Clarkston, Michigan
Looking for a Clarkston home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Clarkston, 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 Clarkston 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 Clarkston and across Oakland 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 Clarkston 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 reportClarkston housing stock
Clarkston has roughly 388 housing units and about 67% 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 years before 1940 than from any other decade — 131 homes, roughly 34% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $436,800.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Clarkston 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 Clarkston was built
87% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 2 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Start with the name, because it causes real confusion. The full style used on the city’s own building pages is the City of the Village of Clarkston. The website brands itself Village of Clarkston, and the building department contact block says City of Clarkston. All three appear on the same site, so when you search for ordinances, offices or records, expect to try more than one form.
The second thing is more practical. The city’s own notice states that its building department is now being administered through the Independence Township building department, and that all building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permitting, inspections and questions go to that office directly — which is in a different building, in a different municipality, with different opening hours.
The word in that notice is "now", which means it changed. We do not know when or whether it is permanent, so confirm the current arrangement before you rely on it. But if you are buying here and planning work, the practical answer today is that the permit conversation happens at the township.
Third, and this is the one that surprises people: much of Clarkston sits in a historic district, and exterior alterations there need approval from the historic district commission. The city is explicit that this is the property owner’s responsibility to arrange — and equally explicit about one thing the regulations do not cover.
The housing is old and small in number: about 131 of roughly 388 units predate 1940 and another 88 date from the 1950s, with very little built after 1980.
Before you buy
The historic district
Most people assume a historic district means somebody tells you what color to paint your house. Clarkston says the opposite in as many words: the regulations do not include paint color.
What they do cover is exterior alterations, which must be approved by the historic district commission — with an exception for simple maintenance. The city is clear that obtaining those approvals before starting a project is the property owner’s responsibility, not something that happens automatically alongside a permit.
We are not going to define where simple maintenance ends and an alteration begins, because the city has not published that line and guessing at it could cost somebody money. That is a question for the commission, and it is worth asking before you order materials rather than after.
The city publishes a historic district map. If you are buying here, look your address up on it early, because whether a property is inside or outside the district changes what any future exterior project involves — and therefore what it costs and how long it takes.
For an inspection, the district changes emphasis rather than scope. We report the condition of the exterior exactly as we would anywhere: roof coverings and flashings, wall materials, windows and doors, porches and steps, and any decorative or trim elements we can see. What changes is what you do with the findings — on a historic property, a repair that would be a weekend job elsewhere may need a conversation first.
On the 131 units predating 1940 that is a live consideration, because original windows, porches and trim are exactly the elements most likely to be both historically significant and in need of attention.
Permits
The city’s building department page carries a prominent notice: the department is now administered through Independence Township, and all building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permitting, inspections and questions should go there directly.
That township office keeps longer hours than the city does — Monday to Thursday from seven in the morning until half past five, against the city’s own Monday to Thursday nine to five with Friday closed. So for permit matters you actually gain time, which is not usually how these arrangements work out.
The department’s remit is broad: construction, remodelling, alteration, repair and demolition of buildings and structures within the city.
Permit applications are published two ways — as fillable documents in a forms center, which go straight to the building department on submission, and as PDFs in a document center, which have to be emailed or posted. If you want the faster route, use the fillable version.
One requirement on the start a project page catches people out: a permit is required not only for construction and renovation but also when the use or occupancy of a structure, or any part of it, is changed. If part of your plan is to use a building differently from the way the seller used it, that is a permit question in its own right.
A home inspection is not a permit search or a code inspection, and we do not present it as one. What it does is establish what is physically present and in what condition, and flag work that looks as though it was done without the benefit of a permit — which on a town this old is a common finding. A buyer’s inspection is the usual starting point, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard are available where a building is commercial.
The housing
With around 131 units predating 1940 and 88 from the 1950s, and barely anything built after 1980, Clarkston is an old town where the inspection is essentially always an older-house inspection.
