There are many wild animals that can cause damage to your home. Arguably, though, the worst perpetrators are rodents. There are more than 2,000 species of rodents, including mice, rats, squirrels, beavers, pacas, and gophers. These vermin can cause significant structural damage and destroy your home. Rodents aren’t only unsanitary, spreading diseases and contaminating your foodstuff with their defecation, urine, and skin cells, but they canalso be highly dangerousdue to their gnawing and nest-building tendencies.
If you hear rustling in the middle of the night, see grease marks around your windows and doors, or see suspicious droppings, don’t ignore these signs, or you might end up paying dearly for it.
Here are some of the damages that rodents can cause if they get into your house and make themselves at home.
Wires
When they’re in your walls or attic, mice and rats have full access to your home’s electrical wiring. They’ll gnaw away at it in order to gain access to places that are blocked by the wires or simply to keep their teeth short. In fact, the word “rodent” derives from the word “gnaw.”
Though commercial buildings are required to use armoured cable, which is rodent proof, the minimum standard for homes is Romex cable, a less-protected cable, which is susceptible to rodent damage. This lower standardcan cause electrical malfunctions and short circuits, or lead to a risk of fire. Many residential fires that are caused by unknown origins can be traced back to mice and rats chewing through the wiring. Once a wire is made bare because a mouse has chewed away at its insulation, the chance of it sparking a fire dramatically increases.
Insulation
Vermin will chew through and gather absolutely anything if it looks useful in building a nest. But that doesn’t just mean that your important papers, cardboard, and clothing are the only things at risk. One of the first places vermin will go to is your insulation. They’ll tunnel into your insulation, either through your attic or inside your walls, and gather the soft material to make their nests ormake a home right inside of it. These activities create cold pockets in the insulation, which drastically reduces its effectiveness. It may all have to be replaced, which is costly.
Framing
Mice and rats can and will also gnaw through the framing of your house in order to get into your attic, basement, or anywhere else that seems hospitable for them to live. They can easily chew through structural wood products that are used for framing, including your studs, headers, roof trusses, and floor joists. They can chew through soft concrete and sheetrock. They can definitely get through drywall, too. In short, they’ll chew entry holes anywhere, from your roof to the ground, in order to gain access to your home.
Pipes
Mice and rats may also gnaw on your waterpipes—the pipes connecting your dishwasher, shower, bath, toilet, or sinks. Even the smallest holes in these pipes can lead to floods that ruin your floors, your cabinets, and your possessions as well.
If your house’s structural integrity being compromised isn’t enough, rats and mice can also chew through your gas pipes. This can also increase your risk of fire.
The News Gets Worse
So you find yourself with significant structural damage caused by rodents. If this isn’t bad enough, the news gets worse: most insurers do not cover homeowners for damage caused by vermin. If a deer crashes through your window, you’re covered, but if a family of mice ruin the structure of your home, you’re on your own. This could result in thousands of dollars of repairs out of your own pocket.