Redford, Michigan
Looking for a Redford home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Redford, 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 Redford 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 Redford 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 Redford 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 reportRedford housing stock
Redford has roughly 19,557 housing units and about 92% 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 11,160 homes, around 57% of the housing stock. At 92% single-family it is almost entirely detached houses, so the inspection is nearly always of a whole building rather than one unit inside one.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $130,900.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. A Redford 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 Redford was built
92% of homes here run on utility gas, and 6 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 162 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Redford is the most uniform substantial community we have looked at anywhere in this region, and that uniformity is the starting point for everything else.
Of roughly 19,557 housing units, about 57% were built in the 1950s alone, with a median build year of 1955 and around 92% single-family detached. We have not found another community of its size in this region that is both that concentrated in one decade and that overwhelmingly made up of houses. Effectively, Redford is a township of 1950s single-family homes with basements.
Which means the build year tells you almost nothing about the house in front of you. Your neighbor’s house is the same age and often much the same design. What separates two properties here is seventy years of individual decisions — which roofs were renewed and when, which furnaces and water heaters were replaced, what happened to the electrical service, what was done about the basement.
And the basement is where this page has to spend its time, because of how the township’s sewers are built.
Before you buy
The buried line
Two facts sit next to each other here, and together they make a stronger case for looking at the sewer line than almost anywhere else we write about.
The first is how the system is built. The Water and Sewer Department maintains roughly 1,020,000 feet of water mains and 850,000 feet of sewer lines, along with one combined sewer overflow basin and nine combined sewer overflows. A combined sewer carries storm water and sanitary flow in the same pipe rather than in two separate systems — normal in communities built when this one was, and directly relevant to basements, because heavy rain and household waste share the same capacity. The Township publishes a CSO public notification plan linked to state reporting of uncontrolled discharges.
The second is where responsibility stops. The Township states plainly that for a claim to be viable the source of the problem must be the municipal sewer, and that problems caused by your property’s plumbing or in your sewer lead are your responsibility.
Put those together and the position for a buyer is clear. The public system has documented overflow points. Your own line is entirely yours, and a failure in it is not claimable. The only way to know its condition is to look, and no visual inspection can see inside a buried pipe. We will not name a material from a build year either — no authoritative source establishes what Redford laterals are generally made of.
A sewer camera inspection records what is actually there: roots, cracks, displaced joints, bellies or blockages where they exist, and a clear run where they do not. On a seventy-year-old house connected to a combined system, that is information worth having before you own the problem. It is added to the same visit.
If it happens
Redford sets this out more fully than most, and the detail matters because the deadline is short and the test is strict.
Any resident experiencing an overflow or backup of a sewage disposal or storm water system should contact the Water Department immediately on discovery — or, in the Township’s words, when in the exercise of reasonable diligence they should have discovered it. Outside normal business hours the Police Department will reach the Water Department foreman. A written claim must then be filed with the Water Department within 45 days of discovery, and the Township warns that failure to provide the required notice will limit your rights under the law. Claim forms are available from the Water Department.
Note where that goes. Communities across this region route the same statutory claim to different offices — a city attorney in one, a finance department in another, a county water resources commissioner in a third. In Redford it is the Water Department. Check where the specific municipality wants it rather than assuming, because sending it to the wrong office is an avoidable way to lose a claim. We are relaying what the Township publishes rather than advising on it.
What an inspection contributes before any of that arises is the condition of the things that govern how water behaves around a house: accessible grading, gutters and downspouts and where they discharge, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace, and sump equipment where it is present. In a township of 1950s basements on a combined system, those are not afterthoughts.
What the Township does and does not check
We found no residential point-of-sale requirement in Redford. Confirm the position for a specific address with the Department of Building and Safety Engineering, but do not build a timeline around a municipal inspection of the house that may not exist.
What the Township does run is rental property registration, with an annual registration and an inspection on a three-year cycle. If you are buying a let property or buying from a landlord, that registration and its inspection history are part of the picture and worth checking.
