Rats - Bexleyheath

[Housemovers1994]

Hi, We've recently moved to a property in Bexleyheath in Dec 2025, and have had a constant problem with rodents since then. We're running out of patience and have no idea what to do next.

We've had a traditional pest control company in who have put down snap traps, some limited poison (trying to avoid so they don't die in the floorboards).

We then have paid for one drain company to do a survey where we got visual confirmation of a rat in the drains under the house who then installed some measures.

After this didn't solve the issue, we then had another drain company come in who specialise in pest control, who have said actually these measures aren't of good enough quality, there are a lot of redundant drains under our kitchen, and actually we should maybe dig up our kitchen to install a new manhole under our extension.

Honestly, we don't know what to do next. We're first time buyers who spent what savings we had to purchase what we wanted to become our family home, and can't afford these unexpected expensive renovations on something which may or may not solve the issue. Pest control companies don't seem very confident in any solution other than spending £5,000 to have their own builders come and tear apart the house.

We were meant to have a bathroom renovation start on Monday (9th), but are now wondering if we should delay this until the problem is fully resolved, which apparently could be months.

We still hear them in the walls & floorboards, can't access where we think they are, and are worried about more lasting damage to the house.

Any advice from people who have had similar issues or based in the local area would be super appreciated. The house has become exhausting rather than accomplishment we expected.

Thanks.

That is where the op has said they are nesting, in the roof in the rafters. The post I was replying to said that a cat would only work if it went into the roof. I was saying that the rats will leave the nest to search for food so the cat could find them then.

I never saw a rat above ground all the time I had them. They were in the walls and under the floorboards for sure as I could hear them, but they travelled via the disused soil stack (unknowingly uncapped) and drains. I had to have a partial rewire after they’d chewed through wiring. I have a cat, and also a dachshund who would have loved to have given a rat a good shake, but we never saw them, only heard them.

Ah understood.

Apologies, they're in the floorboards in-between ground and 1st floor. New home owner here mis-naming rafters :)

Hopefully nothing in the roof!

Mine Moved from pampered town and has turned into a Ninja cat

We had a long battle with rats in our barn conversion.
We would hear them in the ceiling between ground and first floor. There isn't really a loft.
Cat is no good when the rats are inaccessible.
There are two things. First get rid of the ones there and second stop them coming back.
You need poison in the ceiling or wherever. Lots of it. That will kill them. The poison makes them thirsty so they go outside to die. We have occasionally had one die in the roof and it's an unpleasant couple of weeks.
I was always convinced they came in through the wall. Pest controllers seem obsessed with drains and after lots of surveys there was no obvious drain problem.
After three years and lots of expense we had the whole wall repointed and that almost did the trick. In two years we've had one rat. We have cameras in the roof so we spot them straight away and traps.

Did the previous owner declare a pest problem when selling? I think you're supposed to, amd I bet they were aware. Check whether there's any comeback (financial) on them not declaring a problem.
The fact that you found traps suggests they knew. I'm pretty sure there's a clause on the property information form about pests. At the very least you might have a claim for costs.

I was actually going to say didn’t previous owners mention this? Taking up floors and so on is an awful lot of work.

Hi, finally managed to get Pestology over today to get a second opinion on what needs to be done.

Looks like we'll have to go through and dig up the kitchen and do fairly extensive works to sort out the pipes.

Absolute nightmare for new homeowners to be honest.

What levels of work did you need doing?

Did they do a good job at "making good" after the work was complete, or did you have to do additional work yourself to make things as they were before?

Feeling a bit worried about having our kitchen completely dug up and what could go wrong. Bracing myself for what I imagine is going to be a very hefty quote.

Oh no! That sounds ghastly - but you’re probably better to get it done and then not worry about it- speaking from bitter experience of putting it off for a decade.

We didn’t have any internal work done. They were outside and really neat and tidy. The dug a small hole and installed a new chamber with a rat flap. It was in the neighbour’s garden so we let them in through our house having taken down a fence panel. They were clean/polite etc.

