Rats

[mats01_99]

Hia ll. Has anybody had experience of Rats getting into there homes? In the last week I have had Rats in the drainpipes which have managed to get into my house. I am the last house on the road which puts me at greater risk as they have nowhere else to go if they head in this direction. They got in by gnawing away at the rubber spigot waste pipe cap that the washing machine waste pipe feeds into. They then chewed through the skirting and got into the walls.
This indicated that there must be a break in the pipe anywhere between my house and the manhole drain located 5 doors up the road so I had a CCTV inspection done on the drains on the drive and we discovered that the pipes have no breaks but surprisingly there is no trap off the manhole drain leaving free access for any rodent between the main sewer and our waste pipes. Does anybody know if this is common practice with new build estates?
Many thanks

[arwyn]

Sorry I cant help with the *new build* problem. I lived in the middle of a row of nine houses and had mice once, we never found out how they got in but killed them off.
Years later I thought they were back as I saw droppings. When the man came he told me it was rat poo and he but down some poison.
To cut a long story short because the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge when I think about it. ie My 7 year old took a apple from the fruit bowl on the coffee table in the lounge to see it had rat teeth marks in it. (I'm shuddering lol).
Also a packet of biscuits on a bench in kitchen got ate by them.
I keep a spotless home aswell (shudders again).
ANYWAY they were in the cavitty walls, the whole row had them inside their houses. Mine got in by they spot where the sink drain pipe went outside.
As none of us really spoke to each other most thought they had mice, so put mouse traps out. Hence rats running along cavitty walls with mouse traps stuck on their tails. What a racket..lol
This is the short story. So block any holes you find.

[The Builder]

Back in the bad old days, Mats, they often fitted an "interceptor" just after a manhole, before the sewer connection. This was effectively a trap (or U-bend). If it bunged up, there was a removable plug just above it. This was taken off so that "direct" rodding could clear the blockage.
I said "bad old days" because these things were forever getting blocked.......... eventually, in most cases, the plug was thrown away, effectively bypassing the interceptor.
So much for the history lesson ..................... for as long as I can remember, the connection to the sewer has been "straight through".