A free Lake Charles mold inspection takes 60–90 minutes and produces a written scope naming the moisture source. Any exploratory opening is quoted at $300–$1,200 and agreed before anybody cuts — location, size, price, and patching.
What is settled in advance, what the visit measures, and what you keep at the end of it.
The four things agreed in advance
Opening a wall in somebody’s home is not a small thing, particularly a wall that was already rebuilt once. So none of it is left to the day.
| Agreed beforehand | Why it is in writing |
|---|---|
| Where the opening goes | You choose the room and we choose the bay, together, from the readings |
| How large it is | Typically a hand-sized cut, not a demolished wall |
| What it costs | $300–$1,200 depending on how many areas, stated as a number |
| Who patches it | We do, in the same visit, whether or not you hire us for anything further |
The fourth row matters more than it looks. A company that opens a wall and leaves it open has created a reason to hire them. That is not a position we are willing to put a customer in.
What the inspection measures
- Moisture readings on the areas you are worried about, and on the ones you are not
- A comparison between what was rebuilt after 2020 and what was never touched
- Thermal imaging where a temperature difference will show wet material through a surface
- The air handler and accessible ductwork, because a system that ran through a wet house carries
- Where the water is coming from now, if anything is still active
What happens if it becomes a mold removal quote
Where an opening finds growth, the inspection turns into a written mold removal scope during the same visit. It names the affected bays, what comes out, what stays, and the drying target as a number, and the cost of the opening is folded into it rather than charged twice.
Where it finds nothing, there is no scope to write and no mold removal to sell you. That is a result, and it is the one a majority of repaired houses here get. The document you keep says what was measured and where, which is worth having on file whether you ever hire anybody.
What a reading can and cannot settle
A meter tells you material is wet. A thermal camera tells you where the wet material is. Neither tells you whether something is growing in the cavity, and any company implying otherwise is overselling its instruments.
That gap is precisely why the opening exists, and why we would rather quote it honestly than pretend the equipment closed the question. Where the readings come back dry across the board, there is nothing to open and we say so.
What you receive
- The readings, written down, with the locations they were taken
- A scope naming the moisture source in plain words, not the phrase “moisture intrusion”
- A drying target as a number, where drying is part of the work
- A statement of what we would look for if you authorise an opening, and what it would cost
Already holding a bid from somebody else?
Have it out when we arrive. There is one question that decides most of the price on repaired housing: does the document say what leaves the building, or only what gets treated? That distinction is nearly invisible until somebody points at it, and pointing at it costs you nothing here even if you go on to hire them.
The inspection, answered plainly
What gets agreed before you cut anything?
Four things in writing: where the opening goes, how large it is, what it costs, and who patches it. You sign off on all four before a blade touches your wall. Nothing is discovered mid-job that you had not already priced.
Is the inspection really free?
Yes, across all four parishes, including the moisture readings, the walk-through of previous repairs, the written scope, and reading another company's quote with you. Exploratory openings are separate and quoted in advance at $300-$1,200.
How long does it take?
Sixty to ninety minutes for the inspection itself. Reading a repaired house is slower than reading an undamaged one, because we are checking what was rebuilt against what was not, and that comparison is the part that produces the answer.
What if I say no to the opening?
Then we write down what the readings showed and what we would have looked for, and you keep it. That is a legitimate outcome. Plenty of people want the measurements now and the decision later, and the document is useful either way.
What if you find nothing?
We tell you, we patch what we opened, and your total is the opening cost. We do not convert a clean finding into a preventive treatment. A house that is dry does not need a service, it needs to be left alone.
Book a free Lake Charles mold inspection
If work was done on the house after 2020, tell us roughly what and roughly when — even “somebody replaced the ceiling, I do not know who” is useful. A great many houses here were repaired fast under conditions nobody chose, and what is behind that work is usually the question. Same working day reply.