Insulated Raised Floors and Rodent Control

Started by MountainDon, August 28, 2007, 07:57:32 PM

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MountainDon

#25
Quotesandwiching some STYROFOAM extruded polystyrene insulation between a top and bottom subfloor.
Not to rain on your idea, I had thought of that. But discarded the idea because...
1. Not enough insulation value for my purposes.
2. Seemed expensive for insulation value.
3. Potential sponginess bothered me. I'm used to hard unmoving, unforgiving concrete slabs.
4. The strength of the perimeter walls to rim joists really bothered me. Or the strength could be achieved, but at greater expense and bother.
5. It seemed more work than what it was worth, along with #1 thru 4

JMO

QuoteThere's some interesting reading on wire mesh in this on-line catalogue:
More information there about wire and other mesh than one could imagine.  :)
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

desdawg

"Mice will eat almost any foods consumed by humans and domestic pets. A mouse's daily food requirements are small, only about 1/10 ounce (½ teaspoon) of food and 1/5 ounce of water per day for survival, and much of their water requirements can come from the food they eat."
If they don't eat any more than that what is all the fuss about?   ;) Seems like no matter what I do they are a fact of life in the country. In the better mousetrap contest a 5 gallon bucket half full of water was a serious contender. The critter attempts to get a drink, drops in and can't get back out. Eventually drowns.
I have little packrat homes scattered around my place in the hills. I have gone there after a fairly long absence and found Bobcat droppings on my steps. But then I am way out there where the buses don't run.
I have done so much with so little for so long that today I can do almost anything with absolutely nothing.


glenn kangiser

Upgrade that bucket, desdawg with a horizontal wire - stiff like welding rod, with a corn on the cob - hole drilled longways  so it will rotate on the wire -- smear it with peanut butter and give them a plank to walk up.  It will be flying Walenda mouse into the the water when he falls off the rotating corn.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

MountainDon

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Okie_Bob

Glenn, now that's some Okie Ingenuity for sure!!!

Des, I agree, don't see what the big deal is. Mice have been a fact of life for me since I was a kid. When I was born, we lived with my grandad and he was a sharecropper. My uncle and I slept on a screened in porch with a lineoleum floor. I can still remember hearing the sound of little mouse feet clicking across that linoleum after the lights were out. Actually, that's the only good reason to have a cat! We called a good cat, a mouser and they always had a home with us.
Okie Bob


MountainDon

#30
Well, I'm sure there are a lot of folks who have had or have mice in their houses. The fact is they can be destructive as well as disease carriers.

Yes, they don't actually eat very much food, but any food they get into, well, I consider it contaminated. They can get into anything not in a metal can. Unlike people they are not fastidious about where they defacate or urinate. They also chew stuff in the walls and ceilings like insulation on wires. Maybe not so much as they used to before romex, etc. They love to nest in fiberglass batting. Unlike people, burrowing through it doesn't bother them.

Maybe I'm more cautious and concerned because I lived through a case of Hantavirus. The deer mouse is the primary vector. Now, I will freely admit that the vast majority of folks have absolutely no worry about catching the Hantavirus. I believe I picked it up after a summer of prowling around old mines, cabins, ruins in SE Utah in the late 90's. I slept in some of the old cabins and that's the most likely place I got it. I foolishly swept the floor area for a place to bed down and likely stirred up droppings/urine/virus doing so.

So as I stated, most folks have nothing to worry about regarding hantavirus. But, IF you get Hantavirus you will almost always die unless you get to a hospital ER/ICU. Even then it's a crap shoot. It's a virus, no drugs work on it. All the hospital can do is give support; oxygen, fluids, a respirator if necessary. The case fatality rate in the entire United States is now 35%, New Mexico 41%, better than the 56% rate a few years ago. The time from beginning to feel a little under the weather to having severe respiratory distress can be measured in hours rather than days.

I rest easier if I know I've done all I can to keep mice from ever gaining access to a building. FYI, even a HEPA filter is not fine enough to filter out the virus, vacuuming just blows any virus present throughout the area.

'nuff said.

So everyone makes their own choices, takes their own chances. To each his own.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

MountainDon

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RODENT-EXCLUSION MANUAL

available here

http://www.health.state.nm.us/epi/hanta.html

D/L link near top of left side
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

glenn kangiser

QuoteGlenn, now that's some Okie Ingenuity for sure!!!

Des, I agree, don't see what the big deal is. Mice have been a fact of life for me since I was a kid. When I was born, we lived with my grandad and he was a sharecropper. My uncle and I slept on a screened in porch with a lineoleum floor. I can still remember hearing the sound of little mouse feet clicking across that linoleum after the lights were out. Actually, that's the only good reason to have a cat! We called a good cat, a mouser and they always had a home with us.
Okie Bob

BoB -- you could have trimmed their mousy little toenails and they wouldn't have clicked on the linoleum and woke you. :-?
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

Okie_Bob

Dang, Glenn, why didn't I think of that??????????
Okie Bob


desdawg

Actually I was being facitious. I don't like the little suckers any better than anyone else. But they are very difficult to keep out as they seem able to penetrate any fortress. I lived in the city for a while. Didn't have much problem with rodents but enter the sewer roach. The cock-a-roach is a prehistoric pest.
So I guess I will settle for the country and if it comes with native pests I will just do my best.
Glenn, it sounds like you have perfected the bucket technology.  :)

glenn-k

#35
I'll forgive you, BoB.  I'm sure it was before the days of the "mouse huggers". ::)  


desdawg, I wish I could claim that as my own invention --making the little suckers fall in and drown -- but I read it somewhere.

No wonder Mickey Mouse has that high squeaky voice.  Probably straddled the wire when he fell off.  Wonder who helped him out of the water. :-?

How fickle I am.  Love them one minute -- drown them the next. :o :)



desdawg

Now that is my idea of high technology. And with two ramps the party could get bigger.

lookloan

Some people have had success with the plug in the electric socket mouse sound deterents.

My thought is on bottom of an open pier cabin, how about metal roofing if money is not an issue. They interlock and should seal
out any rodent. Then from the inside, spray one inch layer of spray foam which is an air barrier, then fill with fiberglass, the put sub-floor on. Not sure how moisture is an issue if off the ground on piers - but maybe others can comment.