The 24 most common rodent entry points in Metro Vancouver homes

The roof line — the most under-inspected zone

• Soffit-fascia junction: the gap where the soffit meets the fascia trim. Standard on most pre-2000 homes; needs hardware cloth or metal flashing.
• Gable vents: the louvered triangular vent at each end of a gable roof. Stock-standard louver gaps are larger than 6 mm — needs quarter-inch mesh retrofit.
• Ridge vents: the continuous vent along the roof peak. Stock baffles fail with age; rats access where the ridge cap lifts.
• Roof returns: the rounded transition where the eave wraps the corner of the house. Common gap point on heritage stock.
• Dormer junctions: where a dormer roof meets the main roof — often poorly flashed on older builds.
• Plumbing stacks and roof penetrations: the rubber gasket fails over time; gaps form around the pipe.
• Chimney flashing: where the flashing meets the chimney brick — gaps form as masonry weathers.

Walls and exterior — utility access is the leak

• Water service entry: the gap around the water line entering the house. Almost always present on pre-1990 homes.
• Gas line entry: the gap around the gas service line.
• Cable and telecom penetrations: typically badly sealed, sometimes literally just a hole drilled through siding.
• A/C and heat-pump line sets: where copper refrigerant lines enter the wall.
• Dryer vent: stock louvres have gaps; back-draft flap can stick open.
• Bathroom and kitchen exhaust vents: same as dryer vent.
• Basement window wells: rotted wood frames or aged concrete create gaps.
• Garage door bottom: brush seal worn out — typical on 5+ year doors.
• Door bottom weatherproofing: rubber sweeps degrade in 3-5 years in BC's wet climate.

Foundation and crawlspace

• Crawlspace vents: stock screens are often torn, rusted, or missing. The single most common Norway rat entry point in BC.
• Foundation cracks: any crack wider than 6 mm at grade level.
• Sewer lateral cleanout: the buried cap that gives access to the sewer line — sometimes settles below grade.
• Sump pit access: if uncovered, a runway from soil into basement.
• Cantilevered floor framing: where a second-storey overhangs a first-storey wall — often unsealed at the joist bay.
• Deck-to-house junction: where deck framing meets the rim joist — gaps allow rats from under-deck cover into rim.
• Stair stringer-to-house: where exterior stairs attach to the house.

Roof rat-specific access points (add for canopy-adjacent homes)

• Tree branches contacting the roof: any branch within 1 m of the roof gives roof rats arboreal access. Cypress, cedar, fir, big-leaf maple all common in Vancouver west-side.
• Hydro lines: roof rats run hydro lines from pole to house entry.
• Adjacent fences and trellises: anything that gives a roof rat a vertical climb to the wall or roof line.

How we seal each type

Housing-era differences in Metro Vancouver

Pre-war character homes (built 1900-1940) in neighbourhoods like Strathcona, Mount Pleasant, Kitsilano, and Commercial Drive present the highest entry-point density. These homes typically have unenclosed crawlspaces with original wooden vent frames that have rotted, knob-and-tube wiring chases that were never sealed when upgraded, and cedar shake roofs that lift at corners. Post-and-beam construction common on the North Shore (1950s-1970s) creates large open column-to-floor junctions that are difficult to seal. The 1980s-1990s fibreboard-sided homes in South Surrey and Burnaby South present differently — the main entry risk is delaminated siding creating gaps at window corners and corner boards. Newer post-2000 homes on standard framing are the most defensible: fewer historic gaps, modern penetration sleeves, and tighter detailing codes.

The photo-report standard for exclusion documentation

The Wild Pest Pillar 2 promise is that every customer sees the photo report within 30 minutes of job completion. For exclusion work, this means a before-and-after photo of every sealed entry point, labelled with its location (e.g., 'North soffit — dryer vent, sealed with mesh and closed-cell foam'). This documentation matters for two reasons: it gives the homeowner a record to verify the work was done, and it creates a baseline for future annual inspections so the tech can confirm the seal is still intact. If you've had prior exclusion work done but have no photos of what was done and where, you effectively have no baseline — which is why we re-inspect even properties that claim to have been previously 'proofed.'