Burton, Michigan
Looking for a Burton home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Burton, 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 Burton 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 Burton and across Genesee 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 Burton 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 reportBurton housing stock
Burton has roughly 13,389 housing units and about 81% of them are single-family detached. The year a house went up decides more about what an inspection turns up than almost anything else about it, which is why it is where we start rather than where we finish.
More of it dates from the 1950s than from any other decade — 3,779 homes, roughly 28% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $121,700. There are around 910 manufactured and mobile homes in Burton. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Burton home inspector starts in a home of this age — and whatever we actually find, it goes in the report with photographs.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Burton was built
85% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 102 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
There is one thing about Burton that will mislead you if nobody tells you, and it concerns the permit record.
The City does not issue electrical, mechanical or plumbing permits at all. Those trades are permitted through the State of Michigan and inspected by the State, and the City simply requires proof of those approvals before it will carry out the rough or final inspection on its own building permit.
Which means a search of Burton’s permit records will show no electrical work, no plumbing work and no furnace or air conditioning work, no matter how much of it has been done. That is a quirk of jurisdiction, not evidence that a house has been rewired on the quiet. Every other city we write about issues its own trade permits, so a buyer who has searched records elsewhere will read that silence completely the wrong way.
The housing is postwar and overwhelmingly detached: of about 13,389 units, roughly 3,779 were built in the 1950s, with 1,663 from the 1960s, 1,617 from the 1970s and 1,536 from the 1940s. Around 81% is single-family detached, one of the higher shares anywhere we work.
Before you buy
The permit trap
This deserves spelling out, because it is the kind of detail that produces a bad decision in both directions.
The City’s Building Division grants building, site and occupancy permits and inspects to the current building codes and City ordinances. It states plainly that it does not permit electrical, mechanical or plumbing projects — those are permitted through the State of Michigan and inspected as such — but that it does require proof of trade approvals before it will issue a rough or final inspection on the building permit. Fire suppression and alarm systems are permitted separately through the Burton Fire Department.
So if you search City records on a Burton house and find a roof permit and a siding permit but nothing electrical, that is exactly what you should expect to find. It tells you nothing about whether the panel was replaced properly. Equally, a City building permit that reached final inspection implies the trade approvals were produced, because the City says it will not issue that inspection without them.
The permit search the City publishes is genuinely useful for what it does cover. It is searchable by name, address, permit or parcel number and returns the permit number, applicant, contractor, description of work and estimated value of the project. Copies of the application, permit or plans require a Freedom of Information Act request through the Clerk’s Office.
What no record settles is condition. That is a buyer’s inspection: the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and accessible interior, reported as found — what is failing, what is near the end of its service life, and what to plan for. On a Burton house that is where the three missing trades get looked at.
How enforcement works here
Burton’s code enforcement is complaint-driven and the process is published, which is worth knowing if you are buying a property that has had trouble.
The Code Enforcement Division enforces the zoning ordinance along with the City’s health, sanitation and nuisance provisions. Complaints are taken by phone or email with the exact address; the complainant remains anonymous, though the City does state that a complaint has been made.
The escalation runs like this. A valid complaint produces a ten-day notice. The officer returns after ten days, and if violations still exist the owner may receive a ticket or the property may be cleaned up by the City with the cost charged to the owner. If violations have been corrected the complaint is closed. And if another valid complaint arrives within a twelve-month period, no ten-day notice is required at all.
The Building Inspector also has a right of entry whenever a permit is open, or where a complaint constitutes a nuisance or an unreasonable hazard to neighboring property.
None of that is about the condition of the house you are buying. It is about what happens afterwards, and it is a reason to know what the property looks like from the street as well as from the basement.
Seventy years on
With the 1950s the largest single decade and around 81% of the stock single-family detached, the typical Burton inspection is a postwar house that has been lived in continuously for seventy years.
Roof coverings, furnaces, air conditioning condensers, water heaters and windows all have service lives far shorter than that, so each has been replaced at least once or is running past its design life. The electrical service and the supply plumbing have had seven decades to be extended, altered or partly renewed — and in Burton those changes leave no trace in the City record at all, which puts more weight on what an inspection actually finds.
