What to coat concrete wall with to keep mice from climbing?
#11
I have a bump out cold storage room under my front porch where we keep canned tomatoes, salsa, and fruit and juice, etc. It is accessed through the basement and has unfinished concrete walls.  A couple of mice got in and  after we trapped them we found a nest behind some jars and they'd made a huge mess and ruined most of the food.  The shelving was just 2x4s and particle board shelves, it was ruined. 

I've made new melamine shelves that hang on the concrete walls and are 18" up off the floor and wrap around the cold storage area, it gives me more shelves and they are adjustable. There isn't any way for the mice to climb onto the melamine shelves except for one - five gallon buckets under the shelves.  They could climb the concrete wall to the bucket lid and then from there get onto the bottom shelf.

Hopefully we won't get any more mice,  We found how they were getting into the furnace room and fixed that, but mice find/make ways, so if any more do get in what  can I put on the rough concrete to keep them from climbing and getting into the food?  I could tile it but I'm looking for something a little less expensive and easy.
There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring - Carl Sagan
Reply
#12
(08-25-2018, 07:31 PM)Alaric Wrote: I have a bump out cold storage room under my front porch where we keep canned tomatoes, salsa, and fruit and juice, etc. It is accessed through the basement and has unfinished concrete walls.  A couple of mice got in and  after we trapped them we found a nest behind some jars and they'd made a huge mess and ruined most of the food.  The shelving was just 2x4s and particle board shelves, it was ruined. 

I've made new melamine shelves that hang on the concrete walls and are 18" up off the floor and wrap around the cold storage area, it gives me more shelves and they are adjustable. There isn't any way for the mice to climb onto the melamine shelves except for one - five gallon buckets under the shelves.  They could climb the concrete wall to the bucket lid and then from there get onto the bottom shelf.

Hopefully we won't get any more mice,  We found how they were getting into the furnace room and fixed that, but mice find/make ways, so if any more do get in what  can I put on the rough concrete to keep them from climbing and getting into the food?  I could tile it but I'm looking for something a little less expensive and easy.

Would a 4'x8' x1/16" pvc panel like THIS work.  $20   Roly
Reply
#13
Aluminum coil stock. 24"" wide. could be glued to the wall. Comes in 50' rolls
Reply
#14
Aluminum coil stock for the walls.

If you can secure 1/4" hardware cloth over the opening from the cold storage room to the outside, that will keep them out too.
Matt

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
-Jack Handy

Reply
#15
FRP panels something like this slippery and real tough the same thing hospitals and vet offices use.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/4-ft-x-8-ft-.../100389836
Reply
#16
You could try something like Tanglefoot then just pick them off periodically...
Reply
#17
Mice can easily jump up 12" and rats about 3 feet". Just fyi.
Reply
#18
(08-26-2018, 05:20 AM)EatenByLimestone Wrote: Aluminum coil stock for the walls.

If you can secure 1/4" hardware cloth over the opening from the cold storage room to the outside, that will keep them out too.

I removed the furnace room air intake grills and stapled #8  hardware cloth over the openings and then reinstalled the grills.  They aren't getting in through there.  My wife found where they had chewed a hole in the AC line insulation so I ree-nsulated the lineset and stuffed wadded wire cloth all around and in the line opening and then filled it with the rodent repelling foam.  We haven't had any inside since then. 

I like the idea of the PVC sheet.  I could glue it to the wall with construction adhesive.  I'm not sure the aluminum coil stock will lay down flat and not dent or bend over time.
There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring - Carl Sagan
Reply
#19
The pvc may give enough traction for a mouse to climb up.  The FRP is so hard and slick there is nothing that a mouse has to get a foot hold on
Reply
#20
(08-26-2018, 05:21 PM)fixtureman Wrote: The pvc may give enough traction for a mouse to climb up.  The FRP is so hard and slick there is nothing that a mouse has to get a foot hold on

I dunno, mice get into everything, no matter what you do.  Best is to kill them before they do significant damage.  I like the 5 gallon bucket trap.  Regular traps work well too, I use peanut butter, works every time.
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Product Recommendations

Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.