How Decorating Stirs Them Up
To paint and carpet a bedroom, everything comes out: the bed goes on the landing, the drawers go into another room, and someone often sleeps elsewhere for a few nights. Each of those moves can shake bedbugs loose and put them somewhere new. When everything goes back, they come back with it.
New paint and carpet do not bring bedbugs in. What decorating does do is disturb them, so signs that were small and unnoticed can suddenly show up in the fresh room, and sometimes in the room that held the furniture while the work was done.
Please Do Not Rip Out the New Carpet
It is a common first reaction and it rarely helps. Bedbugs mostly live in the bed and its frame, the headboard and nearby furniture, and along skirtings and carpet edges. The treatment reaches those places with the carpet down. Pulling it up, and carrying it through the house, spreads them.
The same goes for filling or painting over cracks to seal them in. A fresh coat does not stop them moving, and it can hide the evidence we need to see.
What We Need to Know About the Room
Tell us what was done and when. A few details change the plan:
- Vinyl or laminate flooring rather than carpet, because some vinyl does not take heat well.
- How recently it was painted, and whether any wallpaper or trim is still curing.
- Where the furniture went during the work, so we can check that room too.
- Any new furniture brought in, and any old pieces that went to storage or were given away.
The more precise you can be, the less guesswork there is on the day. A photo of the flooring label or the paint tin is often enough to answer the question before we arrive.
If you are not sure how far they have got, an inspection from £120 looks at the new room and any room that held its contents.
Choosing a Treatment for a Fresh Room
Chemical treatment is applied to seams, frames and skirtings, and the room is usable again once it has dried. It usually needs two or three visits, 10 to 14 days apart, because it does not reliably kill eggs. Heat treatment raises the whole room to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive and usually finishes in one visit; heat-sensitive items come out first, and we will say whether your flooring or finishes are among them. Heat costs more. Treatments start from £220 and the figure for your rooms is given on the phone before anything is booked.
Once the room is clear, check the mattress seams and the carpet edge every few days for a month. Our guide on whether bedbugs make noise covers the signs that are actually worth watching for.
Bedbug Control East Sheen — Questions
Did the decorator bring the bedbugs?
It is unlikely. Decorating usually uncovers or moves an existing problem rather than starting one.
Will treatment damage my new paint or carpet?
Tell us what the finishes are and how recently they went on. We will say on the phone what that means for your room and which treatment suits it.
Should I move back into the room I slept in during the work?
Check that room first. If furniture or bedding went there, bedbugs may have too.
Can I keep decorating the rest of the house?
Better to wait until the treatment is done. Moving furniture from room to room is how they spread.
The old bed went to a charity shop during the work. Should I tell them?
If you now know the bed may have had bedbugs, yes, tell them in writing. It is the fair thing to do and it stops the problem moving on to someone else.
Elsewhere in Richmond
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for East Sheen
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for East Sheen.
Where Pest Controllers Actually Treat
Why bedbugs choose the places they do, and the places we deliberately leave alone.
Read more →
The Places That Get Missed
Beyond the bed and the two-metre radius: the harbourages that survive a mediocre inspection.
Read more →
Can Bedbugs Survive a Heat Treatment?
Sometimes, yes. Here are the five ways it happens, and how each one is avoided.
Read more →
Do Bedbugs Make Noise?
They are silent. What people hear and feel at night instead, and where the useful clues actually are.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Richmond
Every service has its own page for Richmond: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering East Sheen
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us when the room was decorated, what flooring went down and where the furniture went meanwhile.