Royal Oak, Michigan
Looking for a Royal Oak home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Royal Oak, 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 Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak 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 reportRoyal Oak housing stock
Royal Oak has roughly 31,204 housing units and about 65% 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 1950s than from any other decade — 8,611 homes, roughly 28% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $289,800. Around 2,294 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.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak was built
81% of homes here run on utility gas, and 38 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 346 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Royal Oak is the oldest of the large Oakland County communities, and the City itself explains better than most why that matters underground.
Of roughly 31,204 housing units, about 16% predate 1940, another 16% date from the 1940s and 28% from the 1950s — close to 60% built before 1960, with a median build year of 1957. Around 65% are single-family detached. Compare that with Troy at 1977 or Shelby Township at 1989 and you are looking at a different category of building altogether.
Age brings the familiar questions: what has been replaced across sixty or ninety years, what is original, and what condition any of it is in now. We will not guess at those from a build year, because two houses of the same vintage on the same street can be entirely different by this point.
But the thing genuinely worth reading before you buy here is the City’s own account of why basements in Royal Oak take water — because it is not the reason most people assume, and it changes what is worth checking.
Before you buy
The buried line
This is the clearest technical explanation any municipality in this region publishes, and it is the reason a sewer scope is worth more here than most places.
The City sets out what actually happens. Tree roots, disposable wipes and diapers, grease and similar materials obstruct the flow at a resident’s cleanout. And then, in its own words: when those obstructions occur in your sewer service line it prevents not only the water used inside the house from flowing to the City’s main sewer, but also the water that has built up below your basement floor and around the basement walls — usually called weeping tile — from flowing freely to the main sewer as well. The water then tries to equalize the pressure and seek its own level by coming through cracks in the walls, cracks in the floor, the floor and wall seam, and most commonly up through the floor drains.
Read that twice, because it is the part almost nobody explains. In a city built like this one, the drainage around your foundation discharges into the same private line as your household waste. A partly blocked lateral does not have to back sewage up to cause a wet basement — it can simply stop the groundwater around your foundation from getting away, and that water then comes up through the floor.
Which is exactly why a sewer camera inspection earns its place here. It 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. We will not name a material from a build year — no authoritative source establishes what Royal Oak laterals are generally made of — but the camera does not have to guess. It goes on the same visit.
For context on the public side: the Sewer Division maintains roughly 300 miles of sanitary and storm sewers, cleans them on a rotating basis, has staff available 24 hours a day for basement water calls, and carries out rehabilitation including televising, root treatment, lining and spot repairs. The City is also part of what is now the George W. Kuhn Retention Treatment Basin, expanded in 2006 and designed to substantially decrease the potential for flooded basements.
Water
In a city where six houses in ten predate 1960, this is a program worth knowing about before you buy rather than after.
The City’s lead service line replacement program covers lead or galvanized steel water service lines at no cost to the homeowner. The qualifying step is refreshingly practical: you text or email a photograph of the water pipe where it first enters the home, along with your address, to the City. If it qualifies you sign an access agreement, and replacement projects run quarterly, typically covering twenty to thirty homes each, with the City stating it makes every effort to replace lines within a year of receiving a completed agreement.
That photograph is taken at a spot we are standing at anyway. During an inspection we look at where the supply enters the building and report what is visible there. What we do not do is determine your service line material as a formal finding, or decide eligibility — that is the City’s process, and it is the one that gets the line replaced.
In the meantime the City publishes sensible interim steps for anyone who may have a lead line: start with cold water for drinking and cooking, flush the pipes by running cold water after several hours of no use, clean faucet aerators regularly because they collect lead particles, use a filter certified to remove lead and keep it maintained, and have the water tested by a certified laboratory.
After the report
Most municipal programs we come across help the municipality. This one helps the homeowner, and it connects directly to what an inspection tends to turn up on a house of this age.
The RENO program — Residential Enhancement and Neighborhood Opportunity — waives City of Royal Oak permit and inspection fees for projects advancing three priorities: sustainability, housing affordability and aging in place. The examples the City gives include high-efficiency HVAC, insulation, energy-efficient windows and doors, solar and EV charging under green neighborhoods, and ramps, widened doorways, accessible bathroom and kitchen modifications and stair lifts under aging in place. Applicants can also receive up to two hours of complimentary consultation with the Building Division.
