New Baltimore, Michigan
Looking for a New Baltimore home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in New Baltimore, seven days a week. Home inspection reports come back in 24 hours.
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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 New Baltimore 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 New Baltimore and across Macomb 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 New Baltimore 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 reportNew Baltimore housing stock
New Baltimore has roughly 4,940 housing units and about 74% 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 2000s than from any other decade — 1,427 homes, roughly 29% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $283,500.
This is not a forecast for any one address. It is where a New Baltimore 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 New Baltimore was built
88% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 105 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
New Baltimore cuts its permits more finely than any city we have looked at. There is a separate application for concrete or pavers laid at grade. Another for a deck at grade. Another for accessory structures under 200 square feet. There are standalone applications for re-shingling, for siding, for fences, for garages, for pools, for razing a building, and for a sprinkler meter.
Set that against Berkley, where a building of 36 square feet or less and six feet high needs neither a permit nor a certificate, and you can see how much further this city goes. Almost nothing exterior is exempt here.
For a buyer that cuts both ways, and mostly in your favor. The permit file on a New Baltimore house should be unusually complete — which means a gap in it carries more weight than it would somewhere with high thresholds. If a patio, a deck, a shed or a re-shingle happened and there is no record of it, that is a real question rather than a shrug.
The housing is mostly recent with an old core: of about 4,940 units, 1,427 were built in the 2000s and 1,156 in the 1990s — just over half the city in twenty years — around a prewar remnant of 434 units. Around 74% is single-family detached.
Before you buy
A permit for almost everything
The City’s building, codes and zoning page lists the applications, and reading them as a set tells you more than any of them tells you alone.
Concrete and pavers at grade have their own application. So does a deck at grade — separate from the ordinary deck permit, which suggests the City distinguishes between a raised structure and a platform sitting on the ground. Accessory structures under 200 square feet still need a permit application. Re-shingling has its own permit. Siding has its own application. There is a gas piping affidavit and a mechanical ventilation worksheet.
Two of those matter especially. A re-shingle permit means a roof replacement here should leave a dated record, which is the single most useful number for judging what remains of a covering’s service life. And a siding application means the same for the walls, which is where flashing and water management around windows and doors gets decided.
This is the same disagreement this project keeps running into between neighboring municipalities. New Baltimore permits roofs and siding. So does the City of Fenton, and so does Vienna Township. Fenton Township requires no permit for a roof, window or siding replacement at all. There is no regional rule; there is only what each place decided.
What an inspection contributes is what no file records: the condition of what is actually there. On a roof that means the covering and its condition, flashings, penetrations, edges and ventilation, and whether a covering appears to have been laid over an older one, plus what the attic shows from underneath where accessible. On siding it means whether the openings were flashed and sealed and whether water is getting behind the cladding. A buyer’s inspection covers those alongside the structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior.
On timing: the City states a permit can take up to ten city business days to review, and inspection requests must be in by 1pm for next-day inspection. It also asks people to phone before coming to the counter, because the building department’s duties take it out of the office.
The old core
New Baltimore has a Historic District Commission, and the City notes that signs may require approval from City Council, the Planning Commission, and/or the Historic Commission.
That is worth understanding before you buy something in the older part of the city. A historic district consent is a separate approval from a building permit, it applies to exterior appearance rather than to structural safety, and it can govern the things owners most want to change — windows, doors, siding, roofing materials, porches, signage.
We are not going to describe the district’s boundaries or its standards, because we have not read them and they are the Commission’s to state. What we will say is that if a property is in or near the historic core — and 434 units here predate 1940 — establishing whether it falls under that jurisdiction belongs on the same list as the survey and the title work, not on the list of things to find out afterwards.
It also changes the arithmetic on work you might be planning. A window replacement that would be routine elsewhere may need an approval here, and a material that would be accepted elsewhere may not be. That is not a reason to avoid an older house; it is a reason to ask first.
On the building itself, prewar housing asks particular things of an inspection. Systems have almost always been replaced in stages by different people across different decades, so the panel and the branch circuits often tell different stories, original supply plumbing has passed the end of any normal service life, and the junctions between old work and new are where the interesting findings sit.
Utilities
One item in the City’s frequently asked questions explains how utilities work here better than a rate table would.
If you fill a swimming pool, you can read the water meter before and after, submit both numbers to Utility Billing, and receive a credit against the sewer portion of your bill. The logic is simple: sewer is charged on metered water, and pool water does not go down the drain. The City also notes you are not eligible for that credit if you have a sprinkler meter — because a second meter is the standing version of the same fix, measuring outdoor water that never reaches the sewer.
