Home Inspector in Harrison Township, MI

Harrison Township is a waterfront community first and a suburb second. The canals off Lake St. Clair, the Clinton River outlet, and the shoreline around Selfridge define most of what I inspect here, and they create a set of conditions you will not find in an inland Macomb County subdivision.

Start with elevation. Portions of this township sit in mapped FEMA flood zones, which affects insurance, financing, and what any future improvement to the property is allowed to look like. I am not a floodplain surveyor and I will not pretend to be one, but I will tell you when a property's location and elevation make an elevation certificate something you need to resolve before your financing contingency expires rather than after.

The housing itself runs from converted seasonal cottages to newer builds on the same canals. The conversions are where the findings cluster: shallow or undersized foundations, crawlspaces that were never meant to be conditioned, insulation added over the years without an air barrier, and heating systems extended into space they weren't sized for. I inspect what the structure actually is now, not what it was built as.

Pre-1970 canal ranches and lake cottages

About a quarter of the township’s housing went up between 1940 and 1969, much of it on the canals in Lakeside, Saint Clair Haven, and Belvidere Bay. Homes from this era commonly sit on slabs or shallow crawlspaces rather than full basements, because a full basement next to Lake St. Clair fills with water. That changes my inspection. I check the slab for heaving and cracking at the exterior walls, look at how the plumbing was run through or under it, and in the crawlspaces I look at vapor barriers, standing water, joist ends, and any heat duct that has been sitting in damp air for decades. Galvanized supply lines, 60-amp services, and clay laterals are still in service in some of these houses, usually behind a kitchen redone in 2015.

1970s–1990s ranches and colonials inland from Jefferson

More than half the housing here was built between 1970 and 1999, most of it on the inland side toward Metropolitan Parkway and I-94 in places like Maple Forest, Chartier Acres, and Bay Hill. Homes from the early part of that window can have aluminum branch-circuit wiring, which I confirm at the panel and at a sample of devices. Homes from 1978 to 1995 can carry polybutylene supply piping, and Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels turn up across the whole period. Original windows and first-generation central air are usually gone by now. What I am checking is whether the replacements were done right, and whether the roof was stripped or layered.

Marina and waterfront condominiums

Belle Maer Harbor, Sea Watch, Captains Quarters, and Brigantine Estates are condominium and marina communities, and a large share of the township’s households live in attached or multi-unit buildings. A condo inspection covers what you own: the unit’s electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, windows, doors, and finishes, plus what I can see of the common structure from your unit, the attic access, and the exterior. I photograph the shared elements anyway, because a failing seawall or a tired roof shows up in your assessment even if it is not on your deed. Ask the association for the reserve study and the latest seawall and dock evaluations.

Custom lakefront rebuilds, 2000 to today

About one home in six here was built after 2000, and on the water many of those are teardown replacements on original cottage lots. Homes from this era commonly have complex roof lines facing open lake wind, elevated first floors above the flood elevation, multiple HVAC zones, PEX supply lines, and high-efficiency furnaces with condensate and venting details that were often improvised. On a new lakefront build I fly the roof, run the thermal camera across the lake-facing walls, check the hoist and dock electrical for GFCI protection and proper shore-power wiring, and confirm the sump can discharge when the lake is high. New construction on this shoreline earns a pre-drywall inspection as much as any subdivision house does.

Macomb County is EPA Radon Zone 3, the lowest-potential category, and EGLE’s county map shows about 11 percent of Macomb tests at or above the 4.0 pCi/L action level, with the county health department estimating 5 to 10 percent of homes. Slab and crawlspace houses near the lake are not immune; radon moves with soil gas, and a crawlspace with a bare dirt floor is a direct path into the living space. If the house has a basement or a crawlspace you will finish or use, a 48-hour continuous-monitor test for $175 during the inspection window is the only way to know.