Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

To keep the air quality of your home healthy, prevent damage to your attic and roof, and keep your HVAC system running cost-efficiently, it’s important to maintain an air barrier between the living space of the home and the attic. Simply put, everything works better when attic air is kept out of the house and house air is kept out of the attic. Why? Let’s start with keeping attic air where it belongs. If you’ve ever ventured into the attic, especially during the warmer months, you know that attic air can be outright nasty. It often contains dust particles and other contaminants — contaminants that can cause health problems for the home’s occupants. The less attic air that enters your home’s living spaces, the better.

Just as important, we want to keep living space air out of the attic. Living space air can can be filled with water vapor. When that air is exposed to colder attic temperatures, the vapor gas condenses into water droplets that can potentially cause roof rot and mold growth (unfortunately, mold is an all-too-common attic contaminant). Living space air naturally tries to move up into the attic, especially in the winter, because of the “stack effect.” Heated air rises and expands. As air heats up, its molecules are pushed farther away, making it lighter (that’s why hot air balloons float). The air pushes upward against the attic floor. If there is a way for the air to find its way in, it will.  Air leakage into the attic stresses your HVAC system, increasing your heating and cooling bills. There are a number of possible sources of air leaks, but attic hatches are at the top of the list. More often than not, attic hatches are unsealed and have gaps that allow for unwanted air movement. There is an easy solution for this: Attic stairway covers.

The homeowner mentioned to us that he was concerned that his attic hatch was causing significant air leakage. We had the perfect product: the Hatchmaster Attic Stairway Cover. This lightweight, durable cover secures around the perimeter of the attic hatch frame. It’s made of double-bubble reflective insulation, has a 15 R-Value, and a heavy-duty zipper to open and close. 

Recently, I was called out to an apartment unit in Asbury Park, NJ after the tenants had complained that mice were observed scampering about the living room. Upon arrival, I placed four RTU (“ready-to-use”) bait stations in the corners of the living room so that I could figure out where the mice were coming from based on whether and how much of the bait was taken.These bait stations fit flush against a wall or corner where mice travel and a curious mouse can’t resist entering and exploring. Once inside, the interior baffles lead them to the bait. These bait stations are the safest way to keep mouse-killing product in residential locations away from children and pets.  

On my follow-up visit, I observed that two of the four stations had activity. For those two stations, the bait was pretty much gone. So, doing some more investigating for the access points into the apartment, I found a hole under the slats of a radiator behind the hot water pipe. I sealed the hole with a chew-proof copper mesh and rebated the RTUs. Once the mice hiding inside are eliminated, with their entry point closed, this troublesome mouse infestation should be completely resolved in a  short amount of time.

This homeowner in Titusville, NJ, had mice infesting his crawl space. After a thorough inspection, we determined that the mice were able to enter the home through the tiny gaps that were around the utility pipes.

First, we carefully cleaned up all the rodent droppings and then installed several rodent bait stations throughout the crawl space and around the exterior of the home. Afterward, we stuffed each opening with chew-proof Xcluder® Fill Fabric. This material will form a firm and tight barrier to keep the mice out. Afterward, we sealed the Xcluder® Fill Fabric in place with a premium, waterproof adhesive. Once we finished, we scheduled several follow up visits to continue to monitor the bait stations and replenish the bait in the bait stations as needed.

This house in Pennington had a piece of fascia that had blown off during a recent storm. The fascia is the vertical finishing edge that caps the end of the rafters.When we arrived at the home and inspected the needed repair, the missing fascia board reminded me of a missing tooth. To me, the gap in the fascia made the home look sad.  

The Cowleys home improvement crew did its own version of a “dental implant” and replaced the missing piece. After we were done, the house looked as good as new and, even better, the homeowner was all smiles when admiring the completed job!  

These homeowners in Hopewell, NJ. found themselves with a raccoon infestation on their property. While the raccoons did not make their way inside the home, it is stressful even to see these large animals scavenging around your property. Here, they were crawling in and out of storm drains around because the grates had a gap that was large enough for the raccoons to gain access. 

Wildlife has a way of exploiting weaknesses in a structure in order to gain entry. Often, its water-saturated, rotting fascia, soffit boards, or roof shingles. Other times, the weakness is a structural opening like chimneys or storm drains that do not have an adequate protective covering to block access. For this homeowner, I installed six storm grate covers that would keep out raccoons and other larger wildlife from entering the drains. I’m confident that by blocking these gaps, the raccoons will move off the property to find another home.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a good before image, so here we show a typical open storm drain.