For an owner-occupier, the inspection you commission is the only one examining 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.
Permit history is worth a look alongside it, with the usual caution: a permit does not establish that work is in good condition today, and nothing on file does not establish that work was done badly.
Seventy years on
A 57% concentration in a single decade is remarkable even in a region full of postwar suburbs, and it changes how to read a listing here.
A house built in the mid-1950s is now around seventy years old. Roof coverings, furnaces, air conditioning, water heaters and windows all have service lives far shorter than that, so each has been replaced at least once or is running well past its design life — and the electrical service and supply plumbing have had seventy years of opportunity to be extended, altered or partly renewed.
None of that is knowable from the build year, and we will not guess at it. Some Redford houses have been comprehensively updated; others have original components still in service. Telling them apart requires looking at the house in front of you, which is what an inspection is.
With around 92% of the housing single-family detached, that is what almost every buyer here is purchasing: a whole building and everything in it, with no association to share responsibility for the roof or the envelope. Alongside the standard inspection, 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 the same visit.
Local information from Charter Township of Redford — Water & Sewer · Charter Township of Redford — departments · Charter Township of Redford — rental property registration. 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 on the state’s map Redford sits well away from the worst of it, and we are not going to dress that up into something it is not. 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. 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 · 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 Redford 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
Yes, and the Township quantifies them. Its Water and Sewer Department maintains roughly 1,020,000 feet of water mains and 850,000 feet of sewer lines along with one combined sewer overflow basin and nine combined sewer overflows, and it publishes a CSO public notification plan linked to state reporting of uncontrolled discharges. A combined sewer carries storm water and sanitary flow in the same pipe rather than in two separate systems, which is a normal arrangement in communities built when this one was and is directly relevant to basements, because rainfall and household waste share the same capacity.
You are, and the Township is explicit about the consequence. It states that for a claim to be viable the source of the problem must be the municipal sewer, and that problems caused by your property’s plumbing or in your sewer lead are your responsibility. So a failure in your own line is not only yours to repair, it is not claimable against the Township. That is a sound reason to establish its condition before you buy rather than after.
Contact the Water Department immediately on discovery — or, as the Township puts it, when in the exercise of reasonable diligence you should have discovered it. Outside business hours the Police Department will reach the Water Department foreman. You should then file a written claim with the Water Department within 45 days of discovery, and the Township warns that failing to provide the required notice will limit your rights under the law; claim forms are available from the Water Department. Worth knowing that neighboring communities route the same statutory claim to different offices, so check where each one wants it. We are relaying published information, not giving legal advice.
The case here is stronger than in most places, for two reasons the Township itself supplies. The public system includes nine combined sewer overflows and a CSO basin, so storm and sanitary flow share capacity. And your own line is entirely your responsibility, with the Township stating that problems in your sewer lead are not claimable. On a house built around 1955 that line has been in the ground roughly seventy years. It is buried, no visual inspection can see inside it, and we would 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.
Strikingly uniform. About 57% of the roughly 19,557 housing units were built in the 1950s alone, with a median build year of 1955, and around 92% are single-family detached. We have not found another community of its size in this region that is both that concentrated in one decade and that overwhelmingly made up of houses. The practical consequence is that the build year distinguishes almost nothing between one property and another — seventy years of individual maintenance decisions do that instead, and only an inspection of the actual house establishes which.
We found no residential point-of-sale requirement. The Township does operate rental property registration, with an annual registration and an inspection on a three-year cycle, so that matters if you are buying a let property or buying from a landlord. Confirm the position for a specific address with the Department of Building and Safety Engineering, and in the meantime plan on your own inspection being the one examining the house on your behalf.
Yes. You can book a Redford home inspector with us seven days a week, and we cover the rest of Wayne 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.
Police, fire, rescue, military and educators — our way of saying thank you for your service. Enter code HERO at checkout.
Claim the Hero DiscountNeed a Redford home inspector and not sure we reach you? Call 734-331-3269 and we will tell you.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
July 2, 2020
Your local Redford home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
