Almont, Michigan
Looking for an Almont home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Almont, seven days a week. Home inspection reports come back in 24 hours.
Schedule your inspectionCall 734-331-3269
Services
For buyers, sellers, and homeowners keeping an eye on the place they already own. On new construction we also do pre-drywall inspections and 11-month builder’s warranty inspections. Our certified inspectors walk every major system in your Almont home and tell you plainly what they found — then put it in a photo-rich digital report within 24 hours.
Following the InterNACHI Standards of Practice:
Included free with every home buyer inspection— and none of them require us to sell your information.
SatisfactionIf you are unhappy with your inspector on the day of the inspection, before you have seen your report, tell us and we will make it right — or you owe us nothing.
30-Day WarrantyA free 30-day Guard home warranty trial, negotiated for you with no obligation. Activate it whenever you are ready.
$100 OffThe buyer’s protection guarantee: if the first home we inspect for you does not make it to the closing table, for any reason, we take $100 off any further home buyer inspection within 30 days of the original.
Optional services at an additional cost — not part of a standard inspection. Tap one to see what it covers.
A camera down the main sewer line, watching its condition from the inside — roots, breaks, bellies and blockages no visual inspection can find. More about sewer scope inspections
The wood-destroying organism report VA buyers are typically asked to provide, on the federal NPMA-33 form. Carried out during the same visit. More about Veterans WDO inspections
Up to five air samples sent to an accredited laboratory, added to the same appointment rather than booked as a second visit. More about mold inspection and testing
View a sample report
Offices, retail, multifamily and warehouses in Almont and across Lapeer County. Know what condition a building is in before you sign — or stay ahead of problems in the one you already own. Reports in 24 to 72 hours depending on size.
Following the CCPIA commercial standards:
Commonly added to a commercial inspection at additional cost.
Commercial laterals are longer, older and carry more. A camera is the only way to see the condition of the one you are buying. More about sewer scope inspections
Air samples to an accredited laboratory, which matters most in buildings that have sat empty or had a roof or plumbing leak. More about mold inspection and testing
View a sample report
Add either to an Almont home or commercial inspection, or book it on its own. We test and we never remediate, so there is nothing to sell you on the back of a result — the number you get is just the number.
Radon measured in house on a professional continuous monitor; mold samples to an accredited laboratory:
The other things worth testing while somebody is already there.
Carried out after remediation on the treated area and the areas next to it, to confirm what was found. More about mold inspection and testing
A damp basement can have several causes, and the buried sewer line is the one a visual inspection cannot check. A scope rules it in or out. More about sewer scope inspections
View a sample reportAlmont housing stock
Almont has roughly 1,220 housing units and about 75% of them are single-family detached. Housing that went up mostly in one era has mostly one era’s problems — which is genuinely useful to know before you buy, because it tells you what to look at first.
Most of it went up in the 1990s — 277 homes, around 23% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $220,100. 85% are owner-occupied, which is high even for this area. There are around 167 manufactured and mobile homes in Almont. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement.
None of this is a prediction about a particular house. It is where an Almont home inspector starts looking in a home of this age, and what we photograph and write up either way.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Almont was built
89% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 3 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Almont is actively asking its residents to disconnect their downspouts from the sanitary sewer, and it explains exactly why.
The Village’s wastewater plant meets its discharge permit under normal conditions, but it says that in heavy wet weather the works has been overloaded by storm water and groundwater getting into the sanitary system — infiltration, in the trade — and that this taxes its treatment capacity. In response it runs a downspout disconnection awareness program, inspects its own collection system to reduce infiltration, and asks anyone who knows or suspects a problem to get in touch.
Tracing where downspouts and sump discharges actually go is something we do on every inspection. On a property here that observation is not just about whether your own basement stays dry — it is a question the Village is actively asking about.
The Village goes further than most in giving residents the information. Its public works department publishes homeowner flyers on downspout disconnection, on sewer backups, on sump pumps, and on backflow preventers and second meters for lawn irrigation. Four of those five subjects are things an inspection reports on directly.
The housing is unusual in shape: 277 units from the 1990s, 218 from the 1980s and 208 predating 1940, with only six recorded from the whole of the 1940s — and the village is still growing, with 164 units added since 2010.
Before you buy
Downspouts and infiltration
A sanitary sewer is sized for sewage. When rainwater gets into it — through a downspout plumbed into the sanitary line, a sump pump discharging into it, or cracked and open joints in old pipe — the system has to carry a volume it was never designed for, and it does that on precisely the days when it is already busiest.
The Village’s wastewater plant page sets out the consequences plainly, and its response is a downspout disconnection awareness program plus inspections of its own collection system.
