LESLIE: Now we’ve got Kevin in Nevada who’s got some birds getting in the house. How is it happening?
KEVIN: We’ve got the soffits going in underneath the roof line.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
KEVIN: Or for airflow that’s going in there and it’s certainly got some sort of grating in there but they seem to be strong enough to be punching those out …
TOM: Huh.
KEVIN: … and bending them in.
TOM: Oh, boy. Persistent little buggers, aren’t they?
KEVIN: Yeah, and I had – in the past I’ve gone to one of the home improvement stores and got the kind of a thicker one that has got the grate and then they’ve got some metal in front of it but it seems to restrict some of the airflow and the places where they’re hitting now are not as easy to get to. So I just didn’t know if there was something that you guys could suggest that would help with this issue.
TOM: Well, in the soffit the best material to use in the soffit is perforated soffit vent material which would – do you have wood, plywood, there now with vents in the middle of it? Is that what you have?
KEVIN: Yes.
LESLIE: Yeah, and so that’s a perfect material for the birds to sort of get at and as the plywood gets involved in the environmental conditions it’s going to sort of weaken anyway. So there is a plastic material that’s a full, continuous piece that’s built for the soffit that’s continually vented. So it’s actually providing better venting as well.
TOM: And they also have aluminum vented soffit material, too. It’s totally pierced so it lets lots of air in.
So those are two things you can do if you want to replace the soffit material. If you’re just trying to discourage the birds from attacking these individual vents, another thing you might want to do is get some pigeon wire which is usually aluminum or stainless steel wire – it looks kind of spiky – and attach it upside down to the vent area. When they get near it they’ll come in contact with the spike and be dissuaded from trying to get into that space.
KEVIN: Oh, OK. Great.
TOM: And that’s available at home centers. Also seen it online. Pretty inexpensive stuff and it’s pretty effective and it’s humane. They just don’t want to be near it.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Yeah, the birds will only do it once.
KEVIN: Yeah, well perfect. That’s all I need.
TOM: Alright, Kevin. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
KEVIN: Thanks a lot.
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