Birds on Masonry Walls: Control and Prevention
Birds seem so innocent and I happen to love them. There are some invasive species though, here in Washington DC, that would probably be better to get rid of all together, but for the most part birds are good creatures people often build me some restructures though with the intent of keeping birds off the facade and the elements of the construction of the building.
The picture blushes an example of a masonry wall built with spikes installed at the top of the wall. There are several different types of spikes used for bird control, these happen to look particularly violent. Sometimes small spikes come up in the shape of pins and needles are also used instead of large splites like this. These bikes look like they could actually cause more than just a bit of pain and actually hurt an animal.
As a secondary type of effect, large spikes like this may also deter theft or invasion of a building from intruders in urban areas like ours, building owners are often concerned about people jumping over walls like this to gain access to a building to do bad things like steel or rob.
Is particular place even have what appear to be particularly Sharp barb’s. Those sharp looking barbs may also help to deter birds from roosting and nesting. The poop is an obvious concern about birds perching on walls, but the nesting and roosting can also cause a different type of damage to masonry. Over time, when nests are built on top of walls, those nests will be between moisture. As moisture sits on top of it makes me surface, especially when sitting for a longer or extended time.
More extensive deterioration. Particularly with freeze thaw cycles that are common in The Long Winter of our area, freezing and falling of water that permeates into masonry can cause a greater amount of damage. As water permeates into the surface of masonry, it expands to roughly 9% more than it’s original volumetric molecular volume. That expanding moisture can happen with strong chemical bonds that are literally strong enough to break apart masonry. We don’t think of water as being something that has that kind of strength, inherently. Conversely, we think of masonry as something that is inherently strong and solid. It’s clearly a very heavy type of material.
Although the type of spikes shown below might be perfect for Rick Grimes or another comic book character to make a spiked bat, they might not be best for deterrence of all types of birds. Particularly some of the small birds, even some of the invasive species like European starlings, house sparrows and rock pigeons might still be able to nest and were perch around it in between these spikes.
The barbs might still help with deterrence of some of the perching, but particularly for small birds it might not be as effective. Larger birds like pigeons and goals might be deterred though. That deterrence might help a bit, but it’s not perfectly effective and might even be a bit controversial.
In this coming weeks next blog, here on our website, we’re going to take a look at an alternative type of spikes intended to the turn the nesting a roosting of birds. The other type that will look at is more like the pins and needles that we described above. Although it might seem obvious that these large blade-like spikes may be more effective than deterring large birds, the pins and needle type spikes also are effective, to a degree, at the deterring large birds.
We can Help
Our company focuses on historic restoration more than modern building upkeep, maintenance, and construction, but our company understands both types of construction very well and a full picture well-rounded approach is needed in any niche in the construction industry. Although we focus on historic restoration, repointing, tuckpointing and historic brick repair, our company also has technical knowledge and competencies in the areas of modern and contemporary construction as well as we become one of the leaders in that area of the market today. Understanding both historic and modern or contemporary construction is useful because both aspects help understand the challenges and potential solutions for challenges in building science and construction.
We can help with a variety of historic masonry restoration needs and upkeep, from modest tuckpointing and or repointing to complicated and extensive historic masonry restoration. Infinity Design Solutions is a historic restoration specialist contractor specializing in both historic masonry restoration such as tuckpointing our repointing, and brick repair. If you have questions about the architectural details or facade of your historic building in Washington DC, reach out and say hello and if we can help we’ll be glad to assist you. You can email us or call us on the telephone at the following link: contact us here.
