Published prices. Nothing added later.
Every rate we charge is on this page. That includes the things most inspection companies quote you at the kitchen table after they have already found something. If it is not printed here, we do not charge it.
Short answer
Sterling's Basic Mold Inspection is $400 and the Premium Indoor Air Quality Inspection is $700, for properties up to 2,500 sq ft (add $50 per additional 500 sq ft). Both include thermal imaging, moisture mapping, photo documentation, and a written report. The Premium package adds accredited third-party laboratory air testing with species identification. Beyond the packages, sampling is $175 a sample with volume breaks, a written remediation protocol is $350, and independent clearance is $375 for the first contained area. Every rate is below.
Inspection packages
Basic Mold Inspection
The full diagnostic walk-through — find the moisture, document the problem, get a plan.
Answers
“Do I have a moisture or mold problem, and where is it coming from?”
- Full visual inspection of every accessible areaA licensed assessor walks the property in person — not a drive-by, not a checklist app.
- Non-invasive moisture mapping of walls, ceilings, floors & cabinetryMoisture is the cause; mold is the symptom. We find the water before we talk about the growth.
- Infrared thermal imagingReads temperature differences behind drywall and under flooring, so hidden wet areas surface without cutting into your home.
- Photo documentation of every area of concernDated, captioned images you can hand to a contractor, an adjuster, an attorney, or a buyer.
- Written report with findings and clear next stepsPlain English, not lab jargon — you will know what to do on the day you read it.
If you need lab-verified proof — for a sale, a claim, a lease dispute, or a clearance — step up to the Premium package.
No payment now — we confirm scope and price first.
Premium Indoor Air Quality Inspection
Everything in Basic, plus accredited-lab air testing that turns findings into documented proof.
Answers
“What exactly is in my air, how bad is it, and can I prove it to someone else?”
Everything in Basic, plus:
- Indoor air sample + matched outdoor baselineA spore count means nothing on its own. Compared against the air outside your own door, it becomes an answer.
- Accredited third-party laboratory analysisAn independent lab — not us — produces the numbers. That is what makes the result defensible.
- Mold species identificationTells you which organism you are dealing with, because remediation urgency is not the same for every species.
- Laboratory Results Interpretation, written for your buildingWhat each organism is, how indoors compares to the outdoor control, why it grew, and what the result does not prove. Included, not sold separately.
- Comprehensive lab report with written recommendationsThe document insurers, buyers, landlords, and attorneys actually accept as evidence.
No payment now — we confirm scope and price first.
Both packages include same-week scheduling availability, professional-grade equipment, an inspection performed by a licensed assessor — never a subcontractor — and your written report within Same day – 24 hrs. Pricing covers properties up to 2,500 sq ft; larger properties add $50 per additional 500 sq ft.
One price per sample. Volume breaks apply on their own.
Air, swab, or tape lift, same price. Every order includes an outdoor control collected the same day and the written interpretation described below.
1 to 3 samples
$175
per sample, the whole order at this rate
4 to 7 samples
$150
per sample, the whole order at this rate
8 or more samples
$135
per sample, the whole order at this rate
Air handler pair
$350
Two samples sold together, one at the return and one at the supply, so the system can be compared to itself. The most direct way to answer whether the air handler is the source.
Already in the Premium package
$50 under list
The $700 Premium inspection includes one indoor sample and one outdoor control. At list that would be $400 plus two samples, so the bundle carries a $50 discount.
Included with every sample
Laboratory Results Interpretation
The laboratory sends a table. Sterling sends the table and a written document that says what it means for your building. It covers:
- What each organism identified in your results is, in plain English
- How your indoor results compare to the outdoor control taken the same day
- Why those particular organisms grew in your building, and what conditions supported them
- How the laboratory findings line up with the moisture, thermal, and visual evidence from the inspection
- What the results do and do not establish, stated plainly
You are not paying for a cassette and a lab fee. You are paying for somebody to tell you what it means.
When the question is why the house is humid, not just that it is.
Humidity logger drop
$295
3 sensors, 7 to 14 days, collected and read
A single afternoon humidity reading is one point. The logger gives you the curve across a week or two, nights and rainy days included, and the curve is the diagnosis. Morning peaks above sixty percent point to an air conditioner that shuts off before it dehumidifies. All-day highs point to a load the system cannot carry. The written reading tells you which, before you buy a dehumidifier or call a technician.
The document that makes three remediation bids comparable.
A written scope of work: the affected areas by location and extent, what comes out and what is cleaned, containment, drying targets, and what clearance will require. Written by an assessor who will never be paid to perform it.
$350
Protocol, up to 3 affected areas
$450
Protocol, more than 3 areas
$150
Amendment from documents
$295
Amendment with a site visit
Clearance, priced per contained area.
The first area carries the trip, the setup, the outdoor control, and the report framework. Everything after that is marginal work only, so the rate declines.
