Ah, home repair. Does the mere thought send shivers up your spine? Do you think of large looming tasks that will take forever and never ending projects and repairs that seem to keep on coming and coming until you’re about ready to rip your hair out and admit defeat? Well stop. Think about the little things you do every day to improve your home. I would argue that these are just as valid home improvements as putting a new roof on is. You don’t have to use fifteen different power tools and consult eight different manuals to do a simple repair. It can be as easy as changing out all those broken knobs on your kitchen counters. In my case, my simple home repair project was filling cracks to ensure that the resident rodent population wouldn’t be around much longer.
The place had been empty for a while. And as evidenced by the numerous rodent traps and tons of tiny little droppings in every single corner and cabinet, mice had taken advantage of the absence of humans. After vacuuming up the trails of evidence, something had to be done about all those little nooks and crannies that they were disappearing into. My cats could only do so much to help in the endeavor and steps were needed to prevent the little buggers from being able to flit out of sight at a moment’s notice. Enter the spray foam.
Spray foam insulation is a wondrous fun repair item to use. In fact, it makes you feel like a kid again. What’s even better is that it will mold itself to fit the cracks and empty spaces to a tee. You simply take the can, point the nozzle in the right direction and spray. Easy right? This will cause a liquid form of the chemicals to come out and ooze into the spot you’re filling. From there, when it dries it will balloon up and form what looks like a very strong bubble. This bubble can then be shaved off with a standard razor so that it can’t be seen, or if in a closet or somewhere hidden, simply be left as is. Although if you have kids or small animals they may try to pick at it or eat it, which is not a very good idea. In fact, it’s kind of toxic so when you’re spraying you should use a mask and gloves as well as not to get in direct contact with the stuff.
This is how mice escape was prevented in the home. Not only did the house no longer have open cracks, the mice couldn’t escape and were slowly eradicated to leave the home pest free. Simple to do and still a home improvement chore that you can be proud of.