Bridgeport, Michigan
Looking for a Bridgeport home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Bridgeport, 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 Bridgeport 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 Bridgeport and across Saginaw 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 a Bridgeport 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 reportBridgeport housing stock
Bridgeport has roughly 2,936 housing units and about 77% of them are single-family detached. Age is the most useful single fact about a house before anyone has seen it. It narrows down what is worth checking first, and it is why two places of much the same size can need quite different inspections.
If the town has a defining decade it is the 1970s, which accounts for 803 homes, around 27% of the housing stock.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $80,900.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. A Bridgeport home inspector checks these things early in a home of this age and then records what is genuinely there, which is often not what the era would suggest.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Bridgeport was built
82% of homes here run on utility gas, and 25 still heat with oil. If yours is one of them, the tank is the thing to ask about — where it is, and whether it was ever buried. Another 79 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Bridgeport Township publishes something most municipalities leave you to work out: how to identify what your own household plumbing is made of, and what to do about it.
Its water FAQ tells residents to scratch a pipe and look at the color — silver-gray with threads on each end for galvanized, the color of a copper penny for copper — and to try a magnet, which will typically stick to galvanized pipe. Plastic, it notes, is usually white or blue with a clamp where it joins the supply.
That guidance exists because of what the housing here is. Of roughly 2,936 units, 2,297 — 78% — were built between 1940 and 1979, with only 168 added in the last thirty-five years. The Township points out that galvanized pipe went into many homes built before the 1960s, and that copper pipe with solder joints laid before 1986 can contain high levels of lead, the year federal law banned lead solder in potable systems.
In other words, this township’s housing sits almost entirely inside the era those two sentences describe. Establishing what is actually installed in a particular house is therefore one of the more useful things an inspection does here.
The Township is also unusually clear about how it treats an existing house: buildings and dwellings not under construction are inspected under the International Property Maintenance Code rather than the building code. Those are different standards asking different questions, and knowing which one applies to you is worth understanding.
Before you buy
Plumbing
The Township’s water FAQ does something we rather admire: it treats residents as capable of finding things out for themselves, and tells them how.
Galvanized pipe scratches silver-gray, has threads at each end, and a strong magnet will usually stick to it. Copper scratches to the color of a copper penny. Plastic is generally white or blue with a clamp at the connection. Those are the same three checks an inspector makes, and anyone can make them at an exposed run in a basement.
What the Township says about each matters too. Galvanized plumbing builds up iron corrosion scale, which it links to discolored water and lowered water pressure — and it recommends replacement where plumbing is corroded, particularly where the pipe coming into the house before the meter is galvanized. On copper, it notes that solder joints made before 1986 can contain high levels of lead, since the federal ban dates from that year.
On the service line itself the Township is able to say something few communities can: it states that its water supply system has copper or plastic water service lines to the property line, not lead. Its water is purchased from the City of Saginaw and distributed through its own mains.
That statement covers the line up to the property. What is inside the house is the owner’s, and on a stock this age it is usually a mixture: original galvanized in some places, copper where a bathroom or kitchen was redone, plastic where something failed more recently.
On an inspection we report the visible supply piping where it is accessible, describe the materials we can actually see, and note every point where the material changes or a repair has been made — because on a house of this age the joins are the story. We do not test water; that goes through a certified laboratory, and questions about the service line go to the Township.
Two codes
The building department enforces the full set of state construction codes — building, residential, rehabilitation, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, accessibility and energy — and then says something worth quoting: existing buildings and dwellings not under construction are inspected under the International Property Maintenance Code.
That distinction confuses a lot of buyers, and it is worth getting straight. A building code governs how something is built at the time it is built. A property maintenance code governs the condition of what already exists. An eighty-year-old house is not required to become a new house; it is required to be maintained in a safe and sound condition.
The Township also notes that the state revises and updates these codes every three years, which explains why the edition in force keeps moving and why work done in different decades was measured against different rules.
A buyer’s inspection sits closer to the maintenance side of that line. We are not a code inspection and we do not issue citations. We report the condition and apparent function of the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, and we say plainly where something looks wrong, unsafe, or done outside the normal process.
The department is small — one full-time building inspector and two part-time trade inspectors for electrical, plumbing and heating, working alongside the fire department, which enforces the fire codes. Its advice to anyone planning work is sensible and worth repeating: talk to the building inspector before starting, so there are no misunderstandings about permits and specifications. It also publishes homeowner videos on planning a project and on why contractor licensing protects the money you put into a building.
Getting things done
If you need something from the building department here, look at the clock before you set off. The counter is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 to 11 in the morning and again from 4:30 to 5 in the afternoon — two and a half hours, plus a thirty minute window at the end of the day.