$375
First contained area
includes the outdoor control and the report
$250
Areas two and three
each
$200
Area four and beyond
each
$100
Supplementary surface sample
when the protocol calls for one
$245
Retest of a failed area
after the remediator corrects it
The sequence
Visual first, then moisture, then sampling. An area with visible growth or visible dust and debris has already failed and is re-cleaned before anything gets sampled. Three contained areas, for example, come to $875, and the number is known before the visit.
Every clearance includes laboratory sampling. We do not offer a visual-only verification, because a written pass without data behind it is not worth the paper it is printed on.
The pieces that make a report usable by someone who was not there.
Moisture map
$275
A drawn floor plan of every moisture reading, the dry reference, the wet boundary, and the thermal findings. What a remediator bids against and an adjuster follows.
Carrier-ready package
$175
The report, photographs, moisture data, chain of custody, and lab results assembled and formatted for an insurance claim, with cause, timing, and extent stated the way an adjuster reads them.
Consultation call
$95
A scheduled call to go through someone else's report, a remediation bid, or a lab result you received elsewhere. A walk back through a Sterling report is always free.
Quoted in writing, after a free look.
Inspections have a published price because the work is the same shape every time. Remediation and water jobs aren't. Mold remediation ranges from about $300 into five figures and up, depending on what's wrong and what has to be done. So every job starts with a free on-site estimate and a written, itemized quote, and no work starts until you've signed it. Financing is available for mold remediation and water damage work; ask about it with your free on-site estimate.
Mold remediation
Free estimate
A free on-site estimate, or a quote written to your assessor's protocol. Containment, removal, HEPA cleaning, and clearance by an independent assessor. Financing available.
Water damage
Quoted on site
Emergency extraction and drying, quoted on site, with photos and daily drying records on every job. Financing available.
The 12-month rule
Never both on one home
If Sterling inspected the home in the last 12 months, Florida law bars us from remediating it, and we'll tell you before we quote. When we remediate, the clearance test comes from an independent assessor.
The inspection is not the expense. The decision is.
Almost nobody books a mold inspection because they want a report. They book one because they are about to make an expensive, hard-to-reverse decision and they do not want to guess. Here is the scale of that decision.
Mold remediation
from about $300 into five figures and up
Depending on what's wrong and what has to be done. The inspection is what tells you where on that scale you are, or whether you need remediation at all.
A $400 inspection informs a decision that can run into five figures.
That asymmetry is the whole argument. Guess wrong in one direction and you pay for remediation you never needed. Guess wrong in the other and active moisture stays inside a wall, spreading through materials you will eventually have to replace anyway. An independent assessment is the cheapest step in this entire process — and the only one with no incentive attached to the answer.
- We do not profit from finding a problem
- We do not profit from missing one
- We are paid exactly the same either way
Sterling is licensed to remediate, but Florida law bars it from remediating a home it inspected in the last 12 months, so your inspection has no stake in where on that scale you land.
Which package is actually right for you?
Most people over-buy or under-buy because nobody explains the difference in plain terms. Find your situation below. If you are still unsure, call us — we will tell you which one you need, including when it is the cheaper one.
Basic
$400Choose this if
- You can already see or smell something and want it identified
- You had a leak, spill, or roof issue and want to know what it left behind
- You want a professional read before spending money on repairs
- You want a second opinion on a remediation company's findings
Premium IAQ
$700Choose this if
- Someone in the home has ongoing respiratory symptoms and you want data
- You are buying or selling and need documentation a third party will accept
- You are filing an insurance claim or in a dispute with a landlord or builder
- Remediation was done and you need to verify it actually worked
- You want the definitive answer, not the probable one
The honest short version: if you need to know, book the Basic. If you need to prove it to someone else — an insurer, a buyer, a landlord, a judge — book the Premium. The $300 difference buys an independent laboratory's signature on the result, and that signature is what third parties actually accept.
Find your fit
Which inspection do you need?
Four questions. We will tell you honestly which package fits — including when it is the less expensive one.
Answer the four questions and your recommendation appears here.
This is built to recommend the cheaper package whenever the cheaper package is the right answer. If you would rather just ask a person, call us — a licensed assessor reviews every request.
Everything in both packages, compared
No asterisks. If it appears in this table, it is included in the price shown.
| What's included | Basic$400 | Premium IAQ$700 |
|---|---|---|
| On-site inspection by a licensed Florida mold assessor | Included | Included |
| Infrared thermal imaging | Included | Included |
| Moisture mapping of walls, ceilings, floors, cabinetry | Included | Included |
| Photo documentation of areas of concern | Included | Included |
| Written report with recommendations | Included | Included |
| Post-report call to walk through findings | Included | Included |
| Indoor air sample + outdoor baseline | Not included | Included |
| Accredited third-party laboratory analysis | Not included | Included |
| Mold species identification | Not included | Included |
| Spore counts interpreted against your baseline | Not included | Included |
| Documentation suited to claims, sales & disputes | Limited | Included |
The list that makes the promise literal.
Most of what makes mold-inspection pricing untrustworthy is what happens after the quote. Here is what does not happen here, and then the itemized list.
