Grosse Ile Township, Michigan
Looking for a Grosse Ile Township home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Grosse Ile Township, 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 Grosse Ile Township 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 Grosse Ile Township 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 Grosse Ile Township 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 reportGrosse Ile Township housing stock
Grosse Ile Township has roughly 4,541 housing units and about 85% 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 1990s than from any other decade — 967 homes, roughly 21% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $337,800. 92% are owner-occupied, which is high even for this area.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Grosse Ile Township 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 Grosse Ile Township was built
92% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 56 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Grosse Ile is an island, and the thing that follows from that is buried under it.
The Township’s Department of Public Services maintains over 65 miles of water main and 75 miles of sewer for more than 10,300 residents, and it operates its own wastewater treatment plant — which, as the Township describes it, includes five lift stations and a basin.
Five lift stations is the detail worth understanding. On flat ground close to river level, sewage cannot simply run downhill to one point. It has to be lifted, repeatedly, by pumps. That is an ordinary engineering answer to an ordinary problem, but it changes the character of the system: a pumped network depends on power and on equipment in a way a gravity network does not, and a long outage is a different kind of event here than it is on a hillside.
For a homeowner the practical consequence is the same one everywhere, only sharper. What protects a basement when a sanitary system is under stress is what is installed at the house: where the sump discharges, whether a backwater device is fitted and accessible, and the condition of the lateral running out to the main. Those are things we look at.
The housing is mature and settled: of about 4,541 units, 967 date from the 1990s, 735 from the 1970s, 638 from the 1960s and 607 from the 1950s, with 546 predating 1940 and only 222 built since 2000. Around 85% is single-family detached.
Before you buy
A point worth being exact about
Grosse Ile’s code contains a chapter headed Certificates of Occupancy, and it would be easy — and wrong — to read that as a requirement on every house sale.
The only article in it covers commercial and industrial properties. There is no residential transfer inspection in it. If you are buying a house on Grosse Ile, do not plan on a municipal inspection happening as part of the sale, and do not assume somebody else has checked the building on your behalf.
That puts the whole weight of finding out on your own inspection, which on this housing stock is where it belongs anyway. Only 222 of roughly 4,541 homes here were built after 1999. Everything else has had decades of owners, alterations and replacements, and the useful questions are about what was done rather than what was originally built.
A buyer’s inspection covers the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, and reports to you with photographs and plain language. On a property with a prewar core and later additions — common here — the junctions between eras are where the findings sit: where newer wiring meets original, where an addition meets the original structure, where a finished basement covers what used to be visible.
The Township does issue building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits, applied for and paid online, with inspections scheduled the same way. Its building and permits page also publishes a new home construction packet and an electrical installation checklist. The permit file is worth searching on any property where work has obviously been done.
Commercial and industrial property
If you are buying or leasing commercial or industrial premises on Grosse Ile, Chapter 59 of the Township code is required reading, because it is stricter than most and it catches tenants as well as buyers.
It is unlawful to transfer a commercial or industrial premises without a current certificate of occupancy — and unlawful for any person to act as a broker for such a transfer. The definition of transfer is the part people miss: it covers the sale or conveyance of title for consideration, or the lease of premises to another. Taking a commercial lease here triggers the requirement.
The certificate issues only after inspection and a finding of compliance with all applicable codes and ordinances, with an inspection report completed by all necessary departments noting every violation found.
Where violations exist, there is a documented route to completing anyway — and its terms are stiff. A conditional certificate may be issued provided funds are escrowed and no imminent danger is present, with the escrow set at one and a half times the estimated cost of repair. Everything must be corrected and re-inspected within 30 days, weather permitting, or the certificate may be revoked. If it is not done in time, the Township may carry out the work using the escrow — and any additional cost is assessed as a lien against the real property. The escrow agreement must be signed by both the occupier and the owner, with all signatures notarized, and the escrowed funds may also reimburse the Township’s legal costs.
Two further powers are worth knowing. Where an inspection finds a dangerous or hazardous condition amounting to imminent danger, the department may order immediate correction and may limit or prohibit occupancy. And where it finds unusual or questionable conditions, it may require the owner or transferee to supply a written report from a qualified inspection agency, certified by a responsible officer of that agency, at the owner or transferee’s cost.
That last provision is worth planning for rather than discovering. Commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property, covering the roof covering and rooftop equipment, structural and building envelope, electrical service and distribution, mechanical and plumbing, and life safety. Knowing the condition of a building before you agree an escrow figure — which will be set at one and a half times somebody’s estimate — is worth a great deal more than knowing afterwards.
Island infrastructure
The Department of Public Services describes its job in plain terms: providing safe drinking water, operating the sanitary sewage system, and maintaining over 65 miles of water main and 75 miles of sewer along with the hydrants. It also handles storm water management and drainage maintenance, oversees gravel road dust control, and maintains over 11 miles of bike paths.