Be clear about the limits, because they matter. RENO covers City permit and inspection fees for the approved scope of work. It does not cover contractor labor, materials, plan reproduction, third-party review fees, state fees, penalties or re-inspection fees. It is a useful reduction in the cost of doing things properly, not a grant for the work itself.
The reason it belongs on this page is the sequence. An inspection on a 1950s Royal Oak house will often identify a heating system near the end of its life, insulation that was never brought up to modern levels, or a home that will need adapting if someone intends to stay in it. Those are precisely the categories RENO exists for — so it is worth asking the Building Division about before you commission the work.
What the City does and does not check
We found no residential point-of-sale requirement here. Confirm the position for a specific address with the Building Division, but do not plan around a municipal inspection of the house that may not exist.
What the City does inspect is rentals. The Building Division inspects all residential rental units in accordance with the Property Maintenance Code, and operates a rental registration process alongside it. If you are buying a rental or buying from a landlord, that registration and its inspection history are part of the picture.
For an owner-occupier, though, the inspection you commission is the only one looking at the property on your behalf. A home buyer inspection covers the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior — photographed, and written up with how urgent each finding is.
The rest fits the same appointment: commercial building inspections to the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property, which suits a city with Royal Oak’s downtown, and radon testing or mold inspection and testing added to a residential or commercial visit.
Local information from City of Royal Oak — responding to street and basement flooding · City of Royal Oak — Lead Service Line Replacement Program · City of Royal Oak — RENO Program · City of Royal Oak — Building Division. 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 Royal Oak 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
The City gives an unusually clear explanation, and it is not the one most people expect. Tree roots, wipes, diapers and grease obstruct the flow in a resident’s sewer service line. When that happens it stops not only household waste water reaching the City main, but also the water that collects below the basement floor and around the basement walls — the weeping tile drainage — from getting away. That water then equalizes by coming through cracks in the walls and floor, the floor and wall seam, and most often up through the floor drains. In other words a partly blocked lateral can produce a wet basement without any sewage backing up at all.
It is one of the strongest cases anywhere in this region, for the reason the City itself sets out: in houses built like these, the drainage around the foundation discharges into the same private line as household waste, so a partly blocked lateral can flood a basement without any sewage appearing. The line is buried and no visual inspection can see inside it, and we would not guess a material from a build year — no authoritative source establishes what Royal Oak laterals are generally made of. Putting a camera down the line documents roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist. It is added to the same appointment.
Yes, at no cost to the homeowner, for lead or galvanized steel service lines. The qualifying step is to text or email the City your address along with a photograph of the water pipe where it first enters the home. If it qualifies you sign an access agreement, and replacement projects run quarterly with roughly twenty to thirty homes each; the City states it makes every effort to replace lines within one year of receiving a completed agreement. A home inspection does not determine service line material or decide eligibility — the City’s program is the route to both.
It can reduce part of it. The RENO program — Residential Enhancement and Neighborhood Opportunity — waives City permit and inspection fees for projects advancing sustainability, housing affordability or aging in place, with examples including high-efficiency HVAC, insulation, energy-efficient windows and doors, ramps, widened doorways and accessible bathroom or kitchen work. Applicants can also get up to two hours of free consultation with the Building Division. Be clear on the limits though: it covers City permit and inspection fees for the approved scope, not contractor labor, materials, third-party review or state fees.
Older than most of Oakland County. About 16% of the roughly 31,204 housing units predate 1940, another 16% date from the 1940s and 28% from the 1950s — close to 60% built before 1960 — with a median build year of 1957 and around 65% single-family detached. That is a generation or two older than Troy at 1977 or Shelby Township at 1989. On housing this established the useful question is rarely the build year; it is what has been replaced since, and what condition it is in now.
We found no residential point-of-sale requirement. The Building Division does inspect all residential rental units in accordance with the Property Maintenance Code and runs a rental registration process, so that is relevant if you are buying a rental or buying from a landlord. For an ordinary house sale, confirm the position for a specific address with the Building Division — and in the meantime plan on your own inspection being the one examining the property on your behalf.
Yes. You can book a Royal Oak home inspector with us seven days a week, and we cover the rest of Oakland 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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