Roof Returns: Why Animals Use Them to Break In

Roof returns can enhance the look of your home, but they can also provide an inviting hiding place for small animals before you even realize they’re there. Here’s what you need to know about roof returns and why critters often use them as entry points into homes.

What Are Roof Returns?

Roof returns are a type of architectural detail that give the end of sloped roofs a polished appearance. While roof returns can improve the aesthetic appearance of your home, even tiny openings can become an often-overlooked access point to the inside of your roof and potentially the rest of your home. 

Why Might Animals Use Roof Returns to Access My Home?

Overall accessibility and the need for a safe place that is difficult for larger animals to get to make roof returns an ideal place for many tiny animals to gain entry into homes. Some other reasons why animals use roof returns to access homes include:

Natural Gaps and Weak Seams

Many roof returns are not sealed perfectly because roofers do not always consider them to be a significant entrance to your home. Unfortunately, even gaps that you might think are too small to make any difference can result in critters moving in and not being noticed for quite some time. 

High and Safe Access Point

Since roof returns are so far off the ground and away from parts of your home that you can see easily, you may be less likely to notice animals entering. They are also close to the top of trees, power lines, and telephone poles, which many critters can easily jump from. 

Direct Path to Attics and Wall Voids

Once animals enter your home through small, often unnoticed openings in your roof returns, they gain a direct path into your attic and wall voids. From there, animals can move freely throughout your home, chewing through materials, contaminating insulation, and causing damage that often goes unnoticed until the problem becomes severe.

Low Human Visibility

Critters that stay in your roof returns without moving further into your home can often stay unnoticed for weeks or even months because most people rarely look at this part of their roof.

Protected Nesting Sites

Because roof returns are relatively far from people compared to the rest of your home and harder for predators to get to, small critters may gravitate toward using them as a safe place to build a nest.

Choose Critter Guard to Protect Your Home From Wildlife 

At Critter Guard, our wildlife control systems help to prevent animals from accessing roof returns and entering your home. Contact us today to learn more about how our products can keep critters away from your roof.