Dearborn Heights, Michigan
Looking for a Dearborn Heights home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Dearborn Heights, 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 Dearborn Heights 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 Dearborn Heights and across Wayne 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 Dearborn Heights 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 reportDearborn Heights housing stock
Dearborn Heights has roughly 23,435 housing units and about 86% of them are single-family detached. Housing that went up mostly in one era has mostly one era’s problems — which is genuinely useful to know before you buy, because it tells you what to look at first.
Most of it went up in the 1950s — 10,227 homes, around 44% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $161,200. There are around 312 manufactured and mobile homes in Dearborn Heights. Those are a different inspection — the questions are about the frame, the anchoring and the skirting rather than a basement. Around 975 homes sit in two-to-four unit buildings, where a shared roof, a shared wall and sometimes a shared furnace mean the report has to be clear about where one unit stops.
None of this is a prediction about a particular house. It is where a Dearborn Heights home inspector starts looking in a home of this age, and what we photograph and write up either way.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Dearborn Heights was built
86% of homes here run on utility gas, and 27 still heat with oil. If yours is one of them, the tank is the thing to ask about — where it is, and whether it was ever buried. Another 339 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Two things: when the city was built, and where in it you are buying.
The concentration is remarkable. Census figures put 44% of Dearborn Heights housing in the 1950s alone, and about 80% of it before 1970, across roughly 23,400 units with a median build year of 1958. Very few cities are that concentrated in a single decade.
The City’s Master Plan describes what that produced: “a very large number of subdivisions built in the post World War II era that consist of well-maintained brick homes on compact lots”, in blocks of similar homes along streets lined with sidewalks and mature trees — simple, gable-roof structures with either detached garages in the rear yard or small, single-car attached garages.
That is a municipal document describing the actual houses, not us inferring them from a build year, and it lines up with what the census says. For an inspection it means most of these homes are now around seventy years old and have had that long for wiring, plumbing, heating, roofing and windows to be replaced — some once, some more than once, some not at all.
Before you buy
Water
Dearborn Heights is unusually direct about this, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing.
The City’s Flood Safety page states that “Dearborn Heights has 2 flood-prone areas – in the North end of the city, along and near the Rouge River, and in the South end, along and near Ecorse Creek.”
Then it adds the sentence that matters most to a buyer: “However, these are not the only areas impacted, as sewer back-ups (due in many instances due to significant rainfalls) can affect any home in the city.”
Read those two together and the practical conclusion is clear. Checking a flood map tells you about river and creek exposure at that address. It does not tell you about sewer backup, which the City says can reach any home here. They are different risks with different causes, and a property can sit well outside both named areas and still have a water story worth understanding.
None of that means a particular house has ever taken water, and this page does not suggest it does. What it means is that basement conditions, exterior drainage, grading and sump equipment deserve genuine attention on a Dearborn Heights inspection — and that the property’s own buried sewer line is worth seeing inside.
Sewer scope
The City has told you that sewer backups can affect any home in the city. A standard visual home inspection cannot tell you anything about the condition inside your own buried line.
Those two facts sit next to each other awkwardly, and a sewer camera inspection is what closes the gap. We put a camera into accessible portions of the line and document what is actually there — root intrusion, displacement, damage, bellies or blockages where they are present.
What we will not do is guess. The age of a house does not reliably indicate what material is buried on a particular lot or what condition it is in, and a line may have been repaired or replaced in sections over seventy years. The camera answers the question the build year cannot.
Two different cities within one
The split runs deeper than the flood map, and it goes back to before the city existed.
The City’s own history records that “the north end of the Township was almost all farmland and homes were very spread out”, while “the south end of the city was part residential, part farmland, and part swamp, but was where the majority of the Township’s citizens resided.”
That history is why the two ends still feel different, and why the City’s current flood guidance treats them separately — the Rouge River in the north, Ecorse Creek in the south.
There is also a third pattern worth knowing about. The Master Plan notes that “many streets in the City are experiencing redevelopment of home sites from older, smaller homes to new-build large homes.” A brand-new house on an old street is a different inspection from the 1950s home beside it — there is no decades of wear to assess, but new construction can still carry visible installation defects or incomplete work worth finding before you own it.
Permits
This is more useful here than in most cities, because a seventy-year-old house has had time to be altered repeatedly.
The City’s Building Department says you can “now look up information regarding projects, permits, and code enforcement for individual properties”, and that electrical, heating, refrigeration and plumbing permit applications are available online. The same page links the FEMA flood zone map.
