirm that you’ve kept pests away from it.
Conclusion
If not properly controlled and eliminated pests can slow down your renovation process. That’s why you should take all the necessary precautionary measures before, during, and after renovations. Only such an approach will ensure that you enjoy yourself in a remodelled and refreshed home, free of insects, bugs, and rodents.
* To learn more about pest problems during renovations, don’t hesitate to contact us, or give us a call at (613)727-9427. For pest control services please contact the author; Pestend
About the author
Luqman has been a pest control technician for over 20 years. He is passionate about solving people’s pest and wildlife control problems through innovative, eco-friendly and humane methods. Luqman currently works for Pestend. He believes that pest control is a science and feels that his function in his community is very important since he helps people live in peace without causing unnecessary harm to animals.