We never sell you the mold removal on a home we inspected
Florida law bars us from remediating a home we assessed for 12 months, and we don't accept referral fees from the companies that do the work. There is no version of your report that turns into a remediation job for us.
We never charge for what we find
The price is set before we arrive and does not change based on what turns up. An inspection that finds a serious problem costs exactly the same as one that finds nothing at all.
We never pad the invoice
No trip fees, no per-room charges, no equipment surcharges, no separate report fee. One number, agreed in writing before the visit.
We never make medical claims
We report building conditions — moisture, materials, spore data. We will not tell you what mold is doing to your health; that is a conversation for your physician, and anyone who tells you otherwise is overselling.
- Trip charges or fuel surcharges anywhere in the service area
- Per-room fees
- Equipment fees for thermal imaging, moisture metering, or the sampling pump
- Setup fees
- A remediation protocol when nothing was found
- A call to walk back through the report
- Sending the report to an adjuster, attorney, landlord, or contractor
- Rescheduling with notice
- Returning to collect equipment
How this compares across Florida
For transparency, here are typical mold-inspection price ranges statewide. These are market context — not Sterling quotes. Use them to sanity-check any estimate you receive, ours included.
Option 1
$150 – $250
Visual-only inspection
Walk-through, moisture readings, written summary. No lab analysis, no thermal imaging.
Option 2
$300 – $450
Inspection + 2–3 air samples
Indoor sample(s) plus an outdoor baseline, lab-analyzed.
Option 3
$400 – $600
Full inspection with lab work
Broader air and surface sampling with accredited-lab analysis.
Option 4
~$35 – $75 each
Individual lab samples
Per-sample laboratory analysis fee.
Overall
$200 – $650
Overall typical range
Where most single-family inspections land statewide.
Sterling sits at the top of that range. On purpose.
A $200 inspection is a visual walk-through. Someone looks, writes a paragraph, and leaves. It cannot find moisture inside a wall cavity, because nothing in that price buys the instrument that sees it.
Every Sterling inspection — including the $400 package — carries thermal imaging and moisture metering as standard, performed by the licensed assessor in person. That equipment stack is the difference between an opinion and a finding.
We would rather be the most thorough inspection you can book on the Treasure Coast than the cheapest one you can regret.
What moves the number
Two properties are rarely identical. These are the factors that move any mold-inspection quote — ours or anyone else's:
- Property size (square footage) and number of stories
- How accessible the areas of concern are
- Whether additional sampling beyond the package is warranted
- The type of lab analysis selected, if any
- Complexity of the moisture history being investigated
- Commercial, multi-unit, or specialty scope
Market ranges are provided for context only and are not Sterling quotes. Sterling confirms the exact price of your inspection in writing before any work begins.
Estimate your range in 60 seconds
Four quick questions for a typical market range. It is a ballpark for orientation — your exact Sterling price comes from a short conversation about the property.
Both packages cover properties up to 2,500 sq ft, then $50 per additional 500 sq ft. No trip charge, no fuel surcharge, no per-photo fee.
Your Sterling price
$—
Answer the four questions and your actual price appears here — not a range.
This is Sterling’s published price, not a market estimate. It is confirmed in writing before any work begins — usually within ~1 business hour, 7 AM – midnight, every day.
See what that buys. Every document an inspection produces, section by section — report, lab addendum and remediation protocol.What people ask before they book
These are the real questions — including the skeptical ones. We would rather answer them here than have you wonder.
Because the law won't let us. Florida Statute § 468.8419(1)(d) bars a mold assessor from remediating a structure it assessed within the last 12 months. Sterling is licensed to remediate, but never on a home it inspected in that window, and we take no referral fees, so we have no financial interest in whether the report calls for remediation. A company allowed to do both on the same home would have the opposite incentive.
Larger or specialized scope?
Some properties do not fit a package, and we will not pretend otherwise. These scopes are quoted individually — typically within one business hour of your request.
- Commercial buildings and tenant spaces
- HOA and condo-association common areas
- Multi-unit and multi-building portfolios
- Litigation support beyond the carrier-ready package
- Properties over 4,000 sq ft or with multiple structures
Tell us the property size, the concern, and your timeline. A licensed assessor — not a call center — reviews every request.
5.0 · 30+ Google reviews
Read all on Google“Great service, reasonable prices. Would strongly recommend”
“The inspector explained why an assessment cannot always provide a simple yes-or-no answer without the proper evidence. I appreciated that scientific and honest approach.”
Comparing quotes? See what a mold inspection costs across Florida — market ranges by scope, and why the cheap ones are cheap.
Pricing questions
Sterling's Basic Mold Inspection is $400 and the Premium Indoor Air Quality Inspection is $700, for properties up to 2,500 sq ft. Larger properties add $50 per additional 500 sq ft. Both prices are all-inclusive — thermal imaging, moisture mapping, photo documentation, and a written report are part of the price, not add-ons.
Moisture does not wait for a convenient week.
Every week a wet cavity stays wet is more material affected and a larger repair. Tell us about the property — we respond with scope and price, typically within one business hour.