Armada, Michigan
Looking for an Armada home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Armada, 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 Armada 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 Armada and across Macomb 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 Armada 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 reportArmada housing stock
Armada has roughly 657 housing units and about 88% of them are single-family detached. Homes built in a single stretch tend to wear out in the same places at the same time. That is why when somewhere was built is the first thing worth knowing about it.
The busiest stretch of building here was the years before 1940: 272 homes, about 41% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $236,300.
None of this says anything about the specific house you are buying. It is the shortlist an Armada home inspector works through in a home of this age, and every item on it gets photographed and written up whichever way it turns out.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Armada was built
90% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 13 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Armada publishes a proper swimming pool ordinance, with real numbers in it, and that makes this one of the few places we cover where a buyer can check a pool against a published local standard rather than a general impression.
It matters because pools are one of the areas where an attractive feature and a serious hazard are the same object. The village requires that all pools are reviewed by its building department, that they are enclosed, and that the electrical work around them meets the state code — and it is specific about setbacks and about overhead wires.
The second thing worth knowing is administrative and easy to trip over. The village office is open Monday to Thursday and closed on Fridays, while public works runs Monday to Friday from seven until four. So a Friday will get you a pothole reported but not a permit question answered.
Third, a naming point. Armada Township is a separate municipality with its own government, and the village links to it as a neighbor rather than a parent. Confirm which one an address actually sits in before relying on anything about permits or ordinances.
On the housing, this is an old village: about 272 of roughly 657 units predate 1940, some 41% of the stock, and nothing at all is recorded as built since 2009.
Before you buy
Pools
The village’s pool information page sets out its swimming pool section in full, and it is worth reading before you buy a property with a pool or plan to put one in.
On position: a pool, and any associated decking and fencing, may not be in a required front yard. The outside edge of the pool wall or the perimeter of the decking must be set back at least ten feet from all adjacent property lines, and the pool wall at least ten feet from adjacent structures.
On enclosure: all pools must be completely enclosed by a fence at least four feet high, or by another means of access control. Above-ground pools that are themselves at least four feet high may instead use gates, or removable or swing-up steps, or another means of limiting entry.
On electricity: all wiring connected with a pool must conform to the state electrical code. If service drop conductors or other utility wires cross over or under a proposed pool area, the applicant has to arrange relocation with the utility before a permit will be issued. No part of a pool or associated structure may encroach on a utility easement or right-of-way. And the ordinance calls for ground-fault protection against electric shock.
Now the honest limits of what we do. On an inspection we report whether a barrier is present and its apparent height, how any gate behaves — whether it self-closes and latches — whether receptacles serving the pool area appear to have ground-fault protection, and whether overhead conductors run above or close to the pool. We photograph what we find and describe it plainly.
What we do not do is certify compliance with the ordinance, verify electrical bonding of the pool shell and surrounds, which is largely concealed, or assess the pool structure, liner, heater or circulation equipment beyond visible condition. Those need a pool specialist and the village building department, and we will say so in the report rather than implying our visit settles it.
Permits
The building department publishes a building permit application, an electrical permit application and a combined plumbing and mechanical application, and names a building inspector and an electrical inspector.
It also keeps dedicated pages for pools, signs and fences. The pool page is thorough, as above. The fence page, when we looked, carried only a heading and the village’s contact details — so we cannot tell you what the fence rules are, and we are not going to invent them. Ask the office. Given that pool barriers and boundary fences are frequently the same structure, it is a question worth asking properly.
The village office is open Monday to Thursday, eight until half past four, and closed on Fridays. Plan permit conversations accordingly.
Ask for the permit history on the specific address before you buy, and ask about the pool specifically if there is one, since the village requires its review. On a village where four houses in ten predate 1940, eighty years of alterations have accumulated, and the gap between what was permitted and what is physically present is a gap the buyer inherits.
A home inspection is not a code inspection or a permit search. What it does is establish what is physically there and in what condition, and flag work that looks as though it was done without the benefit of a permit. A buyer’s inspection gives you the specifics, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available where a building is commercial.
The village
The department of public works covers a great deal for a village of this size: streets, sidewalks, sewer, water and storm drainage systems, parks, public buildings, off-street parking, snow ploughing and ice control, leaf pick-up, brush chipping — and the operation of the village water treatment plant.
It runs Monday to Friday from seven until four, with an after-hours emergency number, so it is reachable on the day the village office is not.
For an inspection, the storm drainage half of that list is the relevant one. We record where the downspouts terminate and whether they carry water clear of the walls or drop it at the foundation, where any sump pump discharges and whether there is a backup arrangement, and how the ground falls away from the building on every elevation.
