It may come as a surprise, but rodents can ruin concrete faster than nearly anything else!
From patios to pool decks, mice, voles and rats burrow in and make their homes exactly where they are unwanted. If you’ve been noticing sinking, crumbling and caving in your concrete surfaces, you may find that rodents are to blame.
What to Watch For
First, rodents can ruin concrete by tunneling underneath it. By removing the soil that provides the stable foundation for your concrete steps or patio, they’re creating a void that threatens the stability of the concrete structure.
With no supportive earth beneath, the concrete slab will sink, causing cracking and crumbling. The unsightly surface compromises your home’s aesthetics and creates dangerous trip hazards.
Rodents can also ruin concrete by chewing through it. A solid concrete slab isn’t susceptible to their burrowing, but aging, weak and crumbling concrete is no match for determined rodents. They can chip away at the concrete structure and weaken it even further.
How to Eradicate Rodent Invaders
Homeowners with rodent problems have to know what to do when faced with these issues, because acting as soon as possible could save your concrete from serious damage.
First, clean up your yard. Rake up dead leaves and foliage that could serve as a food source or nesting material for these critters. Also, treat your lawn with insect repellent regularly throughout the year. Put birdseed indoors, and don’t leave pet food outside. Keep your trash and recycling bins covered securely, and store them in your garage if possible.
If rodents can’t find anything to eat near your home, they’re much less likely to hang around.
Clean up dead branches and stack firewood inside your garage so they no longer have a place to call home. Trim bushes and trees, and use mulch minimally. Mice love to burrow into mulch because of its insulating properties.
Once you’ve removed their food sources and hiding places, put traps in strategic locations, such as next to your concrete staircase, or where the corner of your home and concrete patio meet.
Rodents love peanut butter, so use this as your trap bait. When you catch a rodent, make sure to place it in a sealed bag and dispose of it right away, using gloves to protect yourself from disease.
How to Fix the Damage
Once you’ve taken care of your rodent problem, it’s time to fix your damaged concrete. If rodents have burrowed underneath and caused the concrete to sink, slabjacking is an affordable, effective repair method. Injecting grout underneath the slab will restore the secure foundation that the rodents destroyed, and it will raise the slab back to its previous, even level.
Talk to the team at Lift-Up Concrete for more information about how rodents can ruin concrete, and how slabjacking can work for you.
