Home Repairs You Should Make to Prevent Pest Issues

Your beautiful home needs to be as pest free as possible! This includes, of course, nature’s insects, rodents, and other creatures as much as avoiding human pests. Obviously, if there are simple repairs and prevention which you can do which will prevent any infestations. What kind of home repairs can you do which can prevent pest issues?

Seal Entry Areas

Sealing entryways into your home might seem like a thing which is more for weather than for pests, but the same concepts apply to both. Anyplace air (cold or hot) is entering your home is also probably an area that insects and rodents can also enter. Remember, rodents can go anywhere their faces fit, which includes incredibly small areas. Likewise, using weatherproofing around windows and doors, making sure that they are sealed off from outdoor air will not only help prevent infestation, but also possibly lower the cost of your electric bill!

Clean the Gutters

Year after year your gutters fill with leaf trash, which is exactly what they are for! Unfortunately, if you don’t clean out your gutters, this leaf trash begins decomposing and creates a beautiful environment for pests. Cockroaches and earwigs, for example, specifically live in leaf trash and decomposing plant material. Since that’s their favorite thing and their best-case hotel, you want to make those spaces inhospitable. Kick them out of their new colonies before they begin. Likewise, filled gutters shelter mice, birds, and even snakes! Cleaning your gutters is a simple fix which, though annoying, takes little time, but which can eliminate that ecosystem for pests.

Trim Your Tree Branches

It can seem benign to have a large tree shadowing over your home, with branches stretched far and wide. But, if that tree is touching your home or sharing insects and rodents into it, it can be more like a nice superhighway to get pests to your roof. This includes things like squirrels and crawling insects, of course, but of special concern are, of course, termites. You don’t want anything which bores into and eats wood to live in your home. By trimming tree branches, it can make their route more difficult to get into your house.

Fix Cracked Concrete

Concrete paving can be expensive because it needs to be thick. But, repairing concrete properly is essential to your home. Besides pill bugs and other harmless insects, there are other insects, like boring ants, which can enjoy drilling into your home through small cracks. When it comes to rodents, they are capable of crawling through such tiny areas, so using strong caulking and concrete repair when needed is essential. Your foundation is crucial to the health and safety of your home, and keeping it strong should be a priority, regardless of cause. Preventing bugs as well is a great side benefit!

Add and Repair Screens

Screens can prevent pests, especially the flying kind, from entering your home. It can be easy to neglect screen repairs over time, especially in rooms which are little used or which belong to children. There are simple patches which you can use, or even sew in, for small rips and tears. For larger holes, there are repair kits and even classes on how to replace screens in your windows to make sure they are ready to protect your family from flying, biting bugs, and the diseases they can carry. Consider adding a screen door to all outside doors, to be able to enjoy the lovely spring and fall air without allowing more insects inside.

Maintain Your Yard

Your yard has a good amount of function, positive and negative, of what insects and rodents are comfortable living within it. It’s important to not keep debris in your yard of any kind, and to keep it well trimmed. Likewise, you need to keep bushes and trees well trimmed from being near the house itself. These things help keep insects, rodents, and even snakes from feeling secure living next to your home’s foundation, and perhaps finding a way inside. Ticks are of particular concern. Getting rid of plants they love, like barberry bushes, can help protect your family from illness from Lyme disease.

Store Trash Properly

You know that composting debris is delicious to bugs, mice, and other pests. If you want to prevent trash from being a buffet for bringing pests inside, storing it properly is key. Outdoor garbage cans should be emptied frequently, ideally weekly, and rinsed when they are in need. They should be stored away from the main body of the house. If your neighborhood will not allow them to be stored away from the house without being covered, there are simple structures you can build to cover and protect your bins. This also prevents racoons and rats from feasting in your trash.

Encourage Healthy Predators

There are beneficial predators which you want in your yard, though, which can help out with issues. Many native and natural plants can help encourage predator insects, and those are the kinds you want! While you might want to encourage orb weaver and other beneficial spiders in your yard to help prevent insects, it’s ok to dust off the eaves of your house to get rid of webs and debris. You can purchase ladybugs and praying mantis egg cases at local tractor supply centers in the springtime. Both your outdoor plants and your indoor self will appreciate the lack of insect infestation! They might seem odd looking, but opossums eat thousands of ticks daily, and lizards, cockroaches, and other pests. Don’t forget they’re your friends.

