Cutting sheet to profile

[Lippyp]

Just got back from four weeks at my house in France and I still have a real rodent problem in my roof over there. I have a colony of Fat Dormice living in the gap between the insulation and the roof. These are the size of squirrels, try to eat my expensive insulation and are bloody noisy at 4am.

The roof is actually corrugated cement sheet with roman tiles placed on top, not authentic but its watertight and looks real. It was like this when we bought the house. Originally it would have been roofed with stone slates.

I need to really block up the access for these furry pests and the only way I can see them getting in is via the spaces under the sheet at the eaves. In order to keep some ventialtion I'm thinking of nailing some shaped panels of perforated galv sheet to the boards at the eaves. My problem is I need about 20m of this stuff cutting out to shape and I don't fancy doing it with a pair of snips! What would be the best way to get this done and does anyone have any reccomendations of companies in the North-west that could do this? Next visit is in September and I can bring a pattern back with me then.

 

[Hitch]

Simplest, try and get your hands on a plasma, make up a template from a bit of sheet, then plasma round it.
Its obviously not that critical. Each curved cut shold just flip over, then a straight cut to make two pieces.

 

[Lippyp]

Can you hire them from anywhere? I can't afford to buy one atm and I don't know anyone with one off the top of my head. It's gonna be a max of 1mm sheet maybe thinner if I can get it. It just needs to be thick enought to keep the little bleeders out. The idea of using perforated sheet is to keep the eaves open and so ventilate the roof so it doesn't get damp.

The last sheet will get nailed on after dark as they're nocturnal and go out to forage and then the roof space laced with poison to get any that had a night off. Someone suggested shoving a snake up there and to be fair we have several around the place including a metre long Marseille Couleuvre that would deral with them but I'm ******** if I'm picking one up. A couple of ferrets would probably work though.

 

[Hitch]

You can, but could be expensive.

Is there any other ventilation in the roof? You can get foam eaves fillers that just push in the gaps.

But i forgot the obvious, you can get stiff plastic comb eaves fillers, they allow ventilation, and are stiff enough to stop annoyances.

Google 'Comb eaves filler' and im sure youll find something.

 

[Ratty]

But i forgot the obvious, you can get stiff plastic comb eaves fillers, they allow ventilation, and are stiff enough to stop annoyances.

Google 'Comb eaves filler' and im sure youll find something.

I was going to suggest that but I'd imagine they would just nibble through it.

How about woven metal mesh? (I have both brass and st/st, there are probably other types) this would shape easily to follow the curves and could be fixed with staples.

 

[Bigjoe]

Lippy,
you can hire plasma cutters from www.hss.com they start at £100 for a week for a basic machine.
Hope this helps

Bigjoe

 

[dafydd]

Get youself something like this:http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachicom/content.jsp?page=MetalworkingTools/NibblersAndShears/details/CE16%20Metalworking%20Tools.html&level=3&section=MetalworkingTools&parent=details&godparent=NibblersAndShears&nav=left&path=jsp/hitachi/forhome/PowerTools/

I have something similar but a much older machine. It absolutely motors through thin sheets, cuts curves easily, doesn't leave sharp edges, is very easy to handle & I think sells for around £150.

 

[Rusty]

Less than 1mm you would fly through that with a pair of gilbows ( tin snips).

 

[Ratty]

Or if you want something cheap and you've got a compressor try this. I've got a similar cheapo one and it's fine.

 

[MrFluffy]

Stuff the space with wire wool, keeps the ventilation a little, but rodents don't like to burrow though it at all. Mrs F is mice-phobic, which is a bit of a blow as we live in the middle of the countryside and have 3 cats. So we have to know these kind of things...
If your solution is a little less robust, they'll gnaw though it fairly soon.

 

[Drains]

Are fat doormice edible? Just a thought...

 

[Ratty]

Are fat doormice edible? Just a thought...

A good thought, yes if the name is anything to go by; Fat dormouse=Glis glis=Edible dormouse. Don't poison them Lippy, feed them up, you have your very own loft of suppers.

 

[MrFluffy]

Are fat doormice edible? Just a thought...

They are by our cats. If its small furry and warm theyre interested in being furry assasins to it.

 

[Martinslost]

the wire wool idea would work, but its a bit of a fire hazard I would have thaught if the house catches?

Tell you what if you can pay for me to holiday over there I'll take the air rifle and pop them off

 

[Lippyp]

The romans considered them a delicacy and used to breed them to eat so yeah you can eat them. They are about the size of a squirrell, there are a couple of colonies in the UK (brought over by the romans) but they're not widespread over here and they are protected here (but not in France) I've poisoned them in the past but they keep coming back, the house backs on to a forest. They'd probably eat their way through anything plastic so it has to be steel. Theres no other ventilation in the roof (it could really do with some vents at the ridge to let the hot air out) so I don't want to block them otherwise I'd have just used expanding foam. 20m is a lot to cut with hand shears especially once you take the curves into account.

 

[Ratty]

Lippy - re; my earlier post about st/st mesh, this is the stuff I've got here..

With fingers for scale!

It's real easy to shape it with your fingers and holds it's shape so you could get it in an appropriate width and shape it as you go. Also it will follow any odd shapes (like where the sheets overlap) and would even keep out wasps. The only equipment you'd need is a staple gun. If it were me, this is what I'd use. If you want to tidy up the lower part where it fixes to the boards (soffits??) you could nail some wood over it.
I've just googled and found this place looks like you can get it in all sorts of materials including plain and galvanised steel, aluminium, nickel, brass, copper, phosphor bronze, monel and stainless steel and in different types of weave and this page even mentions it's use for roof venting and it can be bought in varying widths (or they'll cut any of it to your spec.). I'm glad I found this site - could be very useful for me!!!

 

[Lippyp]

I hadn't thought of the expanded mesh, that might be a good alternative as its stiff enough to stand up on its own and pretty easy to cut with snips. The wood is hidden by the gutters so appearance isn't too much of an issue. It does need to be fairly robust though.

 

[Ratty]

This isn't expanded Lippy, it's woven, so more like a fabric but it is pretty robust (the st/st is anyway) and will hold it's shape. The brass would probably be cut-able with stout scissors. If you pm me your address I can send you a piece of the stuff I have here for you to have a play with - or the company may send samples. Expanded mesh would work but it's much harder work to cut it, harder on the hands to shape and would need much stouter fixings to hold. Having said that, aluminium expanded is softer, more flexible and generally easier than the steel stuff.

 

[Haze]

I would fill the gaps completely and install some vented roof tiles or similar, the club I work for has 3 big houses for the staff to live in and we had problems with rodents, so I have spent many hours filling holes and gaps to stop rodent travel, chicken wire and grip fill sorts most of my problems area's, cement for everywhere else

 

[Lippyp]

It needs to be pretty rigid as it would only be fixed at the bottom, hence leaning towards the expanded mesh rather than the woven stuff. I'm prepared to be that like squirrels these little buggers would have a good go at getting past it so it needs to be something they can't easily bend.