Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

An Avanel, NJ homeowner contacted Cowleys for a nuisance wildlife technician to take care of a wildlife problem, and I was dispatched to his home. He told me that animals, possibly opossums, were gaining access under his cantilevered flooring. I have an interest in building construction and, to me, cantilevers are a great example of smart home building. With standard framing construction, joists are extended to a girder at the front end, and the framing looks like a bed frame. However, with cantilevered flooring, instead of a girder at the end of the joists, a beam is placed under the joists, so they can extend past that support.

That overhang that is past the beam is what’s called the cantilever. Using this construction, you can extend a home’s footprint and save on material costs— as long as it’s done right. For a safe cantilever overhang, you have to consider the strength of the particular wood and the spacing of the joists. Also, since the beam acts as a fulcrum, you have to make sure that the flooring can handle the weight put on the cantilever by taking into account the backspan of the joists (the distance of the joist up to the beam). Cantilevered engineering is like building a playground teeter-totter that you don’t want to budge an inch when weight is placed on the unsupported side. Unfortunately, some wildlife was as impressed with this cantilevered flooring as I was — and they wanted an up-close view by getting into the spacing under the flooring extending over the foundation!

For this particular job, the animals had made of mess of things with their clawing and droppings, and I needed to remove all of the debris and contaminated insulation underneath. I was able to access the area through the ceiling of the basement. After removing the debris, I sanitized and deodorized the entire area so that no other wildlife would be attracted to the same area by the left-over scent. For added measure, I blocked off every bay in the framing with Silver-Glo insulation and spray foam. Finally, I installed a Dig Defense® on the exterior portion of the cantilever and the rear deck to keep wildlife from being able to gain access. With a dig defense, the area invaded by wildlife is blocked by underground fencing to prevent them from re-entering. 

This homeowner in Avenel, NJ contacted Cowleys for a crawl space improvement. Cowleys has an experienced crew that handles various crawl space improvements, up to and including full encapsulation and whole-house dehumidification for homeowners with water and moisture issues. These issues often result in mold growth that then affects the indoor air quality of the home.  

This particular installation job was more limited, and we are more than happy to adjust the scope of our work to meet the particular needs of the homeowner. The homeowner did not require full encapsulation (Cleanspacing”) because the crawl space was dry and did not have humidity levels that would be conducive to mold growth. However, the customer decided that it was time to replace his flimsy 6-mil “contractor bag” vapor barrier with something more durable and substantial in order to deal off the dirt and prevent dust and odors that periodically permeated the living areas above. 

To meet the needs of this homeowner we removed the old barrier and replaced it with our tear-resistant heavy-duty 20-mil CleanSpace vinyl vapor barrier. This vapor barrier is only available to licensed Basement Systems dealers. Our barrier is a specially engineered film made of layers of high density and low density polyethylene, and you  can walk on it without worrying about rips and tears. With its mil thickness, this barrier has the durability of a plastic tarp. 

The homeowner was quite pleased with our installation work and informed us that if he ever needed additional crawl space renovations, he’d have us back in an instant.

This homeowner in Morganville, NJ had an issue with bats roaming around his attic, so our Nuisance Wildlife Division was sent out and safely removed them from the home. Now that the bats are gone, we need to make sure they don't get back in!

After a thorough examination of the home, we determined that the bats were able to enter the home via the ridge vent & the attic fan. To fix this, we installed Ridge-Guard® and an attic fan cover. Ridge-Guard® secures and reinforces the ridge vent shingles so that bats, flying squirrels, and other nuisance wildlife are unable to enter. The attic fan covers are made out of heavy-duty 18 Gauge expanded Galvannealed steel mesh and prevents all nuisance wildlife from entering the home through the attic fan. Not only is the home properly secured from bats, but all nuisance wildlife too!

This homeowner in Morganville, NJ, had an infestation of squirrels in their attic. After a thorough inspection, we discovered that they were entering the home via the gable vent. Squirrels infesting a home via the gable vents is very common as over time, the gable vents get weathered and squirrels (and other nuisance wildlife) have no problem ripping away these vents to find shelter inside a home. After installing our retrieval devices, in a short amount of time, we successfully and safely retrieved all the squirrels and relocated them to a new, humane location.

Before we left, we removed the broken gable vent, disinfected the attic, and installed a louvered vent guard. This material is made out of heavy-duty Galvannealed steel (which means it won't rust) and is customized to accommodate vents of all shapes and sizes. Now that it is installed, squirrels and other nuisance wildlife will no longer be able to enter the attic through the gable vent.

We were sent out on a service call to a new customers home in Marlboro, NJ, to treat for mice. The owner was wondering why she had mice to begin with because she regularly deep cleaned her home. Well, about 30 yards away from the property was a heavy wooded area with a lot of water and, after a thorough inspection of the home, there were a lot of gaps around the basement vents. The mice were coming from the woods and, since it was getting cold outside, making there way into the basement!

As we inspected the basement, we found a ton of mice droppings and tunnels throughout the insulation. Mice will often tunnel in the insulation to create a warm nesting place. First, we carefully removed all the mice droppings. Next, we installed several rodent bait stations throughout the basement and along the exterior of the home.

Afterward, we stuffed all the openings around the basement vents with chew-proof, stainless steel mesh and then sealed them with a waterproof, premium adhesive. Lastly, we scheduled several follow up visits to replenish the bait in the rodent bait stations and to monitor the mice activity.