Wanting to expand your property is a luxury for some, a necessity for others. Extensions are a must for many who’s family is getting bigger or just some extra much need room so its important to ensure your using the right people for the job.

Earlier this week i attended to a customer from Tile Hill, Coventry, Warwickshire whom has a issue with a water leak and called in a trusted plumber she knew so he wasn’t trying to pull the wool when he flat refused to go in her loft space. The area was saturated in rat droppings and didn’t smelt extensively of urine.. He was obviously concerned about catching something.

On arrival my attention was drawn to the extension which was constructed a estimated 2 years previous. I noticed the small stack pipe was venting directly below the bathroom window and thought it odd as sewer smells would enter through the window when open. not ideal, the vent pipe ideally should be above the rain water gutter line.

On inspection it became obvious to me that the rat infestation had been going on so long that it simply could not have been a ‘surface’ issue. The property was detached and in a very good state of repair. The owners were very house proud and took great care of their home, there were no obvious defects or holes around the property. In conversation with the customer i asked if they had seen rats in their garden or in the immediate area, they had never noticed either. My external inspection showed no obvious activity which would lead to such a infestation in the roof space and there was no clear way the rats could breach the property.

Once again my attention was to the drainage. I noticed that the builder had moved the original Soil Vent Pipe from the side elevation existing wall and moved the upstairs toilet into the extension where the new smaller stack I had previously noticed was situated.

Lifting the Inspection Chamber located at the side of the property the cause of the rat infestation became obvious. There appeared to be a dry line with debris sitting in the channel. Debris that had been moved there by rats burrowing from the end of the drain line where the SVP once was.

In my general observations i noted that the Manhole its self took the foul waste from the neighbours property which meant that the chamber itself was the responsibility of the local water authority, however the dry line was a private line belonging to my customer only. *Foul drainage is private until it either crosses a boundary or foul waste from another property joins the line either on a junction or in this case within the chamber, at this point it becomes the ownership of you local water authority*

Grey area coming up…. Do I (A)… just clean away the debris in line and block the drain with the correct type of drain bung..? the problem being that in the event that rats are still within the property we are blocking their exit, removing a water source and effectively entombing the rats residing them to distress and starvation, their only rats i hear you cry, nonetheless animal welfare has to be observed. I could push a simple Snap rat trap up the line before i block it i suppose, but i have no idea as to what extent the active infestation is or even if it is still active, its impossible to say as the rat waste within the loft is so extensive and the customer has never heard a thing.

Or (B) … Do i leave the drain line open and bait out the loft space poisoning what is active and hopefully (fingers crossed) pray that they expire within the drainage system, but again.. we are not entirely sure if the infestation is still active. Am I following the code of best practice or being responsible with the use of rodenticide.?

So I removed the grey area.. I capped off the line correctly with a 110mm copper bung (After carrying out a full flow test to confirm where all the customers services discharged to so not to cause blockages) I then saturated the loft space with snap traps, more than i could ever have needed and lured them with a mixture of edibles after confirming the customer had no allergies. I’ve not used any unnecessary poison, I’ve been responsible, I’ve complied with the code of best practice and I’ve stopped any further rat ingress.

As a industry all responsible pest controller are trying to move away from just putting poison baits down for every rodent call, of course there is a need for biocidal control in cases but its a case of doing it correctly and responsibly. I’m confident that this is the only point of entry, however on my return visit to collect my traps and hopefully some rodent bodies i will be carrying out a CCTV survey of all accessible drainage.. I’m slightly concerned of how that small stack is connected to the main line, you can never be to sure.

If you would like further information regarding CCTV drainage surveys please contact us direct for further assistance.