I have a dormer on my house with a hip roof. I’ve got squirrel nests in the overhangs on all three sides. I’m going to replace the fascia and soffit boards. What is the best material to use to keep the critters out?
This is an historic house, so whatever I use has to be paintable.
An architect and a handy homeowner team up for an exterior upgrade with energy efficiency, comfort, and durability as part of the plan.
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Replies
I went through the same thing on my house....retrofitted with Hardie soffit. In recent years, have installed it on most new homes and additions. Comes in 12", 16" and 24" widths. Can be had with or without vent holes which are a continuous array of 3/16" holes in a band about 4" wide IIRC.
Very paintable.
A bit of a PITA to put up....best to have an extra hand and some scaffolding....but the end result is good.
I wouldn't know how it would fit with "historic."
1/4" steel plate should do the trick. ;-)
I had the same problem a few years ago. What happens is that at some point, the squirrels found a hole or crack in the old soffit/facia and made their way in. Squirrels are very single-minded; once they've moved in, the only thing you can do is eradicate all of them or they will keep coming back...I had one spot where I put up a new fascia board to replace one with a squirrel hole in it. When I came outside just ONE HOUR LATER, the #*%$ squirrels had already chewed a hole through the new board!
I had to declare open warfare. I trapped and removed every squirrel in the yard (I think I probably got every one of 'em on the whole block), and only after every squirrel that ever had any knowledge of living in the eaves of my house was gone did I have the damage repaired.
More squirrels have moved back into the yard since then, but since there aren't any convenient holes or cracks or rotted wood that's easy to chew on the house any more, they've stayed up in the trees. I've been thinking, though, that I should probably do a little more trapping just to keep them in line....
I think I had squirrels in my attic, too. Couldn't find any way they got in except maybe the attic turbine vents, but man were they noisy and drove the cats nuts.
I am still considering ways to keep them from coming back next year.
http://grungefm.com
I pulled off the fascia boards on the dormer. While I was doing it the squirrel was above me on the roof. She was pretty pissed off. As I started to knock the nesting material out of the overhang 2 baby squirrels fell to the ground. At this point I got down off the ladder, because Mama squirrel was furious. She immediately carried the 2 remaining baby squirrels out of the nest in her mouth. The babies that feel to the ground appeared to be OK. I put them in a box and put them back up on the plank. Mama immediately came back and carried them away. I watched her carry the babies across the street. Hopefully that's the last I see of her. I decided to go with cedar soffit and fascia as they were readily available. I'm going prime all sides before I put them up.
7 gauge steel plate! They will chew through most any other material. Good luck.
22 RIFLE
My brother and I used to have a blunt arrow with a rubber tip that we'd shoot out the open window...
Direct hit!!!