Rodent Removal in Marietta, GA
Marietta has houses from the 1840s standing a few minutes from streets of 1960s ranches, and the city seat of Cobb County covers a lot of ground in between. The inspection is written for the house rather than the city.
- Historic square and old houses
- Post-war ranches and subdivisions
- Cobb County seat
Free Inspection in Marietta
The free inspection covers the roofline from a ladder, the attic, the crawl space or basement, the interior signs and the yard, with every opening photographed and listed on the quote. Marietta is the county seat of Cobb County, about twenty miles northwest of downtown Atlanta up I-75, and contractors cover the city and the surrounding county.
The line is answered at every hour of the day and night, and inspections and site visits run from seven in the morning until seven at night, seven days a week. Nothing is charged for the visit and nothing is priced over the phone. Call, or send the details through the contact page.
The old houses around the square
The streets radiating from Marietta's square hold some of the oldest domestic building stock in the metro, running from the mid nineteenth century through the early twentieth. Those houses behave like intown Atlanta rather than like the county around them.
They sit on pier, stone or brick foundations with shallow crawl spaces, have been altered many times, and carry rooflines with more junctions than a modern eye expects: porch roofs tied into main walls, cross gables, later additions with their own eave lines. Openings occur at both levels and older wood at the sill and band joist is frequently soft, which means carpentry before any sealing is worth fastening.
Exclusion work on this stock is done behind original elements where it can be: screening fitted behind existing vent openings, metal shaped into a roof return void rather than fixed across trim, and porch skirt work done from the inside face. Anything visible from the street is discussed before it is fitted, and any local historic requirement is worth confirming with the city directly.
Post-war ranches and later subdivisions
The majority of Marietta addresses are in post-war and later housing, and it splits into two familiar groups. The 1950s to 1970s ranches are wide and low, on crawl spaces or partial basements, with long rooflines that produce more eave corners than the footprint suggests and vent screening that expired decades ago. The 1980s onward subdivisions bring two-story houses on full basements with cut-up roof plans and a dozen eave corners apiece.
The practical difference is where the quote weight lands. On a ranch, the foundation perimeter is a real piece of work and the roof is simple. On a subdivision two-story, the foundation is short work and the roofline carries the cost. Both get inspected the same way, and the quote shows which is which rather than averaging them.
Wooded ground and old hardwoods
Cobb County around Marietta is wooded and rolling, with a good deal of protected parkland nearby, and a lot of residential development happened through standing trees rather than on cleared ground. Decades later the hardwoods are over the rooflines.
That is the roof rat route. UF/IFAS describes the species as arboreal, traveling branches, wires and trunks by preference and ranging about 150 yards from its den, so a continuous canopy across a neighborhood puts a great many roofs within reach of a single den. Cutting limbs back from the roof is the highest-value free action available on a wooded lot here.
Rolling ground also puts the grade high against one elevation on many houses, which keeps moisture in the band joist at that wall and softens it over the years. That is an opening and a repair rather than just a seal, and it shows on the quote as carpentry.
What We Handle in Marietta
Every service arranged across the metro is arranged in Marietta, and these are the ones this range of housing calls for.
- Rodent exclusion: two-level closures on the old stock, roofline runs on the subdivisions
- Roof rat removal: attic trapping under mature Cobb County canopy
- Crawl space rodent control: shallow old crawl spaces and ranch perimeters
- Rodent inspection: free, and written for the house in front of it
- Attic cleanup: low old attics and large subdivision attic volumes alike
- Rodent clearance letters: for closings across the county
- Commercial rodent control: restaurants and older commercial buildings near the square
A Typical Marietta Job
The situation: A caller in an 1890s house a few streets from the square hears movement overhead at night and has separately noticed the floor flexing near a rear wall. The house has a shallow crawl space and a rear addition added at some point in the twentieth century.
What gets done: The inspection finds a roof rat run in the attic entering at a porch roof tie-in where the framing is open behind the trim. Underneath, the band joist along the rear wall has gone soft where the grade has been built up against it, which explains both the opening and the flexing floor. The addition has its own crawl area with no access, reached by cutting a proper hatch. The quote separates the band joist carpentry, the roof and foundation closures, the new access hatch, and trapping at both levels.
How it turns out: The carpentry is done first since mesh will not fasten to soft wood, the closures follow, and traps at both levels stop producing inside two weeks. The grade is cut back from the rear wall to keep soil off the new timber, and the addition crawl space finally has a door that latches.
What This Costs in Marietta
Marietta quotes vary more than most towns because the housing does. Angi's Atlanta cost page puts rat removal at $442 to $1,138 with an average around $786 for the trapping, and HomeGuide's 2026 national guide puts full-home exclusion at $500 to $2,500.
| Line item | Atlanta (Angi) | National (HomeGuide 2026) | Here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inspection | $210 to $420 standalone | $0 to $175 | Free |
| Trapping and removal | $442 to $1,138, average about $786 | $250 to $1,200 | Quoted from the inspection |
| Exclusion sealing | No Atlanta figure published | $500 to $2,500 | Quoted from the inspection |
| Full-scope restoration where it goes that far | No Atlanta figure published | $3,000 to $10,000 and up | Quoted from the inspection |
Each is a typical-job band from a published source, confirmed at the free inspection. A nineteenth-century house near the square sits at the top of the sealing band or above it, because there are openings at two levels and soft wood usually needs replacing first. A post-war ranch sits in the middle because of the perimeter, and a newer subdivision two-story sits in the middle for the opposite reason, the roof edge rather than the foundation.
Mice, squirrels, or something else
How the signs differ between the two.
Video: Signs of Mice vs. Squirrels In Your Attic, from Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control.
Why does the quote include carpentry?
Because galvanized mesh fastened to soft wood is decoration rather than a closure. On older houses, and particularly where the grade has been built up against a wall over the years, the sill and band joist take moisture and go soft, which is both an opening in itself and something nothing can be fixed to. Rotted sections are cut out and replaced first, and that appears as its own line on the quote rather than hidden inside a sealing figure.
Will the work be visible from the street?
It should not be on a historic house, and that is the default approach. Screening goes behind existing vent openings rather than across the front of them, roof return metal is shaped into the void rather than fixed over the trim, and porch skirt work is done from the inside face. Anything that would show is raised before it is fitted, and any local historic district requirement is worth confirming with the city directly.
How long does a job take on a house like mine?
HomeGuide gives two or three days for a handful of animals and as much as a couple of months for a heavy one, and the sealing runs alongside it rather than after. What extends an older house is the carpentry: replacing a section of band joist has to happen before the closures below the floor, and that adds days rather than weeks. Roof rats are wary of new objects, so traps are left in place at least a week regardless of the count.
Who is licensed to do rodent work in Cobb County?
Whoever attends works for a company licensed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture for structural pest control in Category 29, Household Pest Control, with a designated certified operator named for it for that category. The state requires rodent control services be performed under a written contract, and licenses are searchable on the Department of Agriculture lookup. Gray and southern flying squirrels are protected and need a Department of Natural Resources nuisance wildlife control permit; rats and mice are exempt.
Nearby Areas We Serve
The same contractors cover the towns around Marietta, and the service area runs across Cobb County and the rest of metro Atlanta.