For a homeowner the practical version is simpler. A downspout connected to the sanitary sewer is doing nobody any good: it contributes to backups on the street and gives you no benefit. A sump pump discharging into the sanitary system does the same thing, more persistently.
On an inspection we trace sump and downspout discharges as far as they can be followed and report where they appear to go. Where a discharge disappears into a buried pipe we say so rather than guessing at its destination — a confident guess in a report is worse than an honest uncertainty — but a downspout running into a standpipe beside the foundation, or a sump line heading toward a floor drain, is visible and reportable.
We also report the drainage that decides how much water arrives in the first place: the fall of the ground around the building, the condition of gutters and their terminations, and what the basement shows about water that has been there before.
The plant itself has a long history — an original facility from 1958, a replacement first in service in 1989, and a two million gallon equalization basin added in 2004 to hold excess flow and release it back through the plant slowly. It discharges to the North Branch of the Clinton River, and treats for phosphorus and ammonia nitrogen as well as solids and organic matter.
The flyers
The public works department publishes a set of homeowner documents that reads like an inspection checklist.
There is the downspout disconnection program. There is a flyer on sewer backups. There is one on sump pumps. And there is one on backflow preventers and deduct meters — the second meter arrangement for lawn irrigation that lets outside water avoid the sewer charge.
That last one is worth flagging for a buyer. A second meter for irrigation is a fixed installation on the property, and a backflow preventer is a real device that has to be present and working to keep irrigation water out of the drinking supply. Both are things we report where they are visible, though we do not test or certify backflow assemblies — that is a certified tester’s job.
The sump pump and sewer backup flyers cover the two failures most likely to cost a new owner real money in the first year of ownership. Reading them costs nothing, and they are written by the people who deal with the consequences.
A buyer’s inspection covers the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, and reports the sump arrangement as we find it: whether there is a pit and a pump, whether a backup exists and what kind, where the discharge goes, and what the foundation and basement show about past water.
Permits
The Village has contracted all building work, rental inspections and zoning administration to Construction Code Authority in Lapeer. New zoning and building permit submissions go directly to them rather than to the Village office, applications can be made electronically, and inspections are requested through a 24-hour answering line and scheduled for the current or the next inspection day.
For a buyer researching a property, that means the permit history is held outside the village. It is one request rather than several, but it is not the request most people would think to make first.
Two Village-level requirements stay local. New construction needs water and sewer tap-ins, and water meters are purchased through the Village. And any work in the public right of way — the streets, alleys, sidewalks, curbs and the strip between curb and sidewalk — needs a right of way permit, submitted with a fee and a surety bond, and the Village is explicit that the permit is not valid until the public works supervisor has approved it and notified the applicant.
That matters more than it sounds on an older property. Replacing a sidewalk, a drive approach or a service connection generally means working in the right of way, and the bond requirement is the kind of thing that catches a homeowner planning to do it themselves.
Land division is a shared arrangement between the Village and the Township, with the form going to the Village and questions to the township assessor — a reminder that Almont the village and Almont Township are separate governments.
A buyer’s inspection is not a permit search and does not replace one. It tells you which parts of a property are worth asking about.
Getting hold of the Village
The public works department works weekday mornings and early afternoons, but the Village office is closed on Fridays. Appointments are preferred before half past two and need twenty-four to forty-eight hours notice.
The Village has also stopped scheduling non-emergency after-hours water requests — turning water on or off for what it describes as a non-village repair. After-hours emergencies go through county central dispatch, and the Village notes that if a call turns out not to be an emergency, or not to be caused by a main backup, a fee may apply.
That is a fair policy and worth knowing before you need it. It also underlines something we say on every inspection: a shut-off valve you can find and turn is one of the most valuable things in a house. We report the location and apparent condition of the main water shut-off where it is accessible, and it is worth knowing where yours is on the day you take the keys.
Two smaller local rules are worth carrying into winter. The Village points out that Michigan law makes it illegal to shovel or plow snow onto a road, and its ordinance prohibits parking on public streets between three and six in the morning.
Brush is chipped on set Mondays through the warmer months, with limits on size and on how much the Village will take — a practical consideration on a property with mature trees.
The housing
Almont’s housing has an unusual profile: 495 units from the 1980s and 1990s together, 208 predating 1940, and 164 built since 2010 — with almost nothing from the 1940s.
On the 1980s and 1990s stock the inspection concentrates on replacement cycles. Original roofs are gone or overdue. Furnaces, water heaters and air conditioning have been replaced once, with variable care and occasionally with venting that has not kept pace with a newer appliance. Window seals and exterior finishes are showing wear. Grading has settled since the build, which in a village concerned about infiltration is worth more attention than usual.
Decks from that period deserve a proper look rather than a glance — the ledger connection to the house, the flashing behind it, and the condition of hangers and fasteners.