The neighbour on the other side had work done a while after us and they had their floor dug up. I believe they did that ok too but Ive not seen the end result. I’m did hear the breaker going for a morning tho.

id suggest you get plastic sheets and hang them in front of your cupboards/worktop. Try to seal floor to ceiling and then leave the working area free by moving furniture out. Should hopefully contain the mess - but as you described having floor joists it may not be as bad as you think?

If the builders have simply put joists and boards over the old ground, then they can maybe lift local areas of timber to access the old drains?

which way do the old floorboards run? The joists go in the opposite direction. So Youll get an idea of how much floor might have to come up.

good luck!

Sorry to hear this. I guess you’ll just have to throw money at it and suck up the work needed to be done. I suppose once they’re gone they’re gone.

For anyone Interested, the quote from Pestology is around £7,000 (icl VAT) to do the external and internal proofing. That's not even digging up the kitchen, so can't imagine how much more it would have been if that was needed.

Don't really see what other option we have, as it's got to be done.

Thanks for all the advice.

Exactly. We have a great cat but he obviously couldn’t get into our loft where the family of rats were. We used AA pest control. We’re in Bromley and I believe they’re local

We used Tony from CID for a rodent problem. Absolutely brilliant.

Well depending on loft is converted or not the cat can be let loose up there, but as I said before not many cats will tackle a rat. None of my 4 have ever tackled a rat but my childhood tabby cat caught them regularly. From outside.

No it’s not boarded plus if he went up there we’d never get him back down. Don’t think I’d fancy him messing with rats but then who knows what he gets up to in the wild 🤷‍♀️

Do have a good look through the quote and check that you are happy that all the work is essential. When they did ours they included all the bells and whistles - having studied all the information and knowing where the rats had been entering, I asked them to drop off some of the work which was "nice to have" but not essential and saved about £1500 ex VAT. So you may not have to do it all - or you could ask what could be done stage by stage - highest priority.

Hi, I'll try that approach, thanks.

To be honest, we unfortunately haven't been super impressed with them so far. £7,000 seems excessive for some drain lining, capping, and then some "nice to have" internal proofing.

I'd understand if they were doing major works like digging up the kitchen to install a new manhole, but this all seems fairly straightforward.

They've been hard to contact and seem to be ignoring my requests to jump on a call to talk it through.

Bit of a "take it or leave it" approach. The quote is just a total rather than broken out by works. They've probably got a lot of business so don't need to fight for ours is my guess.

My current idea is to take their survey (which was pretty good) and share this with a few similar companies to see what they'll quote for identical proposed works.

One has already mentioned they could do much better on price and happy to chat to me on the phone to walk me through it all.

It sounds like a lot. They might have upped the quote because they don't even want the work. Definitely ring around!

Get some alternative quotes for the work, but you do need to deal with the redundant pipes.

We had an issue with rats years ago, it took about 18 months to solve. The pest control companies just killed them and then they stank.

A plumber eventually solved it in 10 minutes, by identifying and then capping the redundant pipe.

A redundant pipe that hasn't been properly sealed is literally a rat run to the sewers, bringing rats into your house. It has to be dealt with I'm afraid.

Good luck!

It sounds like a lot but it depends on what they are doing. If they have to install 2 new chambers and internally line several pipes then that cost doesn't sounds so bad...

Yes absolutely. As a minimum we're going to reline the pipes to block off the redundant pipes for sure.

I'd be a lot more understanding if they were installing two new chambers, but they're doing all work from the existing pipework. No new chambers or digging at all.

A "no dig technology" lining and then some bungs in the existing manholes to cap some redundant drains off is the below ground work, and then some mesh lining around parts of the building for the above ground work.

Currently awaiting a few alternative quotes using the drain survey they gave us.

Also, we're considering putting more poison down in the meantime while we line up further works.

We're slightly worried about them dying in the floorboards - how long did the smell last for when this happened? Did you find any companies that would come and remove them from the walls for you, or is that slightly ridiculous?

Thanks!
Sam

It’s the lining - it’s specialist kit and expensive. However you could maybe go to a regular drain lining company instead as I suspect that Pestology subcontract it

When they die and rot away the smell lasts for about a week or so from recollection. I don’t think anyone would come and remove them from the walls for you.

I’ve just remembered, think it was mice but an ex of mine had them in the walls of his house so he had to get pest control in to get rid of them, whatever they did it worked.