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Posted by C & E on May 4, 2008, 9:41 pm
>I have vertical redwood siding on one side of my house and I've found
> that there's a sizeable gap between the bottom edge and the wall that
> mice have been using to get into my house.
>
> The gap was large enough (1") that I wonder if it's supposed to be
> there for ventilation.
>
> Here's a pic, but you can hardly tell that there's a gap between the
> siding and the wall (and, yes, the previous owner painted over
> beautiful redwood):
> http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w174/upand_at_them/107-0757_IMG2.jpg
>
> Mike
No, Mike, the gap is *not* supposed to be there. My home is sided with
T1-11 (35 years old) and there are only occassional gaps at the bottom.
When when I ignore this bit of maintenance the mice and crickets get into
the basement and the air ducting. I tried one of the expanding urethane
foams but the mice didn't mind gnawing it away. I swithched to silicone
caulk and it has done the trick. It's not always easy to get the caulking
gun into postion because the siding is close to the soil so I've had to get
inventive with some small diameter vinyl tubing. I force it (tubing) down
onto an opened caulking tube's nozzle. This is retained in place with a 4d
nail which is pushed through, bent over and snipped off to keep it out of
the way. Once, I had one that wanted to leak at the nozzle/ tubing
interface so I smeared it with caulk and waited an hour while it cured
enough to allow me to continue. If the void is big you may have to plug it
enough for the caulking to grab onto. I haven't had this problem so I don't
know what to suggest. Off hand I would try either a bit of nylon netting
like you see in decorations at weddings - the rice is usually wrapped in it.
I'm sure there are better but I don't have it for you. Best of luck,
Chuck
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