Carleton, Michigan
Looking for a Carleton home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Carleton, 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 Carleton 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 Carleton and across Monroe 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 Carleton 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 reportCarleton housing stock
Carleton has roughly 1,066 housing units and about 60% 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 1970s than from any other decade — 213 homes, roughly 20% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $147,500. There are around 356 manufactured and mobile homes in Carleton. 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 Carleton 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 Carleton was built
94% of homes here run on utility gas.
Local knowledge
The Village of Carleton publishes the criteria its inspector works from, and it does something no other municipal checklist we have read does: it explains why each item is there.
The best example is about electrical outlets, and it is worth quoting because it describes one of the most common findings on any older house. Many outlets, the Village notes, have been replaced over the years with three-prong grounding-type receptacles — but the grounds are sometimes not connected, because the older two-wire systems they replaced provided no ground wire at all.
In other words, a modern-looking three-prong outlet in an old house may not be grounded. It accepts the plug, it powers the appliance, and the safety feature the third pin represents simply is not there. We test for this on every inspection, and it turns up constantly.
The criteria apply to rental property, on a three-year cycle, and are based on the International Property Maintenance Code. But they are worth reading whatever you are buying, because they are a plain-English statement of what one municipality considers the minimum for a house to be safe and habitable.
The housing here is mixed and still growing: of roughly 1,066 units, 213 date from the 1970s, 184 predate 1940 and 163 come from the 1990s, with 85 added since 2010. About 60% is single-family detached.
Before you buy
The checklist
The rental inspection criteria run to five pages and are unusually readable. The Village even encourages owners to work through the checklist before an inspection to avoid a longer process, which is a sensible and generous way to run a program.
Some items are precise in a way that makes them easy to check yourself. Address numbers at least three inches tall, contrasting, visible from the road. Exterior outlets ground-fault protected. Walls free of holes larger than a golf ball. Light fixtures and ceiling fans properly attached rather than hanging from their wires. Exterior door locks that are not the skeleton-key type. Bathroom doors that latch from the inside.
The window items are our favorite, because they describe a real condition rather than a standard: a window must operate as intended and be capable of holding itself open without something propped underneath it. Anyone who has inspected an old house knows the ruler in the sash. The Village also requires inside locking mechanisms on windows less than six feet from the ground, or looking onto a porch or landing, or with a roof immediately below.
The mechanical items are equally specific. A water heater needs a properly installed temperature and pressure relief valve with the discharge extended to within four inches of the floor or into a drain pan, in hard pipe rather than anything flexible. Every room must be capable of being heated to 65 degrees, measured three feet in from the outside wall. And portable heaters may be used but do not count as a principal heat source.
On the safety side: smoke alarms in or near each sleeping room and at least one on every floor including the basement, with batteries capable of powering the alarm for five years; dryers vented to the outside; washers drained into a sink or the sanitary sewer; and no sleeping in a basement without proper emergency egress.
A buyer’s inspection covers all of that ground and a good deal more, because we are reporting condition and remaining service life rather than a pass or fail against a minimum. But the overlap is substantial, and the Village’s own closing line is one we would happily borrow: it would be impossible to cover every possible issue encountered while inspecting.
Electrical
The grounding point deserves its own section, because it is the finding most likely to matter and least likely to be noticed.
A house wired before the mid-twentieth century typically had two-wire circuits with no equipment ground. When two-prong outlets wore out or somebody wanted to plug in a modern appliance, they were often swapped for three-prong receptacles — which physically accept a grounded plug whether or not there is a ground wire behind them.
The result is an outlet that looks entirely normal and provides none of the protection the third pin implies. Surge protectors do not work properly on one. Appliances with metal cases have no fault path. And nobody can tell by looking.
The Village names this specifically in its criteria, which is unusual and to its credit. We test representative outlets on every inspection and report where grounding is absent, where polarity is reversed, and where ground-fault protection is missing at the locations that need it — kitchens, bathrooms, laundry areas and exterior outlets.
The Village’s fuse item comes from the same era of wiring: screw-in fuses on an old sixty-amp service must be fifteen-amp type S. Type S fuses use an adapter that fixes the size, so a circuit cannot later be fitted with a fuse rated above the wiring it protects. On the 184 units here that predate 1940, fuse panels still turn up.
None of this makes an older Carleton house a poor buy. It makes the electrical section of the report the one to read first.
Permits
The village office and building department handles it all from one place: building, mechanical, electrical and plumbing permit applications, contractor registration, business registration, burn permits and a general ordinance application.