The wastewater plant runs under contract operation and takes in five lift stations and a basin. Lift stations exist because the ground is flat and low; where gravity cannot carry sewage far enough, it gets pumped up and starts again.
None of that is a problem in itself — it is simply how a system on this ground has to work. But it does mean the protective equipment at an individual house earns its keep. On an inspection we report the sump equipment we find: the pit, the pump, whether there is any backup arrangement, and where the discharge line goes as far as it can be traced. We note floor drains and any access covers in a basement slab, and whether a basement shows evidence of past water at the wall-floor joint or on stored belongings.
Outside, we report accessible grading and which way the ground actually falls, gutters and downspouts and where they discharge, and foundation conditions. On low, flat ground close to water, where the roof water goes matters more than it does on a slope, because there is nowhere for it to run away to on its own.
The Township’s code carries separate chapters on sewer use, water, a water district, stormwater management, flood control and environmental assessment. If a specific question comes up on a property — a connection, a drain, a flood designation — those are the right places to look, and the Department of Public Services is the right office to call.
The buried line
Whatever the Township does with 75 miles of main and five lift stations, the pipe between your building and that system is the one component no visual inspection reaches — and on Grosse Ile there is no municipal inspection at a house sale to catch anything either.
On a 1990s house that lateral has been in the ground about thirty years, with the landscaping planted alongside it now fully mature. On a 1950s house, seventy. On one of the 546 units here predating 1940, closer to a century. Any of those is long enough for roots to find a joint, for ground movement to displace a section, or for a repair to have been made that nobody now remembers.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Grosse Ile laterals are generally made of — and across a century of building on this island, more than one material is certainly in the ground.
On low ground a settled section becomes a belly where solids stop moving, and on a pumped system a lateral in poor condition is one more thing to go wrong at exactly the wrong moment. It is the cheapest unknown on the property to resolve.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually inside the line: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. It is added to the same visit rather than booked separately. Alongside it, radon testing or mold inspection and testing can be added to a residential or commercial visit. Get in touch to talk through a particular property.
Local information from Township of Grosse Ile Code — Chapter 59, Certificates of Occupancy (commercial and industrial) · Township of Grosse Ile — Department of Public Services · Township of Grosse Ile — building and permits. 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. That puts Grosse Ile Township at the calmer end of Michigan’s radon picture, which is worth saying out loud rather than glossing over. 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. 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 · 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 Grosse Ile Township 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
No. The Township’s certificate of occupancy chapter applies to commercial and industrial properties only — there is no residential transfer inspection in it. If you are buying a house here, do not plan on a municipal inspection happening as part of the sale, and do not assume anyone has checked the building on your behalf.
Yes, and this is the detail most tenants miss. The Township defines transfer to include the lease of premises to another, not just a sale or conveyance of title. It is unlawful to transfer commercial or industrial premises without a current certificate of occupancy, and unlawful for anyone to act as a broker for such a transfer.
There is a route to completing, with stiff terms. A conditional certificate may be issued if funds are escrowed and no imminent danger is present, with the escrow set at one and a half times the estimated cost of repair. Everything must be corrected and re-inspected within 30 days, weather permitting, or the certificate may be revoked. If it is not, the Township may do the work from the escrow, and any additional cost is assessed as a lien against the property.
Yes. Where it finds unusual or questionable conditions, the department may require the owner or transferee to supply a written report from a qualified inspection agency, certified by a responsible officer of that agency, at the owner or transferee’s cost. A commercial building inspection to the CCPIA standard documents the roof, structure and envelope, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and life safety — which is also what you want before agreeing an escrow figure.
Because the ground is flat and close to river level, so sewage cannot travel far by gravity. The Township maintains over 75 miles of sewer and operates a wastewater treatment plant that includes five lift stations and a basin. It is an ordinary engineering answer, but it means the system depends on pumps and power — and that what protects an individual basement is the equipment installed at the house.
The sump and its discharge above all: the pit, the pump, whether there is a backup arrangement, and where the line goes as far as it can be traced. Also floor drains, any access covers in the slab, and evidence of past water at the wall-floor joint or on stored belongings. Outside, how the ground falls away from the building and where the downspouts discharge — on low flat ground there is nowhere for water to run away to on its own.
Mature, and very little is new. Of about 4,541 housing units, 967 date from the 1990s, 735 from the 1970s, 638 from the 1960s and 607 from the 1950s, with 546 predating 1940 and only 222 built since 2000. Around 85% is single-family detached. Expect systems replaced in stages across decades, and pay attention to the junctions between eras.
Yes — and with no municipal inspection at a house sale, nothing else will catch it. The buried lateral is the one component no visual inspection reaches, and on this stock it is thirty to ninety years old with mature landscaping over it. On low ground a settled section becomes a belly where solids stop moving. We will not guess a material from a build year. Putting a camera down the line documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and is added to the same appointment.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Your local Grosse Ile Township home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
