Rodent droppings scattered all over the attic- Dealbreaker?

[Rob C.]

A house I'm considering purchasing has a pest problem, and there are a lot of rodent droppings in the garage and attic. If I go through with purchasing it, I'm planning to hire a pest control company to get rid of the pests. But what about the droppings they've already left behind? I imagine it would be rather costly to clean the droppings scattered about the insulation throughout the attic. Is this a health hazard? Do they make a house legally uninhabitable? And do average homeowners (i.e. not investors) consider this a dealbreaker when looking to buy a house?

Thanks, Rob

[Kyle J.]

ANY house - from the low end to the high end - can get mice in the attic. Just get rid of them and it won't be a problem. I've had mice in the attic of several of my houses, and seen evidence of them in quite a few houses I've looked at. Doesn't bother me. The droppings aren't going to make you sick unless you're up there handling the droppings for some reason.

You could hire a pest control company to get rid of them if you don't want to mess with them. However, they're pretty easy to get rid of if you do it right. Here's what has worked for me 100% of the time:

1) Visibly inspect the ENTIRE perimeter of the roof (near the eaves) around the house and try to find where they are getting into the attic at. Usually there will be a small hole/gap somewhere, and more often then not it seems to be where two roof lines intersect. It doesn't take a very big hole for mice to make their way inside the attic.

2) Fill any holes/gaps you find with some sort of wire mesh. I've also found that those round metal downspout leaf guards work well for this too.

3) Trim any trees/branches that are touching the house/roof. Mice use these to easily climb up to, and access, the roof.

4) Put poison bait traps (like the trays of little pellets) in the attic where you see heavy evidence of mice droppings.

Do all this, and pretty soon your rodent problem will be gone.