How To Become A Lumber Inspector: What It Is and Career Path

What is a lumber inspector and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lumber inspector. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.93 an hour? That's $43,538 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -17,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreLumber InspectorUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,538

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.2

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.79%

Asian 6.57%

Black or African American 12.77%

Hispanic or Latino 12.56%

Unknown 4.31%

White 63.01%

Gender

female 3.35%

male 96.65%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

8.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.4

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a lumber inspector

Explore lumber inspector education requirements

Most common lumber inspector degrees

High School Diploma

46.9 %

Associate

28.6 %

Bachelor's

14.3 %

Start to develop specific lumber inspector skills

Skills	Percentages
Equipment Maintenance	32.02%
Shop Safety	26.85%
Hardwood	21.19%
Quality Standards	9.51%
Band Saws	5.69%

Complete relevant lumber inspector training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New lumber inspectors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a lumber inspector based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real lumber inspector resumes.

Research lumber inspector duties and responsibilities

Operate and maintain planers, saws, and kiln dryers.
Contract with local hardwood lumber production facilities to grade and upgrade rough green lumber to be sell.
Supervise 5 people (green chain) / inspecting & grading multiple hardwood species, segregation by dimension/species, up to 40Kbf/day
Conduct dimensional and visual inspections procedures on CMM machines to ensure geometrical characteristics of the product are in specification.

Prepare your lumber inspector resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your lumber inspector resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a lumber inspector resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable lumber inspector resume templates

Build a professional lumber inspector resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your lumber inspector resume.