Oak Park, Michigan
Looking for an Oak Park home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Oak Park, 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 Oak Park 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 Oak Park 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 an Oak Park 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 reportOak Park housing stock
Oak Park has roughly 12,868 housing units and about 74% of them are single-family detached. Age is the most useful single fact about a house before anyone has seen it. It narrows down what is worth checking first, and it is why two places of much the same size can need quite different inspections.
If the town has a defining decade it is the 1950s, which accounts for 6,310 homes, around 49% of the housing stock.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $176,900. Around 504 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.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. An Oak Park home inspector checks these things early in a home of this age and then records what is genuinely there, which is often not what the era would suggest.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Oak Park was built
85% of homes here run on utility gas, and 15 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 250 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Oak Park is one of the most concentrated housing markets we work in. Of about 12,868 units, roughly 6,310 — close to half the city — were built in the 1950s, and only 172 predate 1940. Around 74% is single-family detached.
That produces a particular kind of inspection. Streets of houses built within a few years of each other to similar plans, all now seventy years old, all long past the point where original mechanical equipment could still be in service. Every one of them has had a roof, a furnace, a water heater and usually an electrical service done at some stage — by different people, at different times, to different standards.
So the question is never what these houses were built with. It is which of the replacements were done well, when, and what is next.
There is also one thing here worth knowing if you are buying to rent, because Oak Park does something no other city we write about does: it inspects on turnover as well as on a clock.
Before you buy
If you are buying a rental
Rental programs almost always run on a calendar. Two years, three years, five years — a certificate is issued and it runs to expiry. Oak Park adds a second trigger.
The City’s rental property registration requires rentals to be registered and inspected every two years or after a change in tenancy. It publishes the fees as $80 for a two-year registration and $150 for the inspection, with additional fees for multiple units.
For a buyer, that changes the arithmetic in a useful way. A property that has just turned over should have been inspected recently, and a property with long-standing tenants may be approaching one. Either way it is a question worth asking the Municipal Services Department before closing, along with what the last inspection found.
What none of that is, is a report written for you. The City inspects to its own housing standards so a unit may lawfully be rented. A buyer’s inspection is independent, commissioned and paid for by you, and covers the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and accessible interior — what is failing, what is near the end of its service life, and what to budget for. On a seventy-year-old house those are different questions with different answers.
Water
Lead service lines are the question buyers ask most often about postwar housing, and Oak Park answers it directly.
The City’s Complete Distribution System Material Inventory report, which is a program mandated by Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, shows the city is free of any known lead service lines. The City notes the program requires it to verify 370 random water service lines across the system, publishes its progress spreadsheet, and offers a home visit from a city water technician for anyone with questions about their own line.
It is worth adding that the City publishes its own corrections too. Its 2017 consumer confidence report gave the 90th percentile for lead as under 2 parts per billion; the correct figure was 4.3 ppb — still below the 15 ppb action level — and the City issued a corrected report saying so. Publishing that takes a certain amount of nerve and it is the right way round.
The City also states that all of Oak Park is served by public water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer facilities, with water supplied by the City of Detroit under the Great Lakes Water Authority. So unlike much of the region there is no well or septic question to settle here.
A home inspection does not test water — we do not take samples and we do not analyze them. What we do cover is the building: accessible supply and drain plumbing and the materials visible at it, the water heater, functional flow and drainage, and evidence of leaks or past repairs.
Seventy years of replacements
When half a city goes up in one decade, the houses age together — and so do their systems.
A roof covering lasts twenty to thirty years, so a 1955 house is on its third or fourth. A furnace lasts fifteen to twenty-five, so it is on its third or fourth too. Water heaters go roughly every twelve. Air conditioning arrived long after the house did, which means the condenser, the line set and often the ductwork were retrofitted by somebody at some point. Electrical services have usually been upgraded, sometimes more than once, and supply plumbing has frequently been replaced in sections rather than all at once.
None of that is a problem in itself. It is simply the reality of a postwar house, and what matters is the quality and age of each replacement rather than the year on the deed. We report what is installed, what condition it is in, what is at or past the end of its service life, and what could not be seen.
The City requires a building permit for new construction, additions, structural changes, fire damage repair, demolition, pools and decks, and a Certificate of Occupancy before any new or altered building is used or occupied. Worth checking what is on file — with the usual caution that a permit does not establish good condition today, and no permit does not establish bad work.
The buried line
The City can tell you a good deal about its water service lines. Nobody can tell you anything about the sanitary lateral without looking inside it.
On a house from the 1950s that pipe has been in the ground about seventy years, which is ample time for roots to find a joint — the street trees planted when these subdivisions went in are fully mature now — 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 Oak Park laterals are generally made of.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually inside — roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not — and 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.
Local information from City of Oak Park — water quality report and service line inventory · City of Oak Park — licenses and permits, including rental registration · City of Oak Park — forms, services and information. 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. Zones are drawn around counties, not around addresses, which is why the only number that settles the question is the one from the house itself.
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 Oak Park 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
Concentrated in one decade. Of about 12,868 housing units, roughly 6,310 — close to half — were built in the 1950s, with 2,180 from the 1960s and 1,599 from the 1940s. Only 172 units predate 1940. Around 74% is single-family detached. That means whole streets of houses reaching seventy years old together, with every original mechanical component long since replaced by somebody.
Every two years, or after a change in tenancy — and that second trigger is unusual. Every other rental program we have researched runs purely on a calendar cycle; Oak Park inspects on turnover as well. The City publishes fees of $80 for a two-year registration and $150 for the inspection, with additional fees for multiple units. Ask the Municipal Services Department where the property stands and what the last inspection found.
The City states that its Complete Distribution System Material Inventory report shows the city is free of any known lead service lines. That inventory is a program mandated by Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, and the City notes it requires verification of 370 random service lines across the system. If you have a question about a specific address, the City offers a home visit from a water technician.
No. The City states that all of Oak Park is served by public water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer facilities, with water supplied by the City of Detroit under the Great Lakes Water Authority. That removes a question that comes up constantly in the surrounding townships.
Nothing we could find says so. We read both the licenses and permits page and the forms and services page, and the inspection programs published are rental registration and construction-related certificates of occupancy, not a point-of-sale requirement. Several neighboring cities do have one, and we are not going to import it. Confirm with the City rather than relying on any web page, this one included.
A Property Transfer Affidavit, filed with the Assessor’s Office within 45 days of the transfer. The City notes it is required whenever real property ownership is transferred, including changes in title, beneficial use or ownership interest. It is easy to forget in the weeks after a move.
The replacements rather than the original. A roof covering lasts twenty to thirty years, a furnace fifteen to twenty-five, a water heater around twelve — so on a seventy-year-old house each has turned over several times. Air conditioning was retrofitted long after construction, and electrical services and supply plumbing have usually been upgraded in stages. What matters is the age and quality of what is installed now, which is what an inspection establishes.
It is worth considering. The buried sanitary lateral is the one component no visual inspection reaches, and on a 1950s house it has been in the ground about seventy years, with fully mature street trees around it. We will not guess a material from a build year — no authoritative source establishes what Oak Park laterals are generally made of. 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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Permits, assessing and property records for Oak Park are handled by the City of Oak Park, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
April 5, 2024
Your local Oak Park home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