To keep your home beautiful inside and out is important. To prevent and eliminate infestation from bugs, rodents, and other pests is also extremely important. When you work hard to seal up exposed spaces, cracks, and other entryways into your home, it begins to limit that superhighway for bugs straight into your kitchen. By preventing leaf debris and trash around the home, and storing your trash cans away from the house, this further discourages large pests near your lovely home.

Read this next: How to Enjoy Your Backyard Space Free of Pests

How to Recover Your Home After Termite Damage

No one wants to have to deal with termite damage, but it can happen in pretty much any home. The main thing to remember is that once it is over you can recover your home and make it into the livable place it always was for you before. You just need to know what you need to do to get things back into shape. Here are a few tips that will help you return your home to its former glory after experiencing termite damage. 

Make Sure Termites Are Gone 

Before you can do anything to start recovering your home after termite damage, you have to make sure the termites are gone. Sometimes when you discover termite damage it will be inactive which basically means that the termites are no longer present. In other cases, there will be termites currently damaging your property. An inspector will be able to tell the difference and they will be able to direct you in how to get rid of termites if they are currently active. Once you are sure the termites are gone, you can actually take steps to start improving your home and recovering from the damage that they inflicted

Patch Up What You Can 

Once the termites are taken care of, it’s time for you to start working on patching up whatever you can. While some things will be a quick and easy patch job, other elements will need to be entirely replaced so your home can be as structurally sound as possible. This is where it is very important to work with an expert, so you know that things are being put back together in a safe and sound manner. With their guidance you can determine what things need to be replaced and which areas can simply be patched. With your patching and replacing taken care of you will be ready to start on the next step of the process. 

Redo Your Floors 

With the patching taken care of you generally need to start worrying about redoing your flooring. This gives you an opportunity to update the style of your floors to better match with your preferences. Sometimes your floors will be in good enough condition that they can simply be resurfaced, but in other cases you may need to replace them entirely. When you are looking at flooring options make sure to consider how you use each space and the kind of flooring that will work best for your needs. Carpeting can work great in some situations while vinyl flooring or hardwood is a better option in other situations. 

Replace Cabinets 

Your cabinetry may also need to be replaced, which is an expense, but it is worth it to make sure that you replace it with beautiful and high-quality options. Custom cabinets add more value than your standard stock cabinets. You can also make sure that your new cabinetry is more functional than what you previously had. For example, if you were lacking storage before, try to add even more cabinets and maybe even an island to make your kitchen space more usable. Making decisions like this will help you to get your home into even better shape than it was in before. 

Repainting Your Walls 

When you have made all of your repairs to the interior of your walls and replaced your drywall, you just need to start repainting. You can stick to the colors your space used to be painted in, or you can make a change and choose something completely new. Just make sure that you choose the right colors for each space so that it feels appropriate for the activities you are doing in each particular area. Soft muted colors are good for bedrooms while brighter colors are better in living areas and the kitchen. You also want to make sure that you choose paint with a little bit of shine for areas with high moisture content. 

Replacing Trim 

You will also want to take steps to replace any trim that was damaged by the termites or removed to find the termite damage. You can stick with the same type of trim or modernize with new trim. The most important thing is that you use consistent trim in your space so that there isn’t a weird transition from one kind of trim to another. If you choose a nice consistent trim, you can make the space look great. 

Checking Your Insurance 

While you are dealing with termite damage and making appropriate repairs, it is important that you talk to your insurance company to see what kind of coverage you have. Sometimes your insurance policy will cover termite damage and the repairs you will need after the fact. If this is the case with your policy, it’s worth looking into making a claim so you can have your repairs covered. This step can help make the trouble of dealing with a termite infestation a little bit more manageable. 

Checking for Future Infestations 

Once you are done dealing with the termite situation you likely want to put it behind you forever, but it is generally a good idea to keep an eye out for signs of problems in the future. The earlier you catch an infestation the better it is and the less work you need to do to resolve the issue. So, even once you are done dealing with your current infestation, it is a good idea to keep a lookout for any signs that it is happening again. If you do see evidence of a new infestation, reach out to an inspector so they can help you to resolve the issue before it gets too horrible. 

Dealing with an infestation of termites is a horrible thing that nobody wants to deal with, but it doesn’t have to be the end of your enjoyment of your home. With the right repairs you can recover your space and start enjoying it once again. All it takes is a little work and investment into the right areas.

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