Ask the Carpenter: How do I keep birds from nesting on my porch?
Ask the Carpenter weighs in on how to deal with natural home invaders. Get more home improvement advice at realestate.boston.com.
Q. I have a bird nest on top of a column holding up the overhang over my brick walkway. What should I do about it? My understanding is that a new or returning bird will simply add more twigs to the nest and start all over again, while my wife believes it should get ripped down because it is “full of bird poop.’’ I’m pretty sure birds don’t poop in their own nests, but perhaps the chicks do?
Along the same line, I have a beehive that is on the top of another column and appears to be going inside the wood, as well as a second hive that is up on the second-floor soffit and appears to be in a crack in the wood. Does it make sense to tear out the beehives and seal these two areas? I don’t want to spray pesticide, but I don’t want bees so close to where we sit on the front porch.
KEITH CARTER, Lancaster
A. Check for bird nest for eggs. If there aren’t any, remove the nest and install stainless-steel deterrent spikes that have rounded edges. Bird spikes are 100 percent effective at preventing birds from landing and nesting on surfaces. The rounded ones are humane and offer years of efficacy. I’ve seen bird spikes on house roof returns, window sills, signs, billboards, ledges, playgrounds, beams, yards, gardens, gates, fences, and barns.
To install them you can use Velcro, an adhesive, nails, screws, or ties. The flexible base of the spike strip allows these spikes to be installed on straight, curved, or uneven surfaces.
Regarding your beehives: You should call in a professional to remove them, and then you should seal those areas, so they don’t return.
Q. We have lived in our 1925 home for about 10 years. Our front porch floor is concrete. It stretches across the front of our house, about 35 feet, and is 7½ feet from the door to the edge of the porch. The front lip of the base is 2 inches thick. It is scored to form rectangles 29 inches long and 25 inches across. There are wooden columns at the corners of the porch and on both sides of the entrance in the center.
Last winter, a snow blower hit the front lip of the porch floor, and a neighbor, who is a contractor, patched it. The patch seems to be holding up, but the underside of the lip a bit farther along is cracking and crumbling off.
A handyman suggested cutting and removing three of the rectangles, including the one that was repaired, and resetting that concrete. I have no idea whether this would work, and worry that the newer section of the porch would never match the rest. What should we do?
NANCY TENER, Newton
I would hire a mason to do this repair. Concrete and masonry is a forte of masons, and they have the knowledge, skill, and experience to deal with this issue.
Rob Robillard is a general contractor, carpenter, editor of AConcordCarpenter.com, and principal of a carpentry and renovation business. Send your questions to [email protected] or tweet them to @robertrobillard. Subscribe to our free real estate newsletter at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp.
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