Cement City, Michigan
Looking for a Cement City home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Cement City, 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 Cement City 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 Cement City and across Lenawee 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 Cement City 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 reportCement City housing stock
Cement City has roughly 222 housing units and about 84% 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: 83 homes, about 37% of everything standing today.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $92,700.
None of this says anything about the specific house you are buying. It is the shortlist a Cement City 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 Cement City was built
84% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 12 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
There is one thing to understand here before you plan any work, and the village is straightforward about it on its own site. The zoning page carries a zoning ordinance dated 2015, and next to the heading the village has written that it is currently being updated. The master plan section above it is headed as being in process, with a 2023 plan marked as a final proposal dated October 2024 sitting alongside the older adopted plan.
That is a village doing the right thing — revising documents that need revising. But it creates a trap for a buyer, and it is an easy one to fall into. The document you can download is not necessarily the rule that will apply to you. Anyone who reads the 2015 ordinance, plans a garage or a business around it and makes an offer on that basis is planning around a document the village has labeled as being replaced.
So the instruction here is unusually simple. Before you commit to anything that depends on what is permitted — an addition, an outbuilding, a change of use, a lot split — ask the village what is currently in force and where the update stands — the council minutes are published if you want to follow it. Ask before the offer, not after.
The village also publishes a future land use map. A future land use map is about what a community intends for land over time, and that includes land next to the parcel you are looking at. We have not read it and are not going to describe what is on it, but it is there, and it is worth asking about if the view or the neighboring use matters to you.
None of that is what a home inspection covers. What we establish is what is physically there and what condition it is in, and we flag work that looks as though it was done without the benefit of a permit — which on a village with a revision under way is exactly the kind of thing to go and ask about while you have their attention.
Before you buy
The housing
Cement City has roughly 222 housing units, about 84% of them single-family detached, with a median build year of 1949. That is older than any of the neighboring villages we cover, and on housing that age the interesting questions are less about how a house was built than about everything that has happened to it since.
Electrical systems in pre-1950 houses are usually the work of several different hands across several decades. Mixed wiring types meeting in the same box, ungrounded receptacles, panels that have been added to more than once, circuits that have been overfused, and an original service capacity sized for a 1949 household. We report what is actually there and photograph it either way, without drama.
Plumbing is nearly always renewed in part rather than in whole in houses of this age, which puts the interesting questions at the transitions where one material meets another. Heating equipment will be several replacements from the original. Roof coverings will be on a third or fourth generation, and what matters is what was done at the flashings and the penetrations each time rather than the age of the shingles.
Foundations from that era are typically block or early poured concrete, and their condition depends far more on how water has been managed around the building than on how they were built. Where the downspouts terminate, whether there is a sump and where it discharges to, and how the ground falls away from the walls will tell you more about a basement than a dry-day look at the basement will.
Detached housing on village lots also means outbuildings, and on stock this old they are frequently where informal work has accumulated: their own electrical supply, their own roof and structural questions, and additions nobody documented. We inspect them as part of the property rather than glancing at them. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available for commercial property.
Permits
The village posts a building permit form alongside its planning documents. What that tells you is that a form exists. It does not tell you who reviews it, who inspects the work, or whether any part of the process sits with the county or the state — and we are not going to guess, because guessing wrong about a permitting route is the kind of error that costs somebody a month.
So treat it as the first question rather than a settled one. Ask the village who issues the permit, who performs the inspections, and what has to be inspected before the work is considered complete. In a village of this size that is one conversation.
It matters more than usual here because of the housing age. On a median 1949 stock, almost every property has had work done at some point by somebody, and a good deal of it predates any record you will be able to find. The realistic question is not whether everything was permitted — on housing this old it will not have been — but whether anything recent and substantial went in without one.
That is where a buyer’s inspection earns its place. We cannot tell you what is in the file. We can tell you what the building looks like, which work appears professional and which does not, and where something has clearly been altered. That is the specific list to take to the village office.
The buried line
The village site publishes zoning, minutes, a treasurer’s report and its state transparency filings. What we did not find is a water department page or a sewer department page, so we are not going to tell you what a property here is connected to. On a village this size it would be easy to assume and easy to be wrong about a specific address.
Get the answer in writing for the parcel you are buying, because the two arrangements lead to genuinely different pre-purchase work. If it is on a septic system, an evaluation is specialist work arranged through the county health department, it answers questions no visual inspection can — whether a drainfield is failing, and the true condition of the tank — and it runs to its own timetable, so it needs booking early. A water test on a private well belongs in the same conversation.
Either way, the line running out from the building belongs to the owner and no visual inspection reaches inside it. On a median 1949 house that pipe may be the oldest untouched component on the entire property. We are not going to name a material from a build year, because nothing published establishes what lines here are made of and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
A sewer camera inspection records what is really in there: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. On a septic property it documents the building drain out to the tank — the owner’s pipe, and the stretch a septic evaluation does not examine.
It goes on the same appointment rather than a second visit, 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 Cement City.
Local information from Village of Cement City — zoning, master plan and building permit form · Village of Cement City — village website · Village of Cement City — meeting minutes · Village of Cement City — contact the village. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Cement City 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
Not without checking. The posted ordinance is dated 2015 and the village has written that it is currently being updated. Ask the village what is in force before you plan work or make an offer that depends on it.
The village heads that section as in process. A 2023 plan marked as a final proposal, dated October 2024, sits alongside the older adopted plan and an approval-process document. Where it has got to is a question for the village.
Because it concerns what the community intends for land over time, including the land next to the parcel you are looking at. We have not read Cement City’s and are not going to describe it, but it exists and it is worth asking about.
The village publishes a building permit form, which tells you a form exists. It does not establish who reviews it or who inspects, and we are not going to guess. Ask the village office.
The median build year is 1949 across roughly 222 housing units, about 84% of them single-family detached. That is the oldest median of the villages in this part of the county that we cover.
On housing with a 1949 median, no. Much of the work on these properties predates any record you will find. The useful question is whether anything recent and substantial went in without a permit, and that is something an inspection can help you point at.
We will not assume. We found no water or sewer department page on the village site, so confirm it in writing for the specific parcel. Septic evaluations are arranged through the county health department and need booking early.
On a median 1949 house the line out from the building may be the oldest untouched thing on the property, and on a septic property the run from the house to the tank is nobody’s job by default. A camera inspection goes on 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
May 18, 2024
February 1, 2023
April 5, 2024
Your local Cement City home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
