Second Opinion Rodent Inspection in Phoenix, AZ
You paid someone to deal with this already and the noise is back. A free second opinion tells you what was missed, whether it is still under someone else’s warranty, and what it would actually take to close the house up.
If they came back, the entry points are still open
This is the single most common reason a rodent job fails in Phoenix, and it is not usually a sign that the technician did bad work. It is a sign that the work stopped halfway.
Trapping removes the animals that are inside the building right now. It does nothing about the gap they used to get in. Roof rats in particular do not need a new route: they will follow the same one, and a house that has held a colony once tends to attract the next one, because the scent trail is still there.
So if activity returned within a few weeks of a treatment, the question is not what poison was used. It is whether anyone got on the roof.
What a second opinion inspection actually covers
The roof line, from a ladder
Tile edges, soffit returns, fascia gaps, roof vents, and the point where a patio cover or shade structure ties into the house. This is where most Phoenix roof rat entries are, and it is the part that gets skipped when a visit is priced as a treatment rather than an inspection.
The attic, from inside
Droppings tell you how long they were there and how many. Runs in the insulation tell you where they were travelling. Chewed wiring and compressed insulation tell you what the damage bill looks like. We photograph it.
Ground level and the utility penetrations
The slab transition, weep screed, garage door corners, plumbing and gas penetrations, AC line sets and unscreened block wall weep holes. These matter more for mice than for roof rats, but both get checked.
What was already done
If someone has sealed points, we look at the material they used and whether it has held. Expanding foam on its own does not, and neither does mesh that has not been fastened. We will tell you which repairs are sound and which are not, including the ones we would leave alone.
If it is still their warranty, use it
We are not going to pretend otherwise to win a job. If a company sealed a point, guaranteed it, and rodents are coming back through that same point, that is warranty work and it belongs with them. You should not pay for it twice.
What is genuinely useful in that situation is a written, photographed second opinion telling you exactly which point failed. That is much harder to argue with than a phone call, and you can hand it straight to them.
Where we do pick up the work is when the original job never included exclusion in the first place, when the company has gone quiet, or when the scope of what is actually open is bigger than what was quoted.
What happens after the inspection
You get a written quote covering the trapping, the cleanup and the exclusion as one job, with the entry points listed. Every point we seal is photographed on completion. Standard rodent pricing applies: $245 for the initial service and $95 per follow-up, with exclusion and attic cleanup quoted on scope. There is no charge for the inspection whether you book the work or not.
The trapping itself is our standard rodent control in Phoenix service. Read more about how the sealing work is done on our rodent exclusion page, or about the cleanup that follows on attic cleanup.
The five findings that come up most often
Across second opinion inspections in the Valley, the same short list of problems accounts for the large majority of repeat rodent activity. None of them are exotic. They are the points that get skipped when a job is priced as trapping with a little sealing attached.
- Expanding foam used as a barrier. Foam is a gap filler, not a rodent barrier. Rats and mice chew through it in a single night, and it hides the hole from the next person who looks. If we find foam at a roofline or a plumbing penetration, we treat that point as open.
- Bird-stops never reset. On a tile roof the mortar closures under the first course crack and drop out with age. Sealing the fascia while leaving the tile ends open is the single most common miss we document in Phoenix.
- Attic and gable vents left unscreened. Standard louvered vents stop birds. They do not stop a roof rat. Rodent-rated screening has to be installed behind the louvers, and it has to be fastened, not tucked.
- Garage door corners. The bottom seal wears at the two outside corners first and leaves a triangular gap you can see daylight through. It is easy to reach and easy to miss because nobody inspects a garage door from the inside at floor level.
- Sealing done with animals still inside. When a structure is closed up before trapping is finished, the animals stay in the wall voids. What the homeowner hears next sounds like a failed seal. It is not. It is a sequencing mistake, and it usually ends with an odor complaint two weeks later.
We photograph every one of these that we find, with the location noted, so you have documentation whether or not you hire us for the repair.
A sixth turns up often enough to mention, though it is a cleanup failure rather than a sealing one: contaminated insulation left in place. Trapping and sealing get done, nobody touches the attic floor, and the smell and the matted material stay exactly where the animals left them. If that is what we find, the fix is removing the affected sections and blowing back TAP insulation over the area, which is documented in the same report as everything else.
What a second opinion is not
Being clear about this matters, because the phrase gets used loosely in this industry.
It is not a sales inspection dressed up. If the previous company got it right and the activity you are hearing has another explanation, we will tell you that and you will not owe us anything. Sometimes the noise is a bird under a tile, a loose vent flap, or an evaporative cooler line. Those are not rodent jobs and we do not price them as one.
It is not a teardown of the other company. We document what is open and what is sealed. We do not speculate about what the previous technician was thinking, and we do not tell you their work was worthless when a portion of it was done correctly. In plenty of cases most of the exclusion is sound and two or three points were missed.
It is not a replacement for a warranty you already paid for. If the work is still covered, calling the original company back costs you nothing and is the right first move. We will say so, and we will hand you the photos to send them.
Second opinion inspections, answered
Why did the rodents come back after treatment?
Almost always because the entry points were never sealed. Trapping removes the animals that are inside. If the gaps they used are still open, the next ones walk in through the same route, usually within weeks. Trapping is the first half of the job and exclusion is the half that makes it stick.
Do you charge for a second opinion inspection?
No. The inspection is free and the quote is written before any work starts, the same as any other rodent job. You are not obliged to book anything off the back of it.
What if the other company is still under contract or guarantee?
Then use it. If they sealed a point and rodents are back through it, that is their warranty work and you should not be paying twice. We will tell you plainly if that is what we are looking at, and what to ask them for.
What do you find that the first company missed?
Most often roof line entries. Tile edges, soffit returns, the gap where a patio roof ties into the fascia, and AC line set penetrations. These need a ladder and time on the roof, which a treatment-only visit does not include.
How long does a second opinion inspection take?
Usually 45 minutes to an hour. We walk the roof line, the attic, the perimeter at ground level and the utility penetrations, and photograph anything we find so you can see it yourself rather than take our word for it.
Do you service my area?
We cover the Phoenix metro from offices in Phoenix and Mesa, including Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Peoria, Goodyear, Queen Creek, Buckeye, Sun City and Paradise Valley.
Book a free second opinion
Tell us what was done, when it came back, and what you are hearing now. A technician will walk the roof line and the attic, photograph what they find, and put a written quote together. No charge for the look.