How Much Do Termite Treatments Cost In Dallas, TX?

How Much Should a Termite Treatment Cost in Dallas, TX? 

The average home will cost about $1,000 for a traditional liquid treatmentThat same home will cost about $500-700 for a bait station treatment

Both treatments will come with annual warranty renewal charges that you should expect to cost about $200 per year (some break it up into monthly payments)

• Here are the main factors that influence the ultimate cost:
  • The size of the house
  • The type of construction (e.g., slab vs pier and beam foundation)
  • The type of treatment you choose
  • The warranty
  • Whether you have active termites or not

Average cost of treatments here in Dallas

Dallas has a lot of pest control companies, most of which perform termite treatments. The Texas Department of Agriculture regulates pest control companies and has a special licensing category exclusively for termites. Make sure any company you choose to do a termite treatment, if licensed in that category with the Department of Agriculture.

There is a very wide range in costs of termite treatments. Here I lay out the various factors that will cause price to go up and down.

Factors Influencing Cost:

• Size of house
  • Naturally, the bigger the house the bigger the price.
  • It's not because you have a big house per se, but because it will take more time and product to treat
  • With bigger houses, there are also more opportunities for termites to enter the house - more bathrooms, for example
  • A very common pricing metric is $7-8 per linear foot for a liquid treatment and ~$3-4 per linear foot for a bait station treatment
    • Beware of companies charging more than this - just today I spoke with a woman who had a feeling she was being overcharged and the company (who shall not be named) charged her $16 per linear foot!  Literally double what most companies would charge
• Type of construction
  • Depending on the way your house is constructed, this can result in more work for the treatment, and thus increase cost
  • If you have a standard slab foundation, such as is very common with newer homes in the DFW area, you shouldn't really experience any increase in cost from what I've mentioned above
  • However, if you have an older home and have a pier and beam foundation, you should expect to increase the cost of a liquid treatment by ~30-50%. The reason for this is you need to also treat the crawl space, which takes time and product…plus, who likes getting in tight crawl spaces? Am I right?
• Type of treatment
  • As mentioned above, bait station treatments tend to be cheaper than liquid treatments
  • The main drivers of that is time on site
  • A liquid treatment takes a long time because of all the digging and drilling that has to be done, it typically would take anywhere from 4-6 hours to do an average house usually with two people
  • On the other hand, a bait station installation can take 1-2 hours with one person, which is a primary factor in making them cheaper
• Warranty
  • It's industry standard that every termite treatment come with a 1 year warranty
  • The warranty stipulates that if you get termites again while under warranty, the company will come out and treat again for free
    • Make sure you pay for your annual termite warranty renewal - otherwise you'll be out of luck
  • A very small number of companies (I can count on one hand the number I know of) also offer a damage warranty. What this means is that they will pay to have any damage caused by the termites fixed. Naturally, they won't pay for any existing damage - only damage caused by a re-infestation. If you're keeping up with paying your pest control bills, you will be protected
  • If you have one of these types of warranties, it will likely be a little more expensive - like choosing insurance coverage: the more coverage you want the more expensive it will become
• Active termites
  • If you have active termites, companies tend to increase the price
  • Part of it is real - they may have to do a little bit of extra work in the specific areas where the termites are found
  • And, part of it is opportunity - they charge more because they can (like it or not...)
  • If you're just getting a preventative treatment, you will likely get a better price because you're not in a rush, you'll find the right solution for you, and the provider will perceive you as being more cost conscious

So what do you do if you have a quote in your hands that is way higher or way lower than what I'm saying here?

At the end of the day, getting these services from companies isn't 100% transparent and it can be hard to compare quotes between companies because of the difference in the way they may approach the actual service.

For example, one company might be planning on using a cheaper product. Another might plan to drill 18 holes in the concrete. One company might just be trying to hit some revenue goals and so they increase their prices. One company might be desperate for business.