River Rouge, Michigan
Looking for a River Rouge home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in River Rouge, 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 River Rouge 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 River Rouge 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 River Rouge 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 reportRiver Rouge housing stock
River Rouge has roughly 3,479 housing units and about 62% 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 years before 1940 — 1,583 homes, around 46% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $49,200. Only 50% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, so a good share of what we inspect here is bought as a rental or sold with tenants in place — which changes what access on the day looks like. Around 784 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 River Rouge 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 River Rouge was built
89% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 14 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
River Rouge has the oldest housing stock of any community we cover, and it is not close. Of roughly 3,479 units, 1,583 — about 45% — were built before 1940, and 88% of everything in the city predates 1970. Barely 300 units have been added in the last half-century.
That single fact shapes everything else. You are almost always buying a house that has been standing for eighty years or more, that has been altered by many hands, and whose systems have each turned over two or three times since they were first installed.
It also shapes what the City itself is dealing with. In its 2026 water quality report the City states that it estimates there are approximately 3,025 lead water services in River Rouge — a figure the City publishes openly, and one that follows directly from the age of the building stock rather than from anything anyone did wrong.
That is worth understanding properly rather than nervously, and the City sets out both the context and the practical steps in the same report. We cover it below in the City’s own words.
The other thing to know is that the storm drains here run straight to the Detroit River. The City has physically painted the inlets that discharge without treatment yellow, so you can see them from the street.
Before you buy
Water
This is worth reading carefully, because the honest version is more useful than either alarm or reassurance.
The City buys its drinking water from the Great Lakes Water Authority. In its 2026 water quality report it states that the water the authority delivers does not contain lead, and that lead enters drinking water through home plumbing fixtures and, in some cases, customer service lines. Orthophosphates are added during treatment as corrosion control, which reduces the risk of lead and copper leaching into the water on the way to a tap.
In the same report, the City states that it estimates there are approximately 3,025 lead services in River Rouge. In a city where 88% of the housing predates 1970 that is not surprising, and the City is publishing it rather than burying it, along with a consent and release form for lead water service work — which is how replacement programs get access to a property.
The practical guidance the City gives is specific. Where water has been sitting for several hours, flushing the tap for 30 seconds to two minutes before using it for drinking or cooking reduces potential exposure; where there is a lead service line, the City recommends running the water for at least five minutes to flush both the home plumbing and the service line. And if you are concerned, it says plainly, you may wish to have your water tested.
Our part in this is narrow and we would rather state it clearly than overstate it. We do not test water, and we do not determine what a buried service line is made of — that is the City’s inventory process and a certified laboratory’s job. What a buyer’s inspection reports is the visible supply piping inside the building where it is accessible, the materials we can actually see, and any point where the material changes or a repair has been made. On a house of this age that is genuinely informative, because interior plumbing here has usually been replaced in stages and the joins tell you when.
If you are buying here, ask the City directly what is recorded for the address and whether it is in the replacement program. That question costs nothing and gets a better answer than anyone can give you from the sidewalk.
Prewar houses
A house that has been standing since the 1920s or 1930s has been rewired, re-plumbed, re-roofed and reheated by different people at different times, usually without a single coherent plan. The inspection is largely an exercise in reading that history.
Electrical is where it shows first. The original service was sized for lighting and little else. Most houses have had a service upgrade, but upgrades vary enormously in how far they went — a new panel and meter with original distribution behind it is a different proposition from a genuine rewire. Circuits added in stages, junctions in inaccessible places, and mixed generations of wiring in the same box are all common findings, and all reportable.
Plumbing follows the same pattern. Supply lines have generally been replaced in part rather than in whole, leaving material transitions worth looking at. Drain and vent layouts are often original with newer fixtures hung off them, which is why an old house can have a perfectly good bathroom and a badly behaved drain.
Then there is the structure and the water. Eighty-five years of freeze and thaw, of settlement and of downspouts pointing wherever they ended up, leave a record in a foundation and a basement. Staining, efflorescence, previous patching, replaced flooring and how the space is used all tell part of the story, and we describe what the building actually shows rather than predicting what a particular storm will do.
Insulation, ventilation, heating venting and the roof structure round it out. None of this makes a prewar house a poor buy — many are far better built than what replaced them — but the difference between a well-kept one and a neglected one is not visible from the street, and it is most of what you are paying an inspector to establish.
Permits and ordinances
The Building Department enforces the building codes and zoning ordinances and maintains the records of construction, alteration and demolition across the city. It issues its own permits, with separate residential and commercial applications for building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing work, plus a flat work application for concrete.
It also lists several local ordinances that a buyer or seller should know exist: a certificate of occupancy ordinance, a vacant property ordinance with a current registration form, a rental dwelling ordinance adopted in 2026, a property maintenance ordinance from the same year, and a lawn and weed ordinance.
