Termite Inspection Cost Calculator
A termite inspection runs about $258 in Atlanta — $170 to $346 — for a signed wood-destroying insect report on a 2,000 square foot house with a crawl space. ⚠️ Four different products share that name and they run from free to $393: the free one is a sales visit and leaves no signed report. What decides the bill is which one you ask for, not what you own — $393 across the products against $46 across every kind of house.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost of the inspection
$270
typical · range $182 to $359 · 2.3 trade hours · you get a signed report
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 67% of this figure comes from modelled inspection fees and reporting — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026how every line is sourced
The one input that changes the answer for you.
1 / 3
The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
Four things called a termite inspection
| What you are buying | Signed report | On site | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| A treatment company’s free inspection | ⚠️ no | — | free |
| Annual check under an existing bond | ⚠️ no | 1.5 h | $196 |
| Signed wood-destroying insect report for a sale | yes | 2.3 h | $270 |
| Full wood-destroying organism survey with moisture readings | yes | 3.5 h | $412 |
These have one name and they are not one product. A free termite inspection is a sales visit, which does not make it useless — it makes it partial, because the person deciding whether you have termites is the person who gets paid if you do. What it will never produce is the second column, and the second column is what most people searching this actually need: a report on a standard form, signed by a licensed inspector who carries the liability for what it says. That one cannot be free. ⚠️ And notice which variable moves this bill. Across these four products the spread is $412; across every kind of access from a tight crawl space to a slab it is $54, and between a 1,000 and a 4,000 square foot house it is $47. The thing that decides the price is what you ask for, not what you own.
What looking costs, against what treating costs
| This inspection | $270 |
|---|---|
| Soil barrier treatment | $1,938 |
| Bait system with ten years of monitoring | $5,598 |
| Whole-structure fumigation | $5,813 |
“Are termite inspections worth it?” is one of the questions Google shows on this search, and it answers itself once the two numbers are next to each other, both from models on this site at the same BLS wages: this inspection is 14% of the cheapest treatment — you could buy 7 of them for the price of one soil barrier. ⚠️ And there is a third number that is on neither list, which is what makes the first two matter: replacing the timber they have eaten. That is carpentry, it depends on what has to be opened up to reach it, and it is almost certainly not insured — American homeowners policies separate sudden accidental damage from deterioration and lack of maintenance, and a years-old infestation sits on the wrong side of that line in practically all of them. Your policy and your state decide it, not us. But the consequence is the whole argument: the downside here is yours.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inspection fee — Signed wood-destroying insect report for a sale1 for this kind of inspection | 1each | $62–$152 | estimated±42% |
| Signed wood-destroying insect report for a sale — time on site1.6 h × (half fixed, half by floor area) × access factor | 1.6hour | $60–$65 | sourced |
| Sounding and probing the accessible timber1 when the timber is sounded and probed | 1each | $9–$30 | estimated±54% |
| Sounding and probing — labour0.7 h × access factor | 0.7hour | $26–$28 | sourced |
| Moisture readings and the conditions report1 when moisture is measured and reported | 1each | $13–$46 | estimated±56% |
| Attached porches, garages and outbuildingsone per attached or detached structure | 1each | $11–$38 | estimated±55% |
| Total | $182–$359 | ±33% |
Where these numbers come from
- Four things share this name and only two leave you anything
- “What does a termite inspection cost” has four answers because it is four products. A free termite inspection is a sales visit — which is a description rather than an accusation, and it does not make it useless. It makes it partial: the person deciding whether you have termites is the person who gets paid if you do. Use it as a second opinion and it is genuinely useful; use it as your only opinion and you have taken a recommendation from an interested party. ⚠️ What it will never produce is the signed report, and that is the thing most people searching this actually need — a lender or a buyer wants a standard form with a licensed inspector’s name on it, and that signature is what $258 buys. The fourth product is the one to buy on an older house you are about to commit to: a full wood-destroying organism survey at $393 covers carpenter ants, powderpost beetles and wood rot as well, and finds the things that are not insects at all.
- What decides the bill is not your house
- This is a finding rather than a preamble, and it went the opposite way to the first draft of this model. Across the four products the spread is $393. Across every kind of access — a tight crawl space you work in on your back, an easy one, a basement, a slab with nothing underneath — it is $46. Between a 1,000 and a 4,000 square foot house it is $40. The variable that dominates is what you ask for, and you choose that. ⚠️ What access really changes is not the price but what the report can promise. On a slab there is nothing to get underneath, so a clean report means what could be seen was clean — a smaller statement than most people hear. And the one thing worth paying for regardless costs almost nothing: sounding and probing. Termites eat timber from the inside out, so damaged wood looks perfectly sound and gives itself away by sounding hollow when it is tapped. An inspector who will not go under the house has not inspected it — and since a crawl space is a confined space, with restricted entry and poor ventilation, one who goes under alone with nobody outside is doing it wrong: OSHA, Confined spaces (retrieved 2026-08-25).
- Looking, treating, and the number that is on neither list
- “Are termite inspections worth it?” answers itself once the figures sit together, all from models on this site at the same wages: $258 to look, $1,868 for a soil barrier, and $5,742 for whole-structure fumigation. The inspection is 14% of the cheapest of those. And it is the step that decides which treatment you need at all, which is not a small thing on this subject: a soil barrier does nothing to drywood termites and fumigation does nothing to a subterranean colony, so buying the wrong one is worse than buying nothing — EPA, Termites: how to identify and control them (retrieved 2026-08-25). ⚠️ The third number is the one nobody quotes: replacing the timber. That is carpentry, it depends on what has to be opened up, and it is almost certainly not insured. Which is also why the $220 for a second opinion from somebody with no treatment to sell is the best line on this page after a free inspection has produced a four-figure quote.
