Explain the inspection as a defined visit and the estimate as a document built from it. Say who comes, what they examine and measure, how long it takes, whether there is any charge, what the homeowner receives in writing, and whether pricing is presented that day and how long it holds. If the inspection is advertised as free, state its conditions up front, in the same words everywhere the offer appears.
Foundation and basement work tends to be expensive, and the homeowner usually calls because something looks wrong. Some have heard that a free inspection can end with a salesperson at the kitchen table, so they read inspection pages looking for the catch. A page that answers the obvious questions before they are asked reads as the company with nothing to hide.
This is a content-planning question for basement and foundation company owners and marketing leads, not structural, legal, or engineering advice. Rules about advertised offers and in-home sales vary by state, so bring offer and sales-process wording to counsel. Our basement and foundation content overview covers the questions homeowners ask about cracks and water.
Say what kind of visit the homeowner is booking
Homeowners use "inspection," "estimate," and "evaluation" interchangeably, and companies often do too. They can mean different visits: an assessment by the company's own inspector, which may end with a proposal; an evaluation by an independent structural engineer, which ends with a report and no sales offer; and a quick look at a single symptom. An inspector's findings are not an engineer's report. If your company recommends or works with engineers in some situations, say when, who pays, and what the homeowner receives.
Name the role, too. Is the person who inspects also the person who prices the work? Homeowners wonder about that even when they do not ask, and a page that answers it plainly settles a question the homeowner may have been reluctant to raise.
If you call it free, say what free covers
The FTC's Guide Concerning Use of the Word "Free," at 16 CFR 251.1, says "all such offers must be made with extreme care so as to avoid any possibility that consumers will be misled or deceived." It says the conditions attached to a free offer "should be set forth clearly and conspicuously at the outset of the offer so as to leave no reasonable probability that the terms of the offer might be misunderstood." Much of the guide addresses free items offered with the purchase of something else, so how it applies to a free inspection is a question for counsel.
As a writing standard, it holds up well. If the inspection is free, say what is included and what is not: whether the homeowner receives a written report or a verbal summary, whether crawl spaces or certain property types carry a fee, whether the offer applies throughout the service area, and whether the inspector presents pricing during the visit. Put those conditions next to the word "free" on the page, in the ad, and in the booking script.
Explain how the estimate is built
A homeowner holding a foundation proposal wants to know why the number is what it is, and how it compares with another company's proposal that recommended something different. The page can explain the parts of your estimate without publishing a price: what the inspector measured, which repair method the company proposes and why, what is included, and what could change once work begins.
| Estimate element | What the page explains | Who confirms it |
|---|---|---|
| Findings | What was observed and measured, in plain terms | Inspector |
| Proposed method | Why this approach for this finding | Production manager |
| Quantities | How the company counts what it prices, such as linear feet or the number of supports | Estimator |
| Exclusions | What is not included, such as finish work after excavation | Owner |
| Conditions that change the price | What could be found once work begins, and how changes are approved | Production manager |
| How long the price holds | The period the proposal stays open | Owner |
The order of the rows matters less than which one homeowners struggle with. Ask your inspectors: "Which line on our proposals do homeowners call back about most often after we leave?" Whatever they name is the line the page should explain first. For the broader question of writing about price, see our guide to cost pages without a misleading number.
Same-day proposals and the right to cancel
Foundation proposals are often presented at the home. The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule, at 16 CFR 429.0, defines a door-to-door sale to include consumer sales in which the seller or its representative personally solicits the sale and the buyer agrees to purchase at a place other than the seller's place of business, "including those in response to or following an invitation by the buyer." When we read the rule in October 2026, the threshold for a sale at the buyer's residence was a purchase price of $25 or more; check the current text before relying on any figure. The definition separately excludes certain transactions where the buyer initiated contact and asked the seller to visit "for the purpose of repairing or performing maintenance upon the buyer's personal property," and it says additional goods or services sold during such a visit, other than replacement parts used in the repair or maintenance, fall outside that exclusion.
Whether a particular inspection and proposal fall under the rule, and what your state adds, are questions for counsel. What the website can do is agree with the paperwork. Where a contract includes a cancellation notice, nothing on the sales-process page should contradict it. A page that says how long the proposal price holds, and that homeowners are welcome to get other opinions, tells the reader the visit is not a deadline.
A fictional inspection page for a foundation company
Here is a hypothetical outline for a fictional basement and foundation company in Indiana. It illustrates the structure, not any real company's process.
- What the visit is, who comes, and whether that person also prepares pricing.
- What the inspector checks inside and outside, and what they measure.
- How long it takes and whether anyone needs to clear access to walls or a crawl space.
- Whether there is a charge, with every condition attached to a free offer.
- What the homeowner receives, in what form, and when.
- How the proposal is built and how long its price holds.
- When the company recommends an independent engineer.
Every line traces to someone who does the work. A writer should not have to invent your inspection checklist from a competitor's page or guess how long proposals stay open; the inspector, estimator, and owner supply those answers and approve the final wording. Our article on explaining the estimate applies the same discipline to contractors generally.
In Hudson South's four steps, the Authority Asset holds the inspection checklist, offer terms, and approved estimate explanations. Hudson Twenty-One records how your inspectors talk across 21 dimensions, so the page sounds like a calm walk around the foundation. Market Intelligence studies what homeowners in your market ask before booking an inspection and how competing companies answer. AEO Creation writes the answer-first pages, and our hub for home services and trades shows how they connect to the other trade pages.
See how competitors describe their inspections
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- 16 CFR Part 251, Guide Concerning Use of the Word "Free" and Similar Representations. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Read 2026-10-16.
- 16 CFR Part 429, Rule Concerning Cooling-Off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Read 2026-10-16.