Permit history and an inspection answer different questions. A permit does not establish that a component is in good condition today, and no permit record does not by itself establish that work was done badly. The inspection tells you the condition of what is actually there.
Trademark Inspection Services inspects across Dearborn Heights and covers commercial property too, and radon testing and mold inspection and testing can go on the same appointment as the home inspection.
Local information from City of Dearborn Heights — Flood Safety · City of Dearborn Heights — Building Department · Dearborn Heights 2007 Master Plan · City of Dearborn Heights — History. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Wayne County
Zone 3 is the lowest of the three EPA categories — the predicted average indoor level across the county is below 2 pCi/L. So Dearborn Heights is not where Michigan’s alarming radon numbers are, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What a zone cannot tell you is anything about one house: 17% of tests actually run in Wayne County still came back at or above the EPA’s 4 pCi/L action level, which is about one in six. A zone is a prediction of an average, and nobody lives in an average.
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 · Wayne 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 Dearborn Heights 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
Ora from Trademark did an incredible job with the inspection and sewer scope of the home I am in the process of buying. He was very thorough, explained everything to me from the start, and made it all super easy to understand which definitely helped to put me at ease a bit more. Highly recommend this company!
Mariah HartmanWestland, MIJim was prompt and thorough during the mold testing. Clearly gave us an explanation about mold and testing process he was going to conduct. Testing was followed by a written report. I would recommend everyone use a third party to test mold, independent from the company conducting remediation work. I would hire Trademark again and strongly recommend them.
Alberto PicconeNorthville, MICowboy “Jim” just did Mold Testing in my parents’ basement. He was Professional, explained the what, how and yet of everything to my Senior parents. Our results came back super quick. He even referred us to the resources on the Trademark website for me to use to fix the leaky basement. It’s 1 stop shopping with Trademark.
Becky JohnsonWayne, MIWhat happens
Questions
Overwhelmingly. Census figures put 44% of the city’s housing in the 1950s alone and about 80% before 1970, with a median build year of 1958. The City’s Master Plan describes what that produced: “a very large number of subdivisions built in the post World War II era that consist of well-maintained brick homes on compact lots”, simple gable-roof houses with detached rear garages or small single-car attached garages, on sidewalk-lined streets.
No, and the City says so itself. Its Master Plan distinguishes the compact postwar brick homes it calls “Minimal Traditional Residential” from the area south of Ford Road and north of Michigan Avenue, where “much of the residential area is comprised of larger homes on wider lots” — ranch style or full two-story colonials, mostly with two-car attached garages, which it categorises as “Single Family Suburban”. The plan also notes streets where older, smaller homes are being replaced by new-build large homes.
The City’s Flood Safety page states that “Dearborn Heights has 2 flood-prone areas – in the North end of the city, along and near the Rouge River, and in the South end, along and near Ecorse Creek.” Those are different parts of the city with different water environments. Whether a specific address falls inside a designated flood hazard area is a separate question, answered by the FEMA flood map the City links from its Building Department.
Yes, and this is the City’s own position rather than ours. Immediately after naming its two flood-prone areas, the City writes: “However, these are not the only areas impacted, as sewer back-ups (due in many instances due to significant rainfalls) can affect any home in the city.” Flood-map exposure and sewer backup are different risks with different causes, and being outside the two named areas does not settle the second one.
It is worth considering. The City documents sewer-backup exposure separately from river and creek flooding, and a standard visual home inspection cannot determine the condition inside an underground private sewer line. A sewer camera inspection documents what is actually visible in accessible portions of the line — roots, damage, displacement, bellies or blockages. The age of the house does not reliably indicate what material is buried or what condition it is in.
Yes. The City’s Building Department says you can “now look up information regarding projects, permits, and code enforcement for individual properties”, and electrical, heating, refrigeration and plumbing permit applications are available online. That is useful context on a house that has clearly been altered — though a permit does not establish that the work is in good condition today, which is what the inspection is for.
Yes. You can book a Dearborn Heights home inspector with us seven days a week, and we cover the rest of Wayne County too.
A home inspection report reaches you within 24 hours. Commercial buildings are 24 to 72 hours depending on size, a radon result comes at the end of the 48-hour test, and mold samples come back from the lab in one to three business days.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Claim the Hero DiscountNeed a Dearborn Heights home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
Permits, assessing and property records for Dearborn Heights are handled by Dearborn Heights, Michigan, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
Your local Dearborn Heights home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