Water is the other recurring theme. We record how the ground slopes at the foundation, where gutters and downspouts discharge, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace, floor drains and any sump equipment, along with staining, efflorescence and evidence of past repairs. The City’s Utilities Division handles water main and sewer system repairs, meters, hydrants, backflow testing and grease traps — the public side of the system.
We will not tell you what a house contains from the decade it was built. Two properties of the same age on the same street can be entirely different by now.
The buried line
Whatever the City record shows or does not show, nothing in it covers the buried lateral running from the house to the sewer main — and no visual inspection reaches it either.
On a house from the 1950s that pipe has been in the ground about seventy years, which is ample time for roots to find a joint, for ground movement to displace a section, or for a repair to have been made that nobody now remembers. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Burton 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 — and it is added to the same visit rather than booked separately.
Alongside it, commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property, and radon testing or mold inspection and testing can be added to a residential or commercial visit.
Local information from City of Burton — Building Division · City of Burton — building permit information and search · City of Burton — Code Enforcement Division. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Genesee County
Zone 2 is the middle EPA category — the predicted average indoor level across the county sits between 2 and 4 pCi/L.
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 · Genesee County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Burton 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
Outstanding precision and attention to detail! Helps being able to make a truly informed decision about a home! Also, they are very veteran-friendly! No complaints here!
Desmond SheppardFlint, MINoah Scott was very thorough and explaining things to us, especially in regard to a possible mold problem.
Claudette GranvilleFlint, 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, MIWhat happens
Questions
Because the City does not issue those permits. Burton states that it does not permit electrical, mechanical or plumbing projects — those trades are permitted through the State of Michigan and inspected as such. The City requires proof of those trade approvals before it will carry out a rough or final inspection on its own building permit. So an empty City record on those trades is a jurisdictional artifact, not evidence that work was done without a permit.
The City publishes a searchable permit lookup online, searchable by name, address, permit number or parcel number. It returns the permit number, the applicant, the contractor, a description of the work and the estimated value of the project. If you want a copy of the application, the permit itself or the plans, that requires a Freedom of Information Act request through the Clerk’s Office.
Building, site and occupancy permits. Building permit fees are based on the estimated cost of construction, with set fees for roofing, siding, fences and sheds, and a building permit is also required for demolition of a structure. Fire suppression and fire alarm systems are permitted separately through the Burton Fire Department.
On a complaint basis, with a published escalation. A valid complaint produces a ten-day notice; the officer returns after ten days, and if violations remain the owner may receive a ticket or the property may be cleaned up by the City with the cost charged to the owner. If another valid complaint arrives within a twelve-month period, no ten-day notice is required. Complainants remain anonymous, though the City does state that a complaint has been made.
Mostly postwar. Of about 13,389 housing units, roughly 3,779 were built in the 1950s, with 1,663 from the 1960s, 1,617 from the 1970s and 1,536 from the 1940s — and about 81% is single-family detached, one of the higher shares anywhere we work. A 1955 house is seventy years old, which puts every original mechanical component well past its expected service life.
It tells you the trade approvals were produced, because the City says it will not issue a rough or final inspection on a building permit without proof of them. It does not tell you the work is in good condition today — permits record what was approved at the time, not how something has aged. That is what an inspection is for, and in Burton it carries more weight than usual because the City record covers fewer trades.
Nothing we could verify says so. Several cities in this region run point-of-sale or rental certificate programs and we are not going to import one that does not exist here. Confirm the current position with the City rather than relying on any web page, this one included.
It is worth considering, and here it fills a real gap. The buried lateral running from the house to the sewer main is not covered by any permit record, City or State, and no visual inspection sees inside it. On a 1950s house it has been in the ground about seventy years. We will not guess a material from a build year — no authoritative source establishes what Burton laterals are generally made of. Putting a camera down the line documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and is added to the same appointment.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Your local Burton home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
