Trenton, Michigan
Looking for a Trenton home inspector? We do certified home, commercial, mold and radon inspections in Trenton, 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 Trenton 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 Trenton 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 Trenton 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 reportTrenton housing stock
Trenton has roughly 8,423 housing units and about 70% of them are single-family detached. Housing that went up mostly in one era has mostly one era’s problems — which is genuinely useful to know before you buy, because it tells you what to look at first.
Most of it went up in the 1950s — 3,012 homes, around 36% of the town.
The median owner-occupied home here is valued at $188,100.
None of this is a prediction about a particular house. It is where a Trenton home inspector starts looking in a home of this age, and what we photograph and write up either way.
Housing figures: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 five-year estimates.
When Trenton was built
91% of homes here run on utility gas, and 10 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 61 use bottled or LP gas.
Local knowledge
Trenton requires an inspection before a house is sold — and it calls that inspection a home inspection, which causes more confusion here than in any other city we write about.
The City’s requirement is straightforward enough: a home inspection is required prior to the sale of the home, and it can be scheduled by the seller or by the realtor or agent acting for the owner. What is not obvious from that wording is that the City means its own municipal inspection, carried out by the Building Department against the City’s codes. It is not the private inspection a buyer commissions, and one does not do the work of the other.
The housing makes the distinction matter. Of roughly 8,423 units, about 36% date from the 1950s, 19% from the 1960s and 16% from the 1970s, with a median build year of 1960 and around 70% single-family detached. Most properties are sixty to seventy years old, which is when condition questions start costing real money.
Before you buy
Two inspections, one confusing name
This page exists partly to untangle a wording problem, because getting it wrong costs buyers money.
The City’s sale of home requirement states that a home inspection is required prior to the sale of the home, and that inspections can be scheduled by the seller or by the realtor or agent of the owner. The application is submitted to the Building Department with payment, by post or through the drop box at City Hall, and the department then calls to schedule.
What that produces is a municipal inspection against the City’s codes, arranged by and for the seller, so that the property can transfer. It is a compliance check. It is not a report written for the buyer about the condition of the building, and nothing about it is commissioned by you or owes you anything.
A buyer’s inspection is the other thing entirely: independent, paid for by you, and covering the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and the accessible interior — what is failing, what is near the end of its service life, and what to plan for. On a house from 1960 that is the document that shapes your first few years of ownership. Both happen before the same closing, and neither does the other’s job.
Empty houses and water
Trenton publishes a couple of things that are easy to miss and useful to know.
The first is a vacant property ordinance with its own registration form. If the house you are considering has been standing empty — a probate sale, a relocation, something that has sat — it is worth asking the Building Department and your title company where that stands before you close rather than after.
The second is flood insurance rate maps, which the City publishes alongside its building department information. Whether a particular property sits in a mapped flood area is a question for those maps and your insurer, not for a home inspection, and we would not suggest otherwise. It is worth checking early.
The City also runs a cross-connection control program and operates its own waste water treatment plant. What we assess is how the property itself handles water: accessible grading, gutters and downspouts and where they discharge, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace and sump equipment where present, documented as found.
Sixty years on
With about 36% of the city built in the 1950s and a median build year of 1960, most properties here are between sixty and seventy-five 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 past its design life — and the electrical service and supply plumbing have had six decades to be extended, altered or partly renewed.
We will not guess which. Two houses of the same age on the same street can be entirely different by now, and the only way to tell them apart is to look. The permit record is worth checking alongside — the department issues permits for new construction, repairs and alterations, additions, signs, swimming pools, and electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning and sewer work — with the usual caution that a permit does not establish that work is in good condition today, and nothing on file does not establish that it was done badly.
The buried line
Whatever the City looks at during its sale inspection, it does not see inside the buried lateral running from the house to the public system. Nothing visual does.
On a house from around 1960 that line has been in the ground sixty years or more — ample time for tree roots to find a joint, for ground movement to displace a section, or for repairs to have been made that nobody now remembers. We will not name a material from a build year, because no authoritative source establishes what Trenton 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. 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 Trenton — sale of home, inspection upon transfer · City of Trenton — Building Department · City of Trenton — permits. 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 Trenton is not where Michigan’s alarming radon numbers are, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. 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. A zone is a prediction of an average, and nobody lives in an average.
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 Trenton 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. The City states that a home inspection is required prior to the sale of the home, and that inspections can be scheduled by the seller or by the realtor or agent of the owner. An application goes to the Building Department with payment, by post or through the drop box at City Hall, and the department calls to arrange a time. Build it into the timeline early rather than in the closing weeks.
No, and the wording causes real confusion here. When Trenton says a home inspection is required before a sale, it means its own municipal inspection, carried out by the Building Department against the City’s codes and arranged by the seller so the property can transfer. It is a compliance check. A buyer’s inspection is independent, commissioned and paid for by you, and reports the condition of the roof, structure, foundation, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and accessible interior. Neither does the other’s job, and both happen before the same closing.
Ask about the vacant property ordinance. The City runs one with its own registration form, so a house that has been unoccupied — a probate sale, a relocation, something long on the market — may have an obligation attached. Your title company and the Building Department are the people to confirm the position with. A home inspection cannot tell you registration status; what it does tell you is the condition of a property that may have been unheated or unused for a while.
Mostly postwar. Of roughly 8,423 housing units, about 36% date from the 1950s, 19% from the 1960s and 16% from the 1970s, with a median build year of 1960 and around 70% single-family detached. Most properties are therefore sixty to seventy-five years old, which is well past the expected service life of an original roof covering, furnace, air conditioning condenser and water heater. Which of those have been renewed is what an inspection establishes.
That is a question for the flood insurance rate maps the City publishes and for your insurer, not for a home inspection, and we would not suggest otherwise. It is worth checking early rather than late. What an inspection does cover is how the property itself handles water: accessible grading, gutters and downspouts and where they discharge, foundation conditions, the basement or crawlspace and any sump equipment.
It is worth considering. Whatever the City examines during its sale inspection, no visual inspection of any kind sees inside the buried lateral running from the house to the public system. On a house from around 1960 that line has been in the ground sixty years or more, and we would not guess a material from a build year — no authoritative source establishes what Trenton 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.
Yes. You can book a Trenton 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.
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From the blog
October 22, 2017
May 18, 2024
July 2, 2020
Your local Trenton home inspector, seven days a week. Home inspection reports in 24 hours.