- Where the numbers come from
- Labour is official: wages from BLS OEWS for pest control workers, May 2025, retrieved 2026-08-20, adjusted to your metro area and benefit-loaded from BLS ECEC. ⚠️ That occupation was added to our wage index for this pair of pages rather than using a broader group as a proxy: signing a wood-destroying insect report is a licensed trade, and pricing it at grounds-maintenance rates would have understated every hour. 70% of the total is estimated rather than official, with every band and its reasoning on the dataset page. The plain-language federal starting point on choosing and supervising a pest control company is EPA, Citizen’s guide to pest control and pesticide safety (retrieved 2026-08-25). What happens if something is found is priced on our termite treatment page, and the damp conditions that invite them in the first place are on our crawl space page. The whole approach is on the method page.
- Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-25.
What this figure does not include
- Treating anything that is found
- An inspection tells you what is there. Our termite treatment page prices dealing with it, and the whole argument for paying for an inspection rather than accepting a free one is that it tells you which treatment you actually need — the species decides the method, and the wrong method does nothing at all.
- Repairing the damage
- ⚠️ Not priced here and not priced by the treatment either. Replacing a hollowed-out sill plate or a run of joists is carpentry, and what it costs depends on what has to be opened up to reach it. It is the expensive end of this whole subject and it is the reason the cheap end exists.
- What is under a slab, or behind a finished wall
- ⚠️ The honest limit of the product. An inspection covers what is accessible and visible, and on a slab house a great deal is neither. A clean report says that what could be seen was clean, which is a smaller statement than most people hear — and it is why the moisture readings and the conditions matter as much as the findings.
- What your insurance will pay
- ⚠️ Asked on both of our termite pages. American homeowners policies distinguish sudden accidental damage from deterioration and lack of maintenance, and a years-old infestation falls on the second side of that in practically all of them. Your policy and your state decide it and we do not advise on insurance — but the consequence is worth saying: the downside here is uninsured, which is precisely what makes looking early worth the money.
- Any promise about the future
- An inspection is a photograph of one day. A bond bought from a treatment company is the thing that carries forward, and those come in two flavours that are easy to confuse: retreatment cover pays to treat again, repair cover also pays for the damage. Which one is being offered is the question to ask, and it is priced on our treatment page.
Questions people actually ask
How much does a termite inspector charge?
It depends far more on what you ask for than on what you own. On this model in Atlanta: a treatment company's free visit is $0, an annual check under an existing bond is $188, a signed wood-destroying insect report for a sale is $258, and a full wood-destroying organism survey with moisture readings is $393. ⚠️ The spread across those four is $393. The spread across every kind of access from a tight crawl space to a slab is $46, and between a 1,000 and a 4,000 square foot house it is $40. So asking "what does an inspection cost" over the phone is asking the wrong question: ask which of the four you are being quoted for.
What does Terminix charge for a termite inspection?
We do not publish another company's price list — we do not know it, and inventing one would be the least useful thing on this page. ⚠️ What is worth more is the structural fact behind the question: companies that sell termite treatment routinely inspect for free or nearly free, because the inspection is how they find work. That does not make it worthless; it makes it partial, since the person deciding whether you have termites is the person who gets paid if you do. And it will not produce the thing most people searching this actually need — a report on a standard form, signed by a licensed inspector who carries the liability for what it says. That one cannot be free, and on this model it is $258.
Are termite inspections worth it?
Put the two numbers next to each other, both from models on this site at the same BLS wages: this inspection is $258 and the cheapest treatment it might lead to is $1,868 — 14% of it, so you could buy 7 inspections for the price of one soil barrier. ⚠️ And there is a third number on neither list, which is what makes the first two matter: replacing the timber they have already eaten. That is carpentry priced by what has to be opened up to reach it, and American homeowners policies separate sudden accidental damage from deterioration and lack of maintenance — a years-old infestation sits on the wrong side of that line in practically all of them. Your policy and your state decide it, not us. The downside here is yours.
Will homeowners insurance pay for termites?
This page prices work and does not advise on insurance, so here is the principle rather than a promise. ⚠️ Standard American homeowners policies distinguish sudden accidental damage from deterioration and lack of maintenance, and termites are slow by definition: an infestation that has been eating for years reads as the second thing in practically every policy. Your wording and your state decide it, so read yours or ask your insurer rather than taking a number from a website. What is worth acting on is the consequence — the risk is entirely yours, which is why $258 to look and a warranty afterwards are the only cover that exists here, and why a company offering to inspect for nothing is not doing you a favour so much as opening a conversation.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 2026-08-25, not invented.
Other cost calculators
The first of these are the jobs closest to this one — the ones that turn up in the same quote, or instead of it.
- Basement waterproofing cost
Prices the four methods on the same house — they separate by a factor of seven — and turns your floor area into the perimeter and wall area that actually get billed.
- Crawl space encapsulation cost
Prices the liner, the wall insulation and the humidity control separately, and answers the question no installer answers: what the downsides are.
- Septic tank pumping cost
Works out how often it actually needs emptying from the household rather than the tank, and what twenty years of doing it costs against one new drainfield.
- Egress window cost
The window is the small half. Works out the hole each kind of window needs, and how many openings a basement actually has to have.
- The full termite inspection cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.