Bedbug Control Blackheath

Why Room Size Matters for Heat

Blackheath sits across the border between Greenwich and Lewisham, and many of its houses are Georgian or Victorian, with generous rooms and tall ceilings. For a heat treatment, it is the volume of air that counts, not the floor area. A bedroom of the same footprint but a much higher ceiling holds far more air to bring up, and hot air rises into that space first.

The bedbugs are not up there. They are in the mattress, the bed frame, the skirting and the carpet edge, which is the coldest part of a tall room. So the job is less about heating the room than about forcing that heat down to floor level and keeping it there.

What We Do Differently in a Tall Room

1. More circulation. Extra fans are angled to push the warm layer from the ceiling back down to the floor and into the corners.
2. Draughts sealed. Sash windows, shutters and the fireplace are closed off, and the chimney throat is blocked, so the heat is not pulled straight out of the room.
3. Floors watched. Old boards with gaps can let heat escape into the void below. We check the floor and the skirting with the thermal camera rather than trusting the air reading.
4. Mouldings and panelling. Picture rails, dado rails, window shutters and cornice cracks are all places a bedbug can sit. They are the edges the camera is pointed at.
5. A longer day. A big room takes longer to come up and longer to soak through. Plan for us being there most of the day, and possibly into the evening.

Our guide on how long a heat treatment takes explains the timing in general; in a tall room, expect the longer end.

Old Furniture and What Comes Out

Period houses often have period furniture. Solid timber beds and wardrobes are fine in heat, but antiques with old glue, veneer or shellac finishes, oil paintings, pianos and stringed instruments should be discussed before the day. Aerosols, candles, medication, vinyl, plants and some electronics come out as usual. If in doubt, ask, and we will go through the room with you.

Heavy beds and big wardrobes also make it harder for the heat to get behind them. We leave a gap where we can and check behind them on the camera. Our guide to bed frames covers what to expect from an old wooden bed.

When Chemical Might Suit Better

Heat is not the only answer for a big house. If the problem is contained to one bed in one room and caught early, a chemical treatment, with its usual two or sometimes three visits, can be the more sensible choice and costs less. Where heat is used and the house is divided into flats, a light residual along the edges afterwards helps with anything coming back through shared walls. The details of both are on our heat treatment and chemical treatment pages.

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