Bedbug Control Brockley, Lewisham | Flat Above, Flat Below

How Bedbugs Move Up and Down a Conversion

In a Victorian conversion the floor of one flat is the ceiling of the next, held on timber joists with a void between them. Pipes, cables and old chimney breasts run through that void. Bedbugs are small and flat enough to use every one of those gaps, and they will when food runs short on their own side.

Brockley has a lot of this housing, and the pattern is the same from one conversion to the next. They tend to follow edges: the line where floorboards meet the skirting, the hole a radiator pipe passes through, the gap around a light fitting. Those are the places to look, and the places we treat.

Bedbugs and eggs along the edge of a timber bed frame

Signs It Is Coming From Upstairs or Downstairs

Spotting or live bugs along the skirting or around pipework, with little or nothing in the mattress
A bedroom that sits directly above or below a neighbour’s bedroom
Activity that returns after a treatment that clearly worked in the bed itself
A neighbour mentioning bites, or throwing out a mattress or sofa

None of these proves it on its own, and it is just as possible that yours is the flat it started in. An inspection tells you where the activity is and how far it has gone. Inspections are from £120.

Talking to the Neighbours

It is an awkward knock on the door, but it is the single thing that makes the most difference in a conversion. Keep it practical: you have found bedbugs, they travel between flats, and it would help if they checked their own bed and skirting. Nobody is being blamed.

If you rent, tell your landlord or agent in writing as well, especially where the building has one freeholder or managing agent. Who arranges and pays depends on the tenancy and the cause; our guide on who arranges treatment covers the questions to ask. The Lewisham borough page covers converted houses and private renting more widely.

Treating a Flat With Neighbours Above and Below

Heat treats the whole flat, eggs included, usually in one visit. Because it leaves nothing behind, in a conversion we may add a light residual insecticide along the edges shared with the flats above and below, so that anything coming through the floor meets it.

Chemical puts residual insecticide into the skirtings, floor edges and pipe entries as part of the job, which is useful in a shared building. It does not reliably kill eggs, so it is two, sometimes three, visits about 10–14 days apart. Treatments start at from £220 per job, priced on the room count.

Where two flats both have bedbugs, treating them around the same time works far better than one after the other. The where we treat guide shows the spots we cover in each room.

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Questions

Bedbug Control Brockley — Questions

Can bedbugs come through the floor from the flat below?

Yes. In converted houses they use gaps at the floor edges, around pipes and through the void between floors.

My neighbour will not get their flat treated. Is there any point treating mine?

Yes, but plan for it. A residual barrier at the shared edges helps, and you should tell your landlord or managing agent in writing so the building is looked at.

Should the flats above and below be inspected too?

Where your bedroom lines up with theirs, or the signs are at the floor edges, it is worth asking.

Is heat or chemical better in a conversion?

Heat finishes your flat in one visit; chemical leaves a residue at the shared edges. We often combine heat with a light residual at the edges in these buildings.

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