The township offices themselves keep a four-day week, opening Monday through Thursday and closing on Friday, with a later Tuesday.
That is not a criticism; it is a small department with one full-time inspector, and concentrated counter hours are how a department that size protects the time it spends actually inspecting. But it is a real constraint if you are working to a closing date, and it is the sort of thing that costs a week if you find out about it on a Friday.
Records requests and permit history are worth starting early on any property here for the same reason. With 78% of the housing built between 1940 and 1979, most of what you are asking about happened a long time ago, and old files take longer to find than recent ones.
Our own scheduling is separate and works around real estate timetables rather than office hours. Get in touch and we will tell you honestly what we can fit and when.
Postwar housing
With almost four in five houses built between 1940 and 1979, the findings here follow a recognizable pattern.
Electrical first. A house wired in that period was wired for a fraction of today’s demand. Most have had a service upgrade, but upgrades range from a genuine rewire to a new panel with original distribution behind it, and circuits added in stages by different hands are common. Coherence matters more than date.
Plumbing next, and here the Township’s own guidance points the way: galvanized supply lines that have been partly replaced, copper added in stages, and the joins between them. Drain and vent layouts are frequently the original arrangement with newer fixtures hung off them.
Roofs on this stock are on their third or fourth covering. Windows have generally been replaced once, sometimes with more attention to the unit than to what happens at the opening. Heating equipment has turned over two or three times, and venting arrangements do not always keep pace with the appliance.
And water. Fifty to eighty years of freeze and thaw leave a record in a foundation and a basement, and the ordinary causes are usually the ones that matter: grading that has settled toward the wall, downspouts discharging at the foundation, and sump arrangements added long after the building. We report the drainage as we find it and describe what the building actually shows about water that has been there before, rather than predicting what a particular storm will do.
The buried line
The Township can tell you what its water service lines are made of. Nobody can tell you what condition your sanitary lateral is in without looking inside it.
That line runs from the building to the main, it belongs to the owner, and on a house built in the 1950s or 1960s it has been in the ground sixty or seventy years under a lot that has had the same time to grow trees over it. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Bridgeport laterals are generally made of.
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. On this housing stock it is among the most useful things you can buy before closing, and it is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately.
Alongside it we offer radon testing, mold inspection and testing, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Bridgeport.
Local information from Bridgeport Charter Township — water quality FAQ and household plumbing identification · Bridgeport Charter Township — building and codes department, codes enforced and counter hours · Bridgeport Charter Township — Water Department. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Bridgeport 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
A shout out to Noah for the inspection of our new house. He was very professional and thorough. He is also accessible after the fact — I have called him twice for clarification on our roofing issue and he has been so friendly and answered all of my questions.
Susan LawhonBridgeport, 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
The Township publishes the method. Scratch the outside of the pipe: galvanized scratches silver-gray and has threads at each end, and a strong magnet will usually stick to it; copper scratches to the color of a copper penny. Plastic is generally white or blue with a clamp at the connection to the supply piping.
The Township states that its water supply system has copper or plastic water service lines to the property line, not lead. That covers the line up to the property; what is inside the house is the owner’s, and on this housing stock it is often a mixture of materials added over the decades.
That it went into many homes built before the 1960s, that it builds up iron corrosion scale which causes discolored water and lowered water pressure, and that residents should consider replacing corroded galvanized plumbing — particularly where the pipe entering the house before the meter is galvanized.
Because that is the year federal law banned lead-containing solder in potable water systems. The Township notes that copper pipe with solder joints made before 1986 can contain high levels of lead. Most of the housing here was built before that date, which is why establishing what is installed is worth doing.
The Township states that existing buildings and dwellings not under construction are inspected under the International Property Maintenance Code, while construction is governed by the state building codes. A maintenance code concerns the condition of what exists rather than requiring an old house to become a new one.
The counter is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 to 11 in the morning and again from 4:30 to 5 in the afternoon. The township offices keep a four-day week, closing on Friday. On a project with a deadline that is worth planning around rather than discovering.
Overwhelmingly postwar. About 2,297 of roughly 2,936 units were built between 1940 and 1979 — 78% of the township — with only 168 units added in the last thirty-five years. Around 77% is single-family detached.
On this housing stock, usually yes. The lateral belongs to the owner, on a house from the 1950s or 1960s it has been in the ground sixty or seventy years, and mature planting has had the same time to find it. 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.
Police, fire, rescue, military and educators — our way of saying thank you for your service. Enter code HERO at checkout.
Claim the Hero DiscountNeed a Bridgeport home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Bridgeport are handled by Bridgeport, Michigan, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
February 1, 2023
Your local Bridgeport home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
