Foundation

I met Jim McDaniel during an energy audit on Lincoln Pl- try him at Prospect Architecture - they know a lot: 718 783 0384

Julia, I have not done this but I am in the process of getting quotes to completely replace the slab and beams in my basement/cellar. From my discussions, your engineer/architect should opine on the structural aspects. I would love to know who you are using and if you recommend them. Thanks and good luck

We live near the subway and food stores so our rat problem is one of ongoing management. I don't think we can achieve eradication. I go out every month with our exterminator for problems with yard rats. Over the past couple of years, I've learned more than I've ever wanted to know about rats, gulp. I've found the most foolproof way for keeping them away entirely is the stray tomcat who has made his home on our rear roof. Since the cat no longer seems to get out of the backyards, to take care of rats in the front yard, Without a hunting cat, I've found it most effective to find the rat boroughs and fill them first with bait and/or tracking powder, and then to cram, really cram, steel wool into the hole. I usually use a stick to do so. Just the bait doesn't seem to be enough, and unless you really cram the steel wool, rats can get through it. For your house, I'd work on indentifying every hole. If the holes are big, get the exterminator to bait, steel wool and then apply a cement/concrete patch. The rats at our place seem to go around the edges of sidewalks, so I keep steel wool and pre-prepared concrete to fill throughout the month. I've read that a capsaicin chili will help keep rats away. Here's a link to an article about the efficacy of rat repellants applied to cable: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1834&context=icwdm_usdanwrc I haven't tried it because our problem is outside and there are alot of other animals and children around. I've also seen that there's an annual upswing in population in spring and fall and if a mouse gets into your house, the rats are usually gone for the season. I recommend that both you and your exterminator work together. Rats will knw through concrete. They seem to have some sort of ancestral food paths. In spite of yearly eradication in our yard, the next year other rats come back. They also continue crawl under our stoop where we haven't kept garbage for at least three years. Hope this helps.

The first is the way to go.