Wild birds can be a real pain in the rear when they start hanging out on your roof, clogging your gutters and leaving droppings on the side of your house. Here's everything you need to know about bird barrier roof.
Why would I ever need a bird barrier roof?
Birds are animals of habit and if they've nested on your roof in the past, chances are they'll return unless you put a bird barrier roof up to keep them out. When birds nest on your roof, they can clog your gutters with their nesting material. This can cause debris backup in your gutter. Not only does this clog the gutter, it can also weigh the gutter down causing it to snap or bend. Birds are also messy and will leave droppings all over the place if you let them stay on your roof. To them, the world is one big target practice!
What kind of bird barrier roof products are there?
One great way to keep the birds off your roof is to use a bird barrier roof product that will prevent them from getting on your roof in the first place. A great bird barrier roof product that will get the job done is a bird net. Bird netting can be tightly secured in front of the area that you want to keep the birds out of. It's not terribly expensive and withstands the elements quite well. Make sure that if you get this product, you install it well and secure all ends tightly to the cable that comes with the netting. Bird netting is much different than chicken wire, so make sure you're getting the correct product. Chicken wire can rust and fall apart, bird netting will not do this. One of the downsides to this product is that the netting will most likely have to lay across some of your windows. This is a drawback you should think about before you buy the netting.
Smaller birds are a little more difficult to keep off your roof and out of small crevasses than larger birds. Because they're small, they can tuck themselves into places that other birds can't reach. Netting does work for small birds, but not always. If netting doesn't work, you can always use an electric shock system though many people feel this is a cruel and unnecessary bird barrier roof product.
You can also use bird traps as a bird barrier roof product. Traps come in a variety of sizes, so they target small birds as well as large ones. However, they are not a long-term solution and require a lot more work on the part of the homeowner.
One product that may or may not work as a bird barrier roof product is a plastic or fake owl. You may have seen this rather ugly ornament on the roofs of some commercial office buildings. These fake predators are supposed to scare the birds away from the roof, but they don't always work. Often times after the birds notice that the predator never moves or makes a sound, they'll come to the conclusion that they're not in danger and go about their business mucking up your roof top and sidewalk. This is not the most effective bird barrier roof product.
