Rockwood, Michigan
Looking for a Rockwood home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Rockwood, 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 Rockwood 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 Rockwood 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 Rockwood 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 reportRockwood housing stock
Rockwood has roughly 1,336 housing units and about 75% 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 1960s, which accounts for 354 homes, around 26% of the housing stock.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $179,800.
Treat this as a starting list, not a diagnosis. A Rockwood 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 Rockwood was built
86% of homes here run on utility gas. Another 30 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Rockwood runs three separate municipal inspection requirements at the same time, which is an unusually dense set of requirements for a city this size.
The building department states that it is now carrying out resale inspections and vacant property registrations for all residential properties. Separately, a rental ordinance approved in June 2025 requires landlords to register with the city and prohibits occupancy without a certificate of compliance issued by the city.
So depending on what you are buying and what you intend to do with it, a property here may pass through a resale inspection, a vacant property registration and a rental certificate process. Each has its own paperwork, and the City publishes all of it.
One published form deserves particular attention. Among the City’s documents is an inspection request and buyer’s affidavit to assume violations. Forms of that kind allow a sale to close with outstanding items by having the buyer take responsibility for them, rather than requiring the seller to clear everything first. It is a normal and useful mechanism — and it is also a document you should read carefully and take your own advice on, because signing it means the list becomes yours.
Which is precisely why an independent inspection matters here. The City’s list is a list of code violations. Ours is an assessment of the building’s actual condition, and the two are not the same thing.
Before you buy
The affidavit
The City’s permits, applications and forms page lists an inspection request and buyer’s affidavit to assume violations among its documents, alongside an application for a rental certificate, a vacant property registration form and a practical guide for tenants and landlords.
We have not opened the affidavit and will not describe its terms. What we can say is what such an instrument does in general: where a municipal inspection has produced a list of items, an affidavit of this kind lets a transaction proceed with the buyer accepting responsibility for putting them right, instead of the sale waiting on the seller.
That is genuinely useful. It keeps deals alive on older houses where a full clearance before closing would be impractical. But it does transfer an obligation, and it is worth reading in full and taking your own advice on before you sign anything.
It also changes what you want from an inspection. If there is a possibility that you will accept a list of violations, the questions become sharper: what is actually behind each item, how much of it is cosmetic and how much structural, what has been deferred for years, and what is not on the City’s list at all because a code inspection was never looking for it.
A buyer’s inspection covers the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior, and reports the condition and apparent function of each. We are not a code inspection and we issue no citations. What we produce is the picture you need in order to decide whether taking on somebody else’s list is a reasonable thing to do.
Three regimes
The three requirements catch different situations, and it is worth knowing which one your purchase falls into before you are under contract.
The resale inspection applies on a sale. The City states it is doing these for all residential properties, so it should be assumed rather than hoped around, and it has a lead time like any other municipal process.
Vacant property registration applies where a property has been standing empty. On a foreclosed or long-listed house that is an additional step, and it is worth asking whether the previous owner completed it.
The rental certificate of compliance applies if you intend to let. Under the ordinance approved in June 2025, landlords must register with the city and occupancy is prohibited without a certificate. The City has since published amendments dealing with fees, penalties for non-compliance and the registration itself, so the current requirements are worth confirming directly rather than relying on any summary — including ours.
For a small multi-unit building bought as an investment, our commercial building inspections follow the CCPIA standard and cover multifamily, office, retail and warehouse property. On a single rented house, a standard inspection is the right scope, and either way it is separate from whatever the City requires.
Permits
Rockwood does something we have not seen anywhere else: it inspects in the evening. Building, zoning, plumbing and mechanical inspections run on Monday and Wednesday from half past four until seven, with electrical inspections on Wednesday evenings. For a working owner that is genuinely convenient.
The counter side is tighter. The building department stops issuing permits at half past three each day, is available in person on Mondays and Wednesdays between eight and four, and City Hall is closed on Fridays. It remains reachable by email during the week.
The permit list is broad and includes a few items that catch people out. Alongside new construction, repairs and alterations, additions, swimming pools and the trades, the City issues permits for sewer work, and zoning permits for sheds, fences and concrete — with separate published applications for each.
Concrete is the one worth flagging when you are buying. A driveway, walk or patio poured or replaced since the build changes how surface water moves around a foundation, and it is one of the commonest reasons water arrives at a basement wall on housing of this age. Where that work was permitted, there is a dated record of it.
The department also handles signage, zoning board of appeals, planning commission and site plan paperwork, and publishes a building code variance application and a contractor’s registration form.
A 1960s city
The largest block of housing here is the 354 units built in the 1960s, with 243 from the 1990s, 219 from the 1970s and 216 from the 1950s.
