Clayton, Michigan
Looking for a Clayton home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Clayton, 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 Clayton 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 Clayton 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 Clayton 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 reportClayton housing stock
Clayton has roughly 86 housing units and about 91% 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 — 40 homes, roughly 47% of the town. At 91% single-family it is almost entirely detached houses, so the inspection is nearly always of a whole building rather than one unit inside one.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $76,700.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Clayton 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 Clayton was built
97% of homes here run on utility gas.
Local knowledge
Clayton is about 86 housing units, which makes it one of the smallest communities we cover, and it is refreshingly honest about what that means. The village’s own site states plainly that there are no regular business hours for the village office. Instead you reach a specific council member using the contact information posted at the Village Hall — and the village notes that council members are often willing to communicate outside typical working hours, including evenings and weekends.
That is worth reading as the advantage it is rather than as a gap. Plenty of small municipalities keep an office open for three hours a week, which is a window you have to organize your life around. Clayton has skipped the window and gone straight to the people. If you work days and are trying to get a question answered during a purchase, being able to speak to somebody on a Saturday is worth more than a Tuesday morning counter.
The practical consequence is that you need the contact information, and it is posted at the Village Hall rather than published online. So the first move on a Clayton property is a trip past the hall, or a question to your agent, to get the right name.
Residents are encouraged to attend the monthly meetings, which in a village this size is a genuine route to an answer rather than a formality.
A home inspection is not a code inspection or a permit search and we do not present it as one. 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 gives you something specific to raise.
Before you buy
Permits
Clayton splits its permitting in a way worth knowing before you start, because getting it wrong means applying to the wrong body entirely.
The village handles three things itself and publishes the applications: a zoning permit, a building permit, and a sewer permit. It also publishes its ordinances and a village zoning map. That sewer permit is the detail to notice — it is not common for a village this size to run its own sewer permit process, and it tells you there is a village system with a procedure attached to connecting to it.
The other three go elsewhere. The village’s mechanical, plumbing and electrical permits page states that those are issued by the State of Michigan, and links to the state’s own permit information for each of the three trades.
So a project that touches more than one discipline is a project with two paperwork trails running in parallel: the village side and the state side. Neither will chase the other. On a purchase where you are planning work, that is worth sequencing deliberately rather than discovering halfway through.
For a buyer looking backwards rather than forwards, the same split matters. If a previous owner did electrical or plumbing work here, the record of it is a state record, not a village one. A buyer’s inspection cannot tell you what is in either file, but it can tell you what was done, how it was done, and whether it looks like work somebody meant to have inspected.
The housing
Clayton has roughly 86 housing units, about 91% of them single-family detached, with a median build year of 1948. On a stock that small there is no such thing as a typical street, so what follows is where we start looking rather than a prediction about any particular house.
Electrical systems in pre-1950 houses are typically the accumulated work of several hands across several decades: mixed wiring types arriving in the same enclosure, ungrounded receptacles, panels added to more than once, circuits that have been overfused, and an original service capacity never intended for a modern 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 at this age, which concentrates 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 was done at the flashings and penetrations each time matters far more than the age of the shingles.
Foundations from that era are typically block or early poured concrete, and their condition depends much 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.
On village lots of this age outbuildings are common and frequently where informal work has accumulated — their own electrical supply, their own roof and structural questions, additions nobody documented. We inspect them as part of the property. 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.
The buried line
The village publishes its own sewer permit application, so there is a village sewer and a village process for connecting to it. What that does not establish is which parcels are connected, and we found no water department page on the site — so we are not going to tell you what a particular property is served by. Confirm it in writing for the parcel you are buying.
Whatever it drains to, the line running out from the building belongs to the owner and no visual inspection reaches inside it. On a median 1948 house that pipe may be the oldest untouched component on the whole property, and a replacement is rarely recorded anywhere a buyer will come across.
We are not going to name a material from a build year. Nothing published establishes what lines here are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all. What we can do is put a camera in it.
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. If the property turns out to be on a septic system, the camera documents the building drain out to the tank — the stretch a septic evaluation does not examine — and the evaluation itself is specialist work arranged through the county health department, on its own timetable, so it needs booking early.
A camera inspection 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 Clayton.
Local information from Village of Clayton — village website, contact and meetings · Village of Clayton — mechanical, plumbing and electrical permits · State of Michigan — electrical permit information · State of Michigan — plumbing permit information. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their Clayton 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
It does not keep regular business hours. The village states you can reach a specific council member using the contact information posted at the Village Hall, and that council members are often willing to communicate outside typical working hours, including evenings and weekends.
They are posted at the Village Hall rather than published online, so the first move is a trip past the hall or a question to your agent. Residents are also encouraged to attend the monthly meetings.
The village does. It publishes its own zoning permit, building permit and sewer permit applications, along with its ordinances and a village zoning map.
Those are issued by the State of Michigan. The village publishes a page saying so and links to the state’s permit information for each of the three trades.
Because a project touching more than one discipline runs two paperwork trails in parallel, and neither body chases the other. Looking backwards, a record of past electrical or plumbing work is a state record rather than a village one.
Yes — the village publishes its own sewer permit application, which means there is a system and a process for connecting to it. Which parcels are actually connected is worth confirming in writing.
The median build year is 1948 across roughly 86 housing units, about 91% of them single-family detached. That puts the middle of the stock close to eighty years old.
On a median 1948 house the line out from the building may be the oldest untouched thing on the property, and no visual inspection reaches inside it. A camera inspection goes on the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Your local Clayton home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
