Homeowners are no strangers to winter pest infestations. Every season, mice, silverfish, and other pests emerge from their hideouts. Your home offers them warm shelter and nutrients to survive until spring. However, pest infestations can ruin crawl space insulation and wooden supports and cause structural damage. Now is the time to inspect your home and take steps to prevent pests from establishing a haven.
This page lists ten tips for maintaining a pest-free home this winter.
Poorly sealed windows and doors provide pests with easy access into your home. These tiny creatures find their way through small openings, often undetected by the naked eye. Infestations usually occur before you even know there’s a problem. Ensure these openings are correctly sealed to prevent pest invasion.
Pests seek food sources, so properly disposing of scraps and storing food in sealed containers is essential to preventing infestations. Pests contaminate food and countertops with bacteria and feces that could cause disease and illness.
Mice can enter small 1/4″ openings. As temperatures decrease, these rodents seek warm nesting areas, making your home the ideal place. Wall cracks provide easy access to living areas, basements, and crawl spaces. Inspect your home and seal cracks to prevent rodents. Contact a professional if you notice severe wall cracking, as these cracks may signal foundation damage, requiring expert repair solutions.
Nothing beats snuggling under a warm blanket beside a cozy fireplace on a cold winter night. However, storing firewood indoors may ruin that experience, as the wood logs may harbor pests. Keep firewood outdoors at least 20 feet from your home to prevent pest entry.
Don’t accept gift packages or retrieve holiday décor from storage without checking them first. They may harbor pests seeking shelter from the winter cold. Open and inspect the package contents to ensure no pests are present.
Low-lying storage boxes offer easy access to winter pests, especially when the boxes are filled with items. Look for scratch marks and pest droppings around the storage boxes. Remove the boxes from the ground and place them in an elevated area if the boxes are pest-free.
Clean food crumbs from kitchen counters as you prepare and serve meals. Pests are attracted to even the tiniest crumbs and can invade your kitchen and home. Don’t give them access to a free meal, especially while you’re sleeping.
Ensure indoor trash cans have lids and are properly enclosed to deter pests. Outdoors, you can deter raccoons and other rodents by storing trash bins in enclosed, locked areas, ensuring each has a tightly-sealed, animal-proof lid.
Crawl space encapsulation ensures the area beneath your home remains dry, pest-free, and sealed from external elements. Heavy-duty vapor barrier liners cover the crawl space floor and walls, ensuring adequate protection. Access door installation and vent closure are also implemented, along with other solutions as necessary.
Open crawl space vents allow easy entry for pests. Pest infestations can be prevented by installing vent covers. These covers also enhance home energy efficiency and moisture prevention, making them cost-effective.
JES Foundation Repair provides crawl space encapsulation solutions to keep your Washington, D.C., home safe, dry, and warm this winter. Schedule your free crawl space inspection and learn how our encapsulation solutions safeguard your home and family.
Get Your Free Estimate!The duration of the project varies based on the crawl space size, the extent of existing damage, and the specific solutions implemented. Most encapsulation projects take between one and three days to complete, including moisture control, insulation, and sealing. JES Foundation Repair teams work efficiently to ensure your crawl space is fully protected on schedule. Contact us for more information and to schedule a free inspection.
Crawl space encapsulation is a process where a protective barrier, usually a heavy-duty polyethylene barrier, is installed to completely cover your crawl space – including floors, foundation walls, and possibly even the ceiling. This creates a moisture and vapor barrier that helps to:
Keep in mind, crawl space encapsulation should be performed by a professional to ensure it’s done correctly and effectively.
Not directly, but it does ensure the value of your home doesn’t go down. Plus, if you’re looking to sell your home, crawl space encapsulation makes your home more attractive to buyers.
Think about it this way: a home without encapsulation is likely to have a rotting and damaged crawl space. That home will always be worth less than the one with encapsulation, so it does make your home more valuable to buyers.
Groundworks Editorial Team
