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The Free Acorn Home Inspection
Before Acorn Wildlife quotes a dollar of work, a licensed technician walks your house. Roofline to foundation, outside and in, looking for every gap an animal could be using and every one it could use next. It takes as long as it takes, often an hour, sometimes two. It costs nothing, and you are under no obligation to book anything at the end of it.
Short answer: The inspection is free. A technician comes out, checks the whole property for entry points and problem areas, shows you what they found, and puts the work in writing. There is no charge for the visit and no pressure to buy a program.
Every Inch of the House, Not Just the Noise
Most wildlife calls start in one room. Something is scratching above a bedroom ceiling, or there is a smell in the crawl space, or a groundhog went under the shed. That is where we start too, but it is not where we stop. An animal in your attic got there through an opening, and a house that has one opening almost always has others. Finding only the one you can hear is how people end up paying twice.
Roofline, Soffits & Fascia
Every run of soffit, every fascia board, the drip edge, and the corners where two roof planes meet. Rot, lifted returns, and gaps you cannot see from the ground are where most attic animals actually get in.
Vents, Chimney & Flashing
Ridge, gable, soffit, dryer, and bath vents; the chimney crown, flue and cap; plumbing boots and step flashing. These are the openings that are supposed to be there, which is exactly why they get used.
Foundation, Grade & Crawl Space
The full perimeter at ground level: foundation gaps, utility and pipe penetrations, crawl space doors and vents, sill plate, and any spot where the grade has settled away from the wall.
Attic & Interior
Inside the attic where it is safe to get to: insulation disturbance, runs and trails, droppings, nesting material, chewed wire, and daylight showing through from the outside.
Decks, Sheds & Outbuildings
Under decks, steps, porches, sheds, and additions, plus the burrows, dens, and dig lines around them. This is where the ground-level animals live before they find the house.
The Yard & Its Attractions
Runways, tunnels, tracks, damaged turf, nests, and the food, water, and cover that keep drawing animals back. The yard usually explains why the house has a problem in the first place.
Damage & Contamination
What has already been chewed, soiled, or ruined: insulation, wiring, ductwork, stored belongings. You should know this before you decide anything, not after.
Which Animal, Confirmed
Sign, sizing of the openings, droppings, hair, and the damage pattern together tell us the species. New Jersey law treats the animals differently, so getting the identification right is not a formality.
Everything the technician finds gets photographed and shown to you. You see the pictures of your own roofline, not a stock diagram of a generic house.
What a Walkthrough Answers That a Phone Call Cannot
This is the honest reason the inspection is free rather than billed: exclusion is priced per opening, per run of soffit, per vent. Nobody can quote that work properly without walking the house, so we would rather walk it first and price it once than give you a number over the phone and revise it when we get there.
What Happens on the Day
You tell us what you have noticed
What you have heard, when you hear it, where in the house, and how long it has been going on. Homeowners usually know more than they think they do, and it points the technician at the right part of the building on the first lap.
The exterior lap
A full circuit of the house at ground level, then up the ladder for the roofline, vents, and chimney. This is the slow part, and it is the part worth paying for, which is why it surprises people that it is included for nothing.
The interior check
The attic, crawl space, basement, or whichever spaces the animal is actually using, wherever it is safe to get into them. Daylight showing through from inside is one of the fastest ways to find an opening the outside lap missed.
The walkthrough
The technician comes back to you with photographs and goes through what is getting in, where, what it has done so far, and what would have to be repaired to end it. Questions are the point of this part. Ask all of them.
The written quote
The scope goes in writing, itemised against the openings that were found. Removal, the exclusion repairs, and any cleanup are separate lines, so you can see exactly what you are being asked to pay for and why.
And then nothing, unless you want something
You are not asked to sign anything on the spot. If you want to think about it, get another opinion, or handle part of it yourself, that is a completely normal way for this visit to end. The inspection was free; it stays free.
No Obligation. And No Pressure, Either.
An inspection that costs you nothing should still be a real inspection: a technician on a ladder for as long as the house needs, and an honest account of what is actually going on up there. That is what this visit is, and here is what it is not.
✓ The visit is free whether or not you hire us
✓ No signature is asked for on the day
✓ Nothing is added to the quote that we did not show you a photo of
✓ If the problem turns out to be small, or not wildlife at all, we tell you that
✓ You keep whatever you learned about your house either way
Brandon Stein is a NJDEP-licensed Wildlife Control Operator (#92411B) and the business is owner-operated, so the person inspecting your house is not working a commission script written by a call centre. Meet the team →
What If There Is Nothing There?
It happens, and it is a perfectly good outcome. Sometimes the noise is a branch on the siding, a loose vent damper, or a squirrel that was on the roof rather than in it. Sometimes something was living in the attic a year ago and is long gone. Sometimes the animal is genuinely outside and staying there.
In all of those cases you get told so. We do not manufacture a problem to justify the trip, and we do not charge for the visit that found nothing. If it turns out to be a stray cat or a dog rather than wildlife, we will point you at your municipal animal control, because that is who handles it — Acorn works with wild animals only.
And if there is something there, the same visit has already found it, mapped it, and priced the fix. See what we remove, how exclusion actually seals a house, and the Seal-Tight Warranty that backs the repairs.
Book a Free Inspection Near You
Free Inspection FAQs
Is the inspection really free?
How long does it take?
What do you actually look at?
Am I going to get a sales pitch?
When do I find out what it will cost?
What if you find nothing, or it is not wildlife?
Get the Whole House Looked At, for Nothing
A licensed technician, an hour or two, every entry point photographed, and a written quote. No fee for the visit and no obligation at the end of it.