r/homeowners | reddlx

My neighbour keeps feeding the rats. Active infestation!

My partner and I are new homeowners and feel very helpless and lost in this situation.

We have an active rat infestation in our garage (luckily not in the house) and because our garage has a dirt floor, the rats can easily get in. We believe the rats' homebase is our neighbour's garage which shares a driveway with us (literally 3' away). And on the other side of the garage our neighbour will put out containers full of seed and water on the ground specifically for the rats. We will see 10+ rats all sitting around outside in the daylight eating his food. It's crazy!

We've knocked on his door and talked to him about feeding the rats, but he continues to do it. We've now resorted to calling animal control, which hasn't amounted to much.

I had someone from a pest control company come by and see if they had any suggestions. They said they could seal our house for $2100, to ensure the rats don't get in. But they will continue to live in our shed until our neighbour stops feeding the rats. Even if they use poison it's unlikely they will leave. He said in all of his years he's only seen that many rats out during the day 2 other times.

I asked if there was anything I could do myself to seal the house, and he said to put specialized caulking or spray foam into the bottoms of our siding corner trim, so they can't get up it. However, from what I've read, that is used for ventilation and drainage...so I don't know.

For those of you who have dealt with rats before, what has worked to keep them our of your house or car. And how would you navigate this whole situation?

u/FreudsParents — 10 days ago

▲ 71 r/homeowners

What would you do with this brick path?

I have this brick path here and since the day I owned the house I’ve been fighting against the weeds. I’ve tried torching, power washing, hand pulling, and nothing works. The roots are so deep even using a knife it’s hard to dig it up. I don’t wanna use chemicals because I’m on well water, what would you do?

u/noneedforgreenthumbs — 11 days ago

▲ 33 r/homeowners+2 crossposts

Water and foundation issues

Hi! We live in Waco, Texas and bought a house that was built in the 1950s. We have had it for three years. When we purchased it, we were informed that the house had some water under it (there had been about a week of rain). The owners negotiated with us that they would pay for repairs and had sump pumps installed and a French drain. We thought that would be the end of it (quite naively, unfortunately).

About a year into owning it, we noticed that the house felt humid and had some uneven floors. When checking under the house, we saw that there was a lot of pooled water and the sump pumps were not working properly. We then paid contractors to install a different french drain and a dehumidifier, based on their recommendations. Unfortunately, the problems persisted, with mold starting to grow inside a pantry closet and in the subfloor. The same contractors came back and removed the mold and tore up the subfloor and many of the beams, suggesting that almost all of our joists needed to be replaced. We spent thousands of dollars living in Airbnbs while they worked and ultimately decided that they weren’t a good fit after all. After researching containing crawl spaces, we decided that we would do that with the crawl space and repair the floor ourselves.

Anyway, it rained maybe an inch or two last night and we came to check on the house. This is what we’re seeing, inches of water that appears to be below the water table. We’re at a complete loss. We have struggled to find anyone in the area who deals with water issues and are increasingly stressed that there isn’t a solution. I have multiple pics but could only attach one. We are meeting with a structural engineer tomorrow (we scheduled it before seeing the water). Can anyone provide us any suggestions or ideas? We feel so discouraged at this point and would greatly appreciate any help😔

u/dantaaay — 10 days ago

▲ 17 r/homeowners

Electrical outlet

I’m recently widowed, was married to a master electrician, so I never learned a thing about electrical because I had him. I went to plug my vacuum into an outlet, which I used the week before to vacuum, but had no power. The last 20 years, I’ve plugged vacuums into this outlet. I grabbed a working lamp, plugged it in and nothing.

Things I checked out before coming here.

Made sure all light switches on the wall were on (even though the light switch only impacts the farthest light outlet, still made sure it was on). In 20 years never did this, but hey, who knows, maybe it has always be on the on position. I even went into every other room in the house and made sure all light switches were on!!!
Checked panel box to make sure nothing tripped. Went through each one and turned it off and on because I remember him telling me once it can look on, but it actually tripped.
Checked every gfci in the house reset them all, kitchen and baths are the only places I saw them.
Went and checked every single outlet, top and bottom in the house. Plugged the lamp in each, all of them worked. (Except the dead outlet).

Do I need to call an electrician? If so, how do I go about getting choosing a good one? My husband was an industrial electrician, worked for a large aerospace company. I don’t have any of his coworkers numbers, who would likely steer me in the right direction. I’m just so lost at what to do.

Edit: I also used his fluke meter on the wires, nothing. Went to the outlet next to it and it showed power. I switched the receptacle with another one from the room that was working, swapped them, the dead outlet is still dead. The receptacle from the dead outlet works on the other outlet.

UPDATE: I called my son, who is in college and was telling him about this outlet. He said, “did you check the attic?“ I didn’t even think about the attic. It’s not like one of those nice attics that you can remodel into a room. I grabbed a ladder and the voltage tester pen. Sure enough, a junction box and receptacle under a bunch of insulation was the culprit. I also have mice (this is going to be a whole other issue). He said it’s weird because it would mean that outlet below is fed from it, but the breaker panel is in the garage. Who knows, but I went out to the garage and grabbed a new receptacle, my husband had so much electrical stuff, it’s like walking down an isle in Lowe’s. I changed it out and voilà, I have power. I think my hubby would be proud, I know 100% that he would be very grateful to everyone who offered advice and helped me on here. Y’all are all the best! thank you!!!!

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u/AdvantageNo2345 — 11 days ago