For anyone researching a property that is the easy case. One request should produce the whole history — the roof, the addition, the deck, the furnace, the service upgrade and the re-pipe — rather than sending you to a county office or a state database for half of it.
The Village also asks people simply to contact the office about permits and business registration, which in a village this size is usually the fastest route to a straight answer.
Rental registration and the inspection program sit under two ordinances published alongside the criteria, together with a registration form and a sample inspection form — so an owner can see the actual document an inspector will fill in before anyone arrives. That is a genuinely fair way to run it.
A buyer’s inspection is not a permit search and does not replace one. It reports the condition and apparent function of what is actually there, and tells you which parts of the file are worth asking for.
Two generations
Carleton’s housing spans an unusually wide range for a village of its size, and the inspection changes accordingly.
On the 184 units predating 1940 the questions are about accumulated alteration: electrical extended in stages with the grounding issues described above, plumbing renewed in part leaving material transitions worth examining, insulation and ventilation retrofitted into buildings designed without either, and foundations that have had eighty-five years or more to meet water.
On the 213 houses from the 1970s the pattern shifts to second and third generation mechanical equipment, roofs on their third covering, windows replaced once, and attic insulation that usually leaves a worthwhile improvement available.
On the 1990s and 2000s stock the questions are about the first round of turnover: an original roof at or past its expected life, mechanical equipment being replaced for the first time, window seals and exterior finishes showing wear, and grading that has settled since the build.
And on the 85 units built since 2010, they are about build quality and early settlement rather than replacement — along with deck ledger connections and fasteners, which on modern treated lumber deserve a proper look rather than a glance.
Across all of them we report the drainage as we find it: the fall of the ground around the building, the condition of gutters and where downspouts terminate, where any sump discharge appears to go, and what the lowest level shows about water that has been there before.
The buried line
The Village’s criteria ask that all water and waste pipes be free from leaks, that toilets not run constantly, and that every drain line have a gas trap. All of those are visible or testable inside a building.
The line running from the building out to the main is not. It belongs to the property owner, and on one of the prewar houses here it may have been in the ground the better part of a century, under a lot with mature planting over it.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Carleton 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 it is the one part of a property that no municipal checklist, however thorough, is written to cover.
Alongside it we offer radon testing, mold inspection and testing and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard. You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, see the Village’s rental inspection page, or get in touch about a specific address in Carleton.
Local information from Village of Carleton — rental inspection criteria and checklist · Village of Carleton — rental inspection ordinances, registration and sample form · Village of Carleton — village office and building department permits. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Monroe 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 · Monroe County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Carleton 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 was great and thorough the our inspection. He provided explanations and suggestions throughout the service. Highly recommend!
Jaynie GMonroe, 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
Because the wiring behind it may never have had a ground. The Village explains it directly: many outlets have been replaced over the years with three-prong grounding-type receptacles, but the grounds are sometimes not connected, since the older two-wire systems they replaced provided no ground wire. The outlet looks normal and offers none of the protection the third pin implies.
Yes, on every inspection. We test representative outlets and report where grounding is absent, where polarity is reversed, and where ground-fault protection is missing in the places that need it — kitchens, bathrooms, laundry areas and exterior outlets.
No — the criteria are a rental standard, applied on a three-year cycle under the International Property Maintenance Code. But they are worth reading whatever you are buying, because they set out in plain English what one municipality considers the minimum for a house to be safe and habitable.
On a three-year cycle, with owners expected to maintain the units to the minimum standards in between. The Village also carries out inspections outside that cycle at either the occupant’s or the owner’s request, and publishes a sample of the inspection form so owners can see the actual document beforehand.
Only with proper emergency egress. The Village states that sleeping in a basement is prohibited unless proper emergency egress windows or doors are in place. On any house with a finished lower level, that is worth checking rather than assuming.
A permanently installed heat source connected to the building’s wiring — a furnace, boiler or electric baseboard — capable of heating every room to 65 degrees, measured three feet in from the outside wall. Portable heaters may be used but do not qualify as the principal heat source.
From the village office, which handles building, mechanical, electrical and plumbing permits along with contractor and business registration and burn permits. One office holds the whole file, which makes a records request on a property here simpler than in most communities.
Yes, and it covers the one thing the Village’s checklist cannot. Its criteria address leaks, running toilets and traps inside the building; the line running out to the main is the owner’s and cannot be seen. On a prewar house it may have been in the ground close to a century. A camera inspection documents its actual condition and is added to the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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From the blog
October 22, 2017
February 24, 2026
Your local Carleton home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