A sprinkler meter is permitted through the Building Department, which is worth knowing if a property has irrigation. It is also worth knowing on an inspection: a second meter and an irrigation system are both connections to the potable supply, and connections to the potable supply are where backflow protection matters. We look at hose bibbs and whether they carry vacuum breakers, at visible irrigation connections, and at softener or treatment drains and whether there is an air gap.
The other practical detail concerns the handover. A new homeowner brings the property transfer affidavit and principal residence exemption to the Assessing Department, and the City states that once those are turned in, taxes and the water and rubbish service are put into your name. So the utility account follows the assessing paperwork rather than a separate application — which is convenient, and also means it does not happen until you do it. Late fees run at 10% of the bill the day after the due date, and a payment plan prevents a shut-off notice but not the penalty.
One small thing worth knowing if you are researching a property: the City keeps assessing sketches at City Hall and does not publish them online, so a floor plan sketch is a visit rather than a download.
The buried line
Where a property here is on the public sewer, the buried lateral running from the building to the main is the one component no visual inspection reaches — and it is not on any of the City’s many permit applications either.
People assume a newer house is exempt, and it is the assumption that costs them. On a house built in 2002 that pipe has been in the ground twenty-five years, and the trees planted when the subdivision went in have had exactly as long to grow over it — which is the age at which root systems reach the size where they start looking for water at a joint. On one of the 434 prewar units here, it is closer to a century.
We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what New Baltimore laterals are generally made of — and in a city with both a prewar core and two decades of recent subdivision, more than one material is certainly in the ground.
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, commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard for offices, retail, multifamily and warehouse property, and 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 City of New Baltimore — Building, Codes and Zoning, applications and forms · City of New Baltimore — frequently asked questions on permits and utilities · City of New Baltimore — applications and forms document center. Municipal requirements change — verify current details with the municipality.
Radon in Macomb 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 New Baltimore at the calmer end of Michigan’s radon picture, which is worth saying out loud rather than glossing over.
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 · Macomb County radon and inspection coverage
Zone from the EPA Map of Radon Zones.
Why choose us
Five reasons people here pick us as their New Baltimore 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
Mitch did our inspection for the sale of our home and he was professional, efficient and friendly. The report was sent to me and my agent in a timely fashion and I appreciated how quickly the appointment was made and everything was finished! Would recommend to others.
Kendra AllenRoseville, MII 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, MIWhat happens
Questions
Yes. The City publishes a re-shingle permit and a separate siding application. That is useful for a buyer, because it means a roof or siding replacement here should leave a dated record — and the date is the single most useful number for judging what remains of a covering’s service life. Not every municipality takes this view: Fenton Township, for one, requires no permit for a roof, window or siding replacement at all.
Quite a lot. The City has separate applications for concrete and pavers laid at grade, for a deck at grade, for accessory structures under 200 square feet, for fences, garages, pools, razing and sprinkler meters, plus a gas piping affidavit and a mechanical ventilation worksheet. If you are planning something small, assume it needs paperwork and call to confirm.
That the permit file should be unusually complete, so gaps in it carry more weight than they would in a city with high thresholds. If a patio, deck, shed, re-shingle or siding job happened and there is no record, that is a fair question to put to the seller and to the Building Department.
It is worth establishing. The City has a Historic District Commission with its own application, and notes that signs may need approval from City Council, the Planning Commission and/or the Historic Commission. A historic district consent is separate from a building permit and governs exterior appearance — windows, doors, siding, roofing materials, porches. With 434 units here predating 1940, check before you plan work rather than after.
Because sewer is billed on metered water, and pool water does not go down the drain. Read the meter before and after filling, submit both numbers to Utility Billing, and the credit is applied to the sewer portion of the bill. You are not eligible if you have a sprinkler meter — that second meter is the standing version of the same arrangement, and it is permitted through the Building Department.
Through Assessing. A new homeowner brings the property transfer affidavit and principal residence exemption to the Assessing Department, and the City states that once those are turned in, taxes and the water and rubbish service are put into your name. It is convenient, and it also means it does not happen until you do it. Late fees run at 10% of the bill the day after the due date.
Mostly recent, around an older core. Of about 4,940 housing units, 1,427 were built in the 2000s and 1,156 in the 1990s — just over half the city in twenty years — with 434 predating 1940 and 434 from the 1970s. Around 74% is single-family detached. On the 1990s and 2000s stock, the recurring theme is first-generation components all reaching the end of a normal service life within a few years of each other.
Yes, and newer houses are exactly where people skip it. On a 2002 house the lateral has been in the ground twenty-five years, and the subdivision trees planted at construction have had the same twenty-five years to reach it. It is also the one thing none of the City’s many permits covers. 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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From the blog
April 5, 2024
October 22, 2017
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