On a property with a pool there is an extra dimension: pool decking, surrounds and backwash discharge all change how water moves across a yard, and a pool installed after the house often reroutes drainage that used to work. We look at how the ground falls around the pool surround as well as around the building.
Inside, we look for what past water has left behind: staining and tide lines on foundation walls, efflorescence and mineral deposits, replaced lower wall finishes, and corrosion at the base of mechanical equipment. On a house eighty years old the original arrangement has usually been altered more than once.
The housing
With around 272 units built before 1940 and nothing recorded since 2009, Armada is an old village that has not grown recently. So the inspection is largely an exercise in reading eighty or more years of accumulated change.
Electrical systems have usually been rebuilt in stages by different hands. We look for mixed wiring types meeting in the same box, ungrounded receptacles, undersized or overfilled panels, overfused circuits, and connections made in places never intended to be permanent. Original service capacity is frequently the limit on what a modern household wants to run — and on a property with a pool, pump and heater loads make that question sharper rather than softer.
Plumbing tends to have been renewed in part rather than in whole, so material transitions where old meets new are where problems concentrate. Original galvanized supply, where it survives, corrodes from the inside and shows as reduced flow long before anything leaks.
Roof coverings will be several generations deep. Heating equipment is typically several replacements from the original, and how well each was fitted and vented matters more than how new the current one looks.
Foundations of that era are usually stone or early block, and their condition depends far more on how water has been managed around the building than on how they were originally built.
At 88% detached housing, outbuildings, garages and workshops are normal parts of a property here and we inspect them as part of it. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit.
The buried line
The line running out from the building belongs to the owner, and no visual inspection reaches inside it. Under a pre-1940 house it is often the oldest untouched component on the whole property.
We will not name a material from a build year. Nothing published establishes what Armada lines 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 in there: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. In an old platted village with mature street trees, roots are the common finding, and they give no warning at all until the day the drains back up.
It is the one part of a purchase where a genuine unknown can be turned into a known for a fixed and modest amount of effort on the day, and on housing this age that is a straightforward decision.
A camera inspection is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately, and we deliver a full written report with photographs, generally the same day. You can read what our clients say, browse answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Armada.
Local information from Village of Armada — swimming pool requirements, Section 7.03 · Village of Armada — Building Department and permit applications · Village of Armada — Department of Public Works · Village of Armada — fence information. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Macomb County
Zone 3 is the lowest of the three EPA categories — the predicted average indoor level across the county is below 2 pCi/L. So Armada is not where the state’s worst readings turn up, and we would rather say that plainly than imply otherwise.
We place a continuous monitor for 48 hours and read the result on site — no mail-in kit, no lab wait. How radon testing works · Macomb County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Armada 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
Mitch did our inspection for the sale of our home and he was professional, efficient and friendly. The report was sent to me and my agent in a timely fashion and I appreciated how quickly the appointment was made and everything was finished! Would recommend to others.
Kendra AllenRoseville, MII 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, MIWhat happens
Questions
Yes. The village states that all swimming pools require review by its building department, and its ordinance sets out setbacks, enclosure requirements and electrical conditions.
The pool, and any associated decking and fencing, may not be in a required front yard. The pool wall or decking perimeter must be at least ten feet from all adjacent property lines, and the pool wall at least ten feet from adjacent structures.
Complete enclosure by a fence at least four feet high, or another means of access control. Above-ground pools at least four feet high may instead use gates or removable or swing-up steps to limit entry.
The ordinance requires that where service drop conductors or other utility wires cross over or under a proposed pool area, the applicant arranges relocation with the utility before a permit is issued. No part of a pool may encroach on a utility easement.
Partly, and we are explicit about the limits. We report whether a barrier is present and its apparent height, how gates behave, whether receptacles serving the area appear to have ground-fault protection, and whether conductors run overhead. We do not certify compliance, verify concealed bonding, or assess the pool structure and equipment beyond visible condition.
Monday to Thursday, eight until half past four, and closed on Fridays. Public works runs Monday to Friday from seven until four with an after-hours emergency number.
We cannot tell you. The village keeps a fence information page but when we looked it carried only a heading and contact details. Ask the office — and ask carefully, since a pool barrier and a boundary fence are often the same structure.
On a village where four houses in ten predate 1940, yes. The drain line is often the oldest untouched component on the property and mature street trees make roots the common finding. A camera inspection goes on the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
Police, fire, rescue, military and educators — our way of saying thank you for your service. Enter code HERO at checkout.
Claim the Hero DiscountNeed an Armada home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Armada are handled by the Village of Armada, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
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Your local Armada home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
