Spikes from £28 a metre fitted; netting from £18 a square metre; solar panel mesh from £340
Bird proofing
Pigeons on the shop sign, gulls on the flat roof, starlings in the eaves and pigeons nesting under the solar panels: spikes, netting, wire and mesh that keep birds off without harming them, fitted from a ladder or a cherry picker, with the mess cleared and the area sanitised first. Gulls nesting in season are a licence matter and we handle it.
Birds are protected and we do not kill them. Proofing makes a ledge, a sign or a roof void somewhere they cannot land or nest, and they go and sit somewhere else. Pigeon droppings on a shopfront are acidic, slippery and carry bacteria that your environmental health officer will mention; gulls on a flat roof in nesting season are loud, aggressive and block the gutters; pigeons under solar panels pull the cables and fill the gap with a ton of nest.
Spikes are the answer on ledges and signs: stainless steel on a polycarbonate base, fixed with a clear adhesive so nothing is drilled into the stone, and nearly invisible from the street. Netting closes off a void, a light well or a balcony, and it lasts fifteen years if it is tensioned properly on stainless wires. Solar panels get a galvanised mesh clipped round the edge of the array without drilling the panels or the roof, so the warranty stands. Before any of it we clear the fouling, sanitise the surface and bag the waste, because proofing over droppings is pointless.
Herring gulls and lesser black-backed gulls are protected, and removing an active nest or eggs needs a licence condition we have to meet and record. Outside the season we proof the roof so they do not come back; in season we can only do what the licence allows. City Road, Newport Road and Albany Road have more pigeon-proofed signs than any other streets in Cardiff, and a fair few of them are ours.
What is included
- A survey and a fixed quote from the ground or a platform
- Fouling cleared, sanitised and bagged before proofing
- Stainless spikes, tensioned netting, wire and mesh
- Solar panel mesh with no drilling into panels or roof
- Gull work within the licence conditions, recorded
- A ten-year guarantee on netting we fit
What it costs
Stainless spikes from £28 a metre fitted, netting from £18 a square metre fitted, solar panel mesh round an array from £340, fouling cleared and sanitised from £95. Access over two storeys quoted with the platform. The call-out is £85 by day and £130 by night and comes off the job if you book it. Not sure what you have? The identifier covers 12 pests, including feral pigeon, herring gull.
Questions about bird proofing
Do the spikes hurt the birds?
No. They are blunt and close together; a bird simply cannot land between them and goes elsewhere. That is why they are legal and why they work.
Can you remove a gull nest?
Only under the conditions of the general licence, which means showing a real public health or safety reason and trying non-lethal means first. We tell you honestly whether yours qualifies.
Seen something? Ring. Anything else, book a slot.
The 24-hour line is answered by a technician, and the call-out is a fixed price before anyone leaves. For anything that can wait for the morning, the booking form takes two minutes and we reply within the hour in working hours with a two-hour slot. Not sure what it is? The identifier will tell you, and what it costs.