Home Inspector in Royal Oak, MI

Royal Oak is the oldest housing stock I regularly inspect, and it demands a completely different approach than a 2005 subdivision. The core of this city is 1920s through 1940s bungalows, Tudors, and small colonials on narrow lots, many within walking distance of downtown. These are charming, well-built homes. They are also nearly a century old, and everything mechanical in them has been replaced, modified, or is overdue.

Electrical is the headline. In homes from this era I look for active knob-and-tube wiring, cloth-insulated conductors that are brittle at the terminations, fuse panels still in service, and — most often — a modern panel that was installed without replacing the branch wiring behind it. A new panel on old wiring looks like an upgrade and frequently isn't one. I document exactly what was updated and what was left alone.

Then there's the sewer lateral, and in Royal Oak I strongly recommend a sewer scope. Original clay tile laterals, ninety years of mature tree roots, and a street grid full of large canopy trees is the worst possible combination. This is a repair that routinely runs four to five figures and it is completely invisible during a standard inspection. Add to that the volume of flips in this city — cosmetically beautiful, occasionally hiding rushed mechanical work — and the case for a thorough inspection here is as strong as anywhere I work.

Pre-1940 bungalows, Craftsman homