ATTIC  RESTORATION

OUR ATTIC RESTORATION PROCESS

Animal infestations in the attic rarely end without some significant damage to the attic. After days or weeks of working towards evicting unwanted animals from the attic, a successful eviction doesn’t necessarily mean the end of your animal infestation problems, it can mean the beginning of a thorough attic cleanup and restoration.

A proper animal exclusion from the attic will be accompanied by a complete clean-up, seal up and restoration. It’s no doubt that some animals are more inclined to cause certain damages and some will certainly cause more damages than others. But, all nuisance animals have one thing in common, they leave huge messes when they infest a place including filthy droppings which are usually laced with pathogenic microorganisms.

Attic restoration is the process of cleaning and fixing up your attic to look new again. During the restoration process, we remove every trace of animal waste and completely change your attic.

Attic restoration is a complex and time-consuming job, here’s why.

Animals are incredible creatures, they consume large amounts of food every day and the result of that is an incredible number of droppings. For instance, an adult mouse will produce about 40 to 100 droppings in a single day, a rat will produce about 20 to 50 droppings in a single day and a bat will produce about 20 to 30 droppings in a day.

From this, you can see how quickly animal droppings can pile up in an attic if any of these creatures find their way in. And there’s more; these animals are social animals which means that they live in colonies comprising of as many as 20 to 100 members. If a mouse finds its way to an attic, it will certainly invite its family and friends to come share the new home. And within a short period of time, these creatures will do incredible amounts of damage, ruining the attic.

Other animals that can infest such as raccoons, squirrels, birds, etc., are also capable of causing serious damages. Squirrels will chew through wires, wood, and attic insulation, raccoons will deposit large amounts of roundworm-infested droppings, and bird nests can block vents. Getting these animals to leave is one thing, cleaning up after them is another. And depending on the type of animal, the duration of the infestation, and the extent of damage caused, attic restoration can be a very complex and time-consuming job.

To thoroughly clean up and restore an attic, here are the steps we take.

GENERAL CLEAN UP

With the offending animals gone, our experts at Nuisance Wildlife Rangers will move in to carefully remove animal feces, urine, and any biological remains in the attic. This is probably the riskiest part of the process because animal droppings contain a cocktail of pathogens that will cause serious infectious diseases when inhaled or accidentally ingested. We employ special equipment for this process such as a gas-powered vacuum and hose with HEPA filter masks and bio-hazard suits.

REMOVAL OF DAMAGED INSULATION

Animal activities in the attic will most certainly ruin the attic insulation, making it unable to properly absorb heat. Without proper attic insulation, your home will be colder during the winter and hotter during the summer. Damaged insulation can contain animal urine and feces with tons of parasites and disease-causing microorganisms. This can only be remedied by complete removal of the damaged insulation and installation of new insulation.

DISINFECTION

Disinfecting the attic and sanitizing the scene of infestation is an important part of both animal exclusion and attic restoration. With piles of animal feces and pathogens, every animal infestation puts the occupants of the house at high risk of some infectious disease. Even after the animals are gone, the diseases they carry can stick around for a while and still pose a high health risk to occupants. This makes sanitation a very important part of the cleanup and restoration process. To disinfect the attic, our technicians use powerful virucides and foggers until every tiny bit of micro-organism is killed, and even the air is sanitized to kill off airborne pathogens.

INSULATION REPLACEMENT AND ATTIC REPAIR

After the cleanup, removal of damaged insulation, and sanitation, technicians at Nuisance Wildlife Rangers will replace sanitation. We also inspect the ventilation, drywall, duct work vapor barriers, and chewed-up electrical wires that can be a fire hazard. If any of these areas have been damaged by wildlife activity, then they have to be fixed as well. Our technicians do a thorough job of replacing insulation and fixing up the entire attic.

CALL US TODAY FOR YOUR ANIMAL PROBLEMS!

Here at Nuisance Wildlife Rangers, our technicians are skilled in animal exclusion and attic restoration. With 5 years of experience in the field, we have solved many problems with wild animals. By contacting us today, we can remove these pests and make your home safe. We offer our services throughout Southern Florida, so give us a call.

Why Should You Hire An Expert for Attic Restoration?

Attic restoration is the next big step you need to take, once you’ve had your nuisance wildlife problem handled. Whether you opted for DIY animal removal or called a professional, you will need to invest in proper attic restoration, to bring back your property’s former glory.

While many wildlife removal services also offer professional attic restoration, you may be wondering why you ought to pay for something that, seemingly, you can take care of yourself.

Well, that’s precisely what we set out to clarify in this article.

First of all, what sort of services are included in attic restoration?

The idea behind attic restoration is that nuisance wildlife that take up residence in your home tend to also be responsible for quite a bit of damage to your home. Obviously, the precise sort of damage you can expect will depend on the animal you’ve been housing.

But nuisance wildlife is often responsible for trampled insulation, damaged electrical wires, ruined furniture, weakened support structures, and lots of other debris in your attic.

So what does a professional attic restoration look like?

• Sealing the entry points. One of the most important things you can do post-infestation is to identify and properly seal the entry point of the animals. This will prevent more unwanted critters from moving into your attic. While temporary sealing can be done with newspaper or cardboard, it’s important to use resistant sealing equipment like expanding foam, wire mesh, or caulk, to fill in the cracks and holes that permitted the animals to crawl through in the first place. These materials are difficult to chew or claw through, and so unlikely to invite a future invasion.

• Cleaning and Sanitizing. This is an equally important step of the attic restoration process. One of the biggest concerns around wildlife intruders is that their presence will expose you to animal feces and urine, which are contaminated with loads of bacteria, and are likely to expose you to a host of grave illnesses like trichinosis or histoplasmosis. So it’s important to professionally clean and sanitizes the attic before you attempt to use it, to protect yourself.
• Restoration of damaged goods. Certain animals can cause considerable damage to wooden structures, support beams, and even electrical wires. Obviously, these pose serious threats to the safety of your home and will require professional restoration or repair. We wouldn’t really recommend trying to replace electrical wires yourself, or even tinker with chewed or exposed wired.

So why do you need an expert for the restoration of your attic?

The simple answer to that is, it’s a lot safer. Obviously, as we were just saying, you don’t want to play fast and loose with the stability or safety of your home, and that’s essentially what you would be doing, attempting to restore damaged structures or wires on your own.

Another argument for hiring a pro to do your attic restoration for you is that many people assume they’ll be saving a lot of money in doing it on their own. But once you consider all the replacement materials, cleaning and protective equipment (not to mention the things you’ll need for sealing entry points), you end up with quite a steep tab.

Add to that the time and effort you will need to put in, which will be considerably more than experts who’ve done attic restoration hundreds of times, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster.

At the end of the day, hiring a pro to do your attic restoration is safer, and more efficient (as you get a guarantee of a job well done), and less time consuming.

Why You Need Regular Gutter Cleaning

Gutter cleaning is a task that most people don’t want to mess with. Whether it’s because gutter cleaning can prove time-consuming, expensive, or difficult, there are countless reasons people use it. Even still, it’s a particularly important aspect of home owning, or even owning property in general. Gutters provide a high level of protection and security to your property during any season and any weather, and it’s important to clean them. So, here’s why you need regular gutter cleaning:

1. Gutters Can’t Protect Against Water Damage, Overflowed: gutters are, after all, designed to protect against foundation erosion. If you don’t take care of your gutters, cleaning them regularly, then you won’t be able to use them to their fullest. As gutters and downspouts fill up with leaves and debris over time, then water will, nearly without a doubt, not drain property. As water overflows, it will likely cause water damage to both your property and the area around it. When land erodes, homes can shift and slide into the ground after years of erosion.
2. Overflowed Gutters Invite Insects: overflowed gutters usually mean high levels of resting water. Resting water is a breeding ground, literally, for insects and assorted other dangerous animals. Waterborne parasites and illnesses can follow, meaning you’ll have danger up to three stories above your head. Cleaning gutters allow you to prevent any water pooling, which can, in turn, prevent any insects from growing.
3. It’s Cheaper than the Alternatives: while this may seem like an obvious point, too many people ignore the pricey alternative to cleaning: replacement. If you don’t take good care to regularly clean your gutters, then they will fill up overtime, eventually either sagging or breaking entirely. While cleaning may be just hundreds, replacing gutters can be in the several thousand. That’s on top of the risk of having your home sink into eroding ground caused by water hitting the earth. There’s a lot worse than a few hours and dollars spent cleaning.
4. Uncleaned Gutters Can Ruin Your Roof: in addition to damaging everything beneath it, overflowed gutters can ruin things above. Your roof is at risk if you don’t clean your gutters, with shingles and such have the potential to leak water into your home. This can result in serious water damage, with both rotting and leaking. If this happens, you may be looking at water damage, weakened house structures, fire risks, electrical issues, and much more.

With just these four reasons, it should give you a good idea as to why regular gutter cleaning is worth it. The potential danger and costs of not cleaning out your gutters are definitely worse than the day or two spent cleaning it. That’s even ignoring the potential for you to call a team, like ours at Nuisance Wildlife Rangers, who can take care of the hard work for you.

Sure, gutters can be either difficult, expensive, or time consuming to clean, although it is definitely less of all of the above, then the alternatives. As mentioned, overflowed gutters can cause serious damage to your home, and potentially you. The erosion presented can remove the foundations of your home, whether by expanding during different temperatures or removing support, and broken gutters can fall and injure. Insects spawning in still water aren’t great either and that’s ignoring the fact that all four of these issues can happen at once.

That’s why it’s important to put a day aside, at least once a month, for either you or a professional team to clean. As mentioned, at Nuisance Wildlife Rangers, we offer not only wildlife services, but also gutter cleaning and guard installation. We’re more than happy to take your call for either questions or service requests. After all, Nuisance Wildlife Rangers is only one call or message away!