Electrical systems have usually been rebuilt in stages by different hands across seventy or eighty years. We look for mixed wiring types meeting in the same box, ungrounded receptacles, undersized or overfilled panels, overfused circuits, and connections made in places that were never intended to be permanent. Original service capacity is frequently the practical limit on what a modern household wants to run.
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 and discolored water 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 from before 1940 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. On the 1950s stock the basements are more often poured or block, where the questions are about cracking, past water, and what any finishing is hiding.
Porches and steps deserve particular attention on this stock, both because they are structural elements people walk on and because on a historic property they are the sort of element where repair and alteration are not the same thing. Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit.
Drainage
On housing this old, water management around the building is usually the largest single factor in how the foundation has fared — and it is nearly always the cheapest thing to put right.
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 an eighty-year-old house the original arrangement has usually been altered more than once, and grading that was right at the start has had decades of landscaping and settlement since.
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. Equipment raised up on blocks is nearly always a story about something that happened once, and it is always worth asking the seller about directly.
A finished lower level deserves a careful look rather than a quick one, because finishing is very often what conceals the evidence of what water has done before.
One historic-district wrinkle worth mentioning: some drainage improvements are visible exterior changes. If a fix involves anything more than replacing like with like on the outside of a building, check whether it needs approval before you commission it.
The buried line
The line running out from the building belongs to the owner, and no visual inspection reaches inside it. In a town where a third of the housing predates 1940, it is very often the oldest untouched component on the whole property.
We will not name a material from a build year. Nothing published establishes what Clarkston 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 town with mature street trees, roots are the common finding and they give no warning until the day the drains back up.
There is a particular reason to look before buying in a historic district. Excavating to replace a failed line disturbs the ground, the landscaping and sometimes the frontage of a protected property — which makes it a more complicated job than it would be elsewhere. Knowing the condition of the line in advance is worth more here than in most places.
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 Clarkston.
Local information from City of the Village of Clarkston — Building Department and the township arrangement · City of the Village of Clarkston — starting a project and the historic district · City of the Village of Clarkston — administration and fee schedule · City of the Village of Clarkston — community maps. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Oakland County
Zone 2 is the middle EPA category — the predicted average indoor level across the county sits between 2 and 4 pCi/L. What a zone cannot tell you is anything about one house: 29% of tests actually run in Oakland County still came back at or above the EPA’s 4 pCi/L action level. The zone describes a county. The only result that describes your basement is the one measured in it.
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 · Oakland County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones. Elevated-result share from the Michigan Indoor Radon Program.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Clarkston 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, MIExcellent sums up the entire experience, from the initial call to set up the appointment with staff that was informative and helpful, up until the actual inspection that was very professional and thorough with any and all questions I had answered. I would highly recommend Trademark to anyone who needs inspection services. Thanks again Curt, my inspector, for an excellent job.
Johnny Thomas JrSouthfield, MIWhat happens
Questions
Its building pages use the full style, the City of the Village of Clarkston, while the website brands itself Village of Clarkston and the building contact block says City of Clarkston. All three are in use, so try more than one when searching for records.
The city states its building department is now administered through the Independence Township building department, and that all building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permitting and inspections go there directly. Confirm the current arrangement.
Yes, and longer. The township office is open Monday to Thursday from seven in the morning to half past five, while the city office runs Monday to Thursday nine to five and is closed on Fridays.
No. The city states plainly that the regulations do not include paint color. What they do cover is exterior alterations, which need historic district commission approval, with an exception for simple maintenance.
The city does not define it and we are not going to guess. Ask the commission before ordering materials — the difference between maintenance and alteration is exactly where an unexpected delay comes from.
The city publishes a historic district map. Look the address up early, because being inside or outside it changes what any future exterior project involves.
Yes. The city states a permit is required when the use or occupancy of a structure, or any portion of it, is changed — not only for construction or renovation.
Particularly so. The line under a pre-1940 house is often the oldest thing on the property, and in a historic district the excavation needed to replace one is a more complicated job. A camera inspection goes on the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Permits, assessing and property records for Clarkston are handled by the Village of Clarkston, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
Your local Clarkston home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