On the 1950s and 1960s stock the electrical service was sized for a fraction of today’s demand. Most have had an upgrade, though upgrades range from a genuine rewire to a new panel with original distribution behind it, and circuits added in stages by different hands are common. Since electrical inspections here have their own separate evening, the electrical record is a distinct file worth requesting.
Plumbing has usually been renewed in part rather than in whole, leaving material transitions worth examining. Roofs are on their third or fourth covering. Windows have generally been replaced once, sometimes with more attention to the unit than to what happens at the opening. Heating equipment has turned over two or three times, and venting arrangements do not always keep pace with a newer appliance.
Insulation and ventilation reflect the standards of the day, which on a 1960s house usually means a worthwhile improvement is available in the attic.
And sixty years of freeze and thaw leave a readable 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. We describe what the building actually shows about water that has been there before rather than predicting what a particular storm will do.
Radon testing and mold inspection and testing can be added to any visit, and the latter is worth considering where a lower level shows a history of moisture.
Water and drainage
The City’s public services department publishes its water and sewer rates per thousand gallons and its consumer confidence reports, and links stormwater information alongside the Downriver watershed alliance.
It also links a federal flood map directly from its building page, which for a Downriver city is a sensible thing to put in front of residents. We do not determine flood zone status or read flood maps — that is a lender, surveyor and federal agency matter — but the City has made the lookup easy to find.
Wayne County runs a twenty-four hour environmental hotline for pollution and illicit discharge complaints, with investigation services that include site visits, water quality sampling where appropriate, and follow-up leading to the elimination of verified illicit discharges. An illicit discharge is anything entering the storm system that is not stormwater.
The household version of that question is about connections: where a sump discharge, a downspout or a floor drain actually goes. On a 1960s house those arrangements were often made long after the building, by people solving one problem at a time.
On an inspection we trace sump and downspout discharges as far as they can be followed and report where they appear to go. Where a discharge disappears into a buried pipe we say so rather than guessing at its destination, because a confident guess in a report is worse than an honest uncertainty.
The buried line
The City issues permits for sewer work, which is a reminder that the line running out of a building is a distinct piece of work with its own paperwork — and that it belongs to the property owner.
On a 1960s house that pipe has been in the ground sixty years, under a lot that has had exactly that long to grow trees over it. On one of the 127 units predating 1940, longer still. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Rockwood laterals are generally made of, and a guess in a report is worse than no statement at all.
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. It is added to the same appointment rather than booked separately.
On a property where an affidavit assuming violations may be in play, that matters more than usual. A code inspection is not looking inside a buried pipe, so a clear municipal list tells you nothing about the lateral — and the lateral is one of the more consequential things a buyer can inherit unknowingly.
You can read what our clients say, look through answers to common questions, or get in touch about a specific address in Rockwood.
Local information from City of Rockwood — Building and Safety, resale inspections, vacant property and the rental ordinance · City of Rockwood — permits, applications and forms · City of Rockwood — Public Services, water and sewer rates and stormwater. 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 Rockwood 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 Rockwood 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
The building department states that it is now doing resale inspections and vacant property registrations for all residential properties. Both have a lead time like any municipal process, so they are worth starting early rather than late in a transaction.
The City publishes a form by that name alongside its other documents. Instruments of this kind allow a sale to close with outstanding items by having the buyer accept responsibility for putting them right, rather than the sale waiting on the seller. We have not opened the form and will not describe its terms — read it in full and take your own advice before signing.
Because the two answer different questions. A municipal inspection produces a list of code violations. Ours reports the condition and apparent function of the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior — including things a code inspection was never looking for, and things no visual inspection of either kind can reach.
A rental ordinance approved in June 2025 requires landlords to register their properties with the city and prohibits occupancy without a certificate of compliance issued by the city. The City has published subsequent amendments covering fees, penalties for non-compliance and the registration itself, so confirm the current requirements directly.
In the evening, which is unusual and convenient. Building, zoning, plumbing and mechanical inspections run Monday and Wednesday from half past four until seven, with electrical inspections on Wednesday evenings. Note that the department stops issuing permits at half past three each day and City Hall is closed on Fridays.
Yes. The City issues zoning permits for sheds, fences and concrete, with separate published applications for each, as well as permits for pools and sewer work. Concrete is worth noting when buying: replacement flatwork changes how water moves around a foundation, and a permitted job leaves a dated record.
Mostly mid-century. The largest single block is the 354 units built in the 1960s, with 243 from the 1990s, 219 from the 1970s and 216 from the 1950s, and 127 units predating 1940.
Yes, and particularly where a violations affidavit may be involved. A code inspection does not look inside a buried pipe, so a clear municipal list tells you nothing about the lateral. On a 1960s house it has been in the ground sixty years under mature trees. A camera inspection documents its actual condition and is added to the same visit.
More on cost, timing and what is included on the FAQ page.
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Permits, assessing and property records for Rockwood are handled by the City of Rockwood, not by us.
From the blog
October 22, 2017
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