We want to be straight about the limits of what we can tell you here. Those ordinances are published as scanned documents rather than as searchable text, so we have not been able to read what they require, and we are not going to guess. In many Michigan cities a certificate of occupancy is required when a property changes hands or when occupancy changes — but whether that is the case here, and what a vacant or rental property has to do, are questions for the Building Department directly.
Ask early rather than late. If a certificate or an inspection is part of the transaction, it has a lead time, and finding that out in the last two weeks before closing is the expensive way to learn it.
One published quirk worth remembering if you do pull a permit: after paying, the City asks you to email the receipt to the Building Department so the payment can be applied to your account.
Stormwater
The City’s stormwater information package describes something you can see on a walkthrough. The Water Department evaluated the storm sewer system and physically marked the inlets that discharge storm water directly to the Detroit River without any treatment. Those inlets have been painted yellow.
The message attached to them is simple: only rainwater or melted snow are allowed into the storm drains. Everything else — oil, chemicals, fertilizer, pet waste, leaves, trash and sediment — reaches the river unfiltered.
For a homeowner the practical consequence is about what leaves your lot. Where a downspout, a sump discharge or a driveway drains, and what it carries with it, is not only a question about your basement.
It is also good news for basements in one respect: a separate storm system means roof and surface water is not competing for space in the sanitary sewer during a storm. That does not remove the ordinary reasons an old basement takes water, and on this housing stock the ordinary reasons are usually the ones that matter — grading that has settled toward the wall, downspouts discharging at the foundation, and sump arrangements added long after the building.
We report the drainage as we find it: the fall of the ground around the building, where the downspouts and any sump discharge appear to go, and what the foundation and basement show about water that has been there before.
The buried line
The sanitary line from the building to the main is the owner’s. On a River Rouge house that pipe was very often laid before 1940, under a lot that has had the best part of a century to grow trees over it and to settle around it.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what River Rouge laterals are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
What we can say is that on housing this old, the buried drain is the single most consequential thing that a visual inspection cannot reach. Slow drains, a basement floor drain that backs up occasionally, or a fixture that behaves differently from the rest of the house are all worth taking seriously here rather than putting down to age.
A sewer camera inspection records the actual condition of 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 appointment rather than booked separately, and on a prewar house it is among the most useful things you can buy before closing.
Alongside it we offer radon testing, mold inspection and testing, and commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property. You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in River Rouge.
Local information from City of River Rouge — 2026 annual water quality report, including lead service estimates and flushing guidance · City of River Rouge — Building Department, permits and local ordinances · City of River Rouge — 2025 stormwater system information package. 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 River Rouge 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 River Rouge 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
Excellent service! Joe was very friendly and respectful. He even showed up early and started before we arrived. He went over results with us on the spot, was easy to talk to and very helpful. Being a first time home buyer, I am so happy I chose this inspection company. Highly recommend.
Casey MoranRiver Rouge, MIOra 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, MIWhat happens
Questions
The City states in its 2026 water quality report that it estimates there are approximately 3,025 lead services in River Rouge. The same report notes that the water delivered by the Great Lakes Water Authority does not contain lead, that lead enters through home plumbing and in some cases customer service lines, and that orthophosphates are added during treatment as corrosion control.
Its published guidance is to flush the tap for 30 seconds to two minutes before using water for drinking or cooking when it has been sitting for several hours, and to run the water for at least five minutes where there is a lead service line, so that both the home plumbing and the service line are flushed. It also says that anyone concerned about lead may wish to have their water tested.
No. We do not test water and we do not determine what a buried service line is made of — that is the City’s inventory process and a certified laboratory’s work. What we do report is the visible supply piping inside the building where it is accessible, the materials we can actually see, and any point where the material changes or a repair has been made. Ask the City what is recorded for the address.
Older than anywhere else we cover. About 1,583 of roughly 3,479 units predate 1940, and 88% of the city’s housing was built before 1970. Just over 300 units have been added in the last fifty years. That means most inspections here are of buildings that have been altered repeatedly over eight decades or more.
The City lists a certificate of occupancy ordinance among its building ordinances, along with vacant property and rental dwelling ordinances. Those documents are published as scanned images rather than searchable text, so we cannot tell you what they require and will not guess. Contact the Building Department early — if a certificate or inspection is part of your transaction, it has a lead time.
Because the City marked them. Its Water Department evaluated the storm sewer system and physically painted the inlets that discharge storm water directly to the Detroit River without any treatment. Only rainwater or melted snow are supposed to enter them — everything else reaches the river unfiltered.
The City describes a separate storm sewer system, with storm inlets discharging to the Detroit River. For basements that is helpful, because roof and surface water is not competing for space in the sanitary sewer during a storm. It does not remove the ordinary causes of a wet basement, which on housing this old are usually grading, downspouts and the sump arrangement.
On this housing stock it is one of the most useful things you can buy. The lateral belongs to the owner, on most properties it was laid before 1940, and no visual inspection reaches inside a buried pipe. A camera inspection documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not, and is added to 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
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