Bedbug Control Barking

Why a Flat Over a Shop Is a Different Job

Most conversions in a town centre were never designed as flats. A floor that was once a stockroom or an office has been split up, boxed in and given a kitchen. Pipes, cables and ducting run between the shop and the rooms above through holes that were cut for convenience rather than sealed properly.

Bedbugs do not care about any of that, but they will use it. They live where people sleep and sit for long periods, so in almost every case the problem is in the flat, not the shop. What the building does is give them routes: along a riser, behind a boxed-in soil pipe, under a floor that was laid over the old ceiling.

So the questions we ask on the phone are about the building as much as the bedroom. Is there a second flat on the same floor? Is there a shared staircase from the street? Does anyone sleep or rest on the business premises — a staff room with a sofa, a back office where somebody naps between shifts?

Heat or Chemical When There Is a Business Below

Both routes work in a flat of this kind. The choice is shaped by the layout more than the address.

• Chemical puts a residual insecticide into seams, frames, skirtings and the edges where pipes come through. It is one to two hours a visit and needs two or sometimes three visits, about 10–14 days apart, because it does not reliably kill eggs. The residue at the edges is useful in a building with open service routes.
• Heat raises the whole room to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive and holds it, checked on a thermal camera. It kills eggs, so it is usually one visit, but it takes most of a day and it leaves nothing behind — so in a shared building a light residual may go on at the edges as well.
• Where a heat treatment is planned above a business, we talk through power supply and timing before the day, so the shop below is not caught out.

Treatments start at £220; the figure you get on the phone depends on the rooms and the route. There is a fuller comparison on the heat versus chemical guide.

Telling the Landlord, the Shop and the Neighbours

In a converted building the person who owns the flat and the person who runs the shop are often different people, and the freeholder may be a third. If you rent, report it to your landlord in writing and keep a copy. Who arranges and pays depends on the tenancy and the cause; we are pest controllers, not legal advisers, and cannot settle that for you.

It is worth letting the business know too, in plain terms: you have found bedbugs in the flat, it is being treated, and nobody needs to panic. If there is a second flat off the same stairs, a word with them is sensible. If we find signs that it has come through a wall, we will say so, and a neighbouring flat may need looking at as well.

If the business itself wants its premises checked, that is a commercial job and it is covered on the commercial treatment page.

Getting the Flat Ready

1. Strip the beds and hot-wash the bedding; bag it until the treatment is done.
2. Clear the floor, especially along the skirting and around the boxed-in pipes.
3. Leave the furniture where it is so we can get behind it.
4. Keep sleeping in your own bed. Moving to the sofa or a friend’s flat usually spreads them.
5. For heat, take out aerosols, candles, medication, vinyl, plants and anything electronic we flag.

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