On one of the 208 prewar houses the questions change entirely, toward accumulated alteration across eighty-five years or more: electrical extended in stages, plumbing renewed in part, insulation retrofitted, and a foundation that has had a very long time to meet water. On a house of that age, the drainage arrangements were almost certainly added long after the building.
On the newest houses the questions are about build quality and early settlement rather than replacement, and about whether the drainage was set up properly in the first place.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard.
The buried line
The Village inspects its own collection system to find infiltration. The line running from your building out to that system is yours, and it is not part of that work.
That is also where a good deal of infiltration starts. Cracked joints and displaced sections in a private lateral let groundwater in just as effectively as a downspout does, and on a prewar house that pipe may have been in the ground the better part of a century.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Almont laterals are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually inside: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. It is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately, and in a village actively looking for infiltration it answers a question that matters to more than just the homeowner.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, see the Village’s permits page, or get in touch about a specific address in Almont.
Local information from Village of Almont — wastewater treatment plant, infiltration and the downspout disconnection program · Village of Almont — Department of Public Works and its homeowner flyers · Village of Almont — permits, building and construction. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Almont home inspector.
Family owned since 2009, more than 16,000 inspections completed and over 2,000 five-star reviews across Michigan. We also handle home buyer inspections, commercial building inspections, mold testing and radon testing.
We do not sell mold remediation or radon mitigation, so there is nothing to gain from a result that comes back bad. The number you get is just the number.
Radon, mold, sewer scope and wood-destroying organism inspections go on the same appointment as the home inspection rather than costing you a second morning.
Most people do, and it is the most useful hour of the whole purchase. Ask anything while we are standing in front of it.
InterNACHI and CCPIA certified, with four Certified Master Inspectors and National Home Inspector Examination passes on the team — none of which Michigan requires. The standards we inspect to are published and you can hold the work against them.
Including weekends, because inspection windows sit on closing dates and closing dates do not care what day it is.
Reviews
I recently hired Trademark for a full home inspection on a new purchase, including sewer scope and radon testing. It was a phenomenal experience from beginning to end. Our inspector, Mitch, did a fantastic job explaining all the findings, and the digital report with photos and videos was superb. Would definitely recommend without hesitation.
Salina HamiltonOak Park, MIWe had Mitch inspect our prospective house and he was amazing. He was thorough, patient to answer my questions and provide feedback on what areas he would recommend having a follow up expert and why. The office was responsive and I was able to book multiple services to be done in the same visit (inspection, radon test, sewer scope).
Chris PlaweckiOak Park, MIThis is one of the finest companies I have come across - that means serious customer service and professionalism. Justin was the inspector and he was very thorough yet very kind to answers all the questions that came in my mind during inspection. He took enough time, no rush, and a very detailed inspection was conducted. Extremely competitive pricing and timing from the company. 100% recommend to anyone looking for any kind of property inspection!!
Chirag R MiyaniMichiganWhat happens
Questions
Because storm water getting into the sanitary system overloads the treatment plant in heavy weather. The Village states that during excessive wet weather the works has been overloaded with storm and groundwater, and it runs a downspout disconnection awareness program while inspecting its own collection system to reduce infiltration.
As far as they can be followed, yes. We trace them and report where they appear to go. Where a discharge disappears into a buried pipe we say so rather than guessing at its destination, but a downspout running into a standpipe at the foundation, or a sump line heading toward a floor drain, is visible and reportable.
Its public works department publishes flyers on downspout disconnection, sewer backups, sump pumps, and backflow preventers and deduct meters for lawn irrigation, along with a meter reading guide. Four of those five are subjects an inspection reports on directly, and they are written by the people who deal with the consequences.
From Construction Code Authority in Lapeer. The Village has contracted all building work, rental inspections and zoning administration to them, and new submissions go directly to CCA rather than to the Village office. Inspections are requested through a 24-hour line and scheduled for the current or next inspection day.
If the work is in the public right of way, yes. The Village requires a right of way permit submitted with a fee and a surety bond, and states that the permit is not valid until the public works supervisor has approved it and notified the applicant. The right of way includes streets, alleys, sidewalks, curbs and the strip between curb and sidewalk.
The Village no longer schedules non-emergency after-hours water requests such as turning water on or off for a non-village repair. Genuine after-hours emergencies go through county central dispatch, and the Village notes a fee may apply if a call turns out not to be an emergency or not to be caused by a main backup.
Mixed and still growing. About 495 units date from the 1980s and 1990s together, 208 predate 1940, and 164 have been built since 2010 — with only six recorded from the whole of the 1940s.
Yes, and it speaks directly to the Village’s concern. Cracked joints and displaced sections in a private lateral let groundwater into the sanitary system just as a downspout does, and the lateral is the owner’s. A camera inspection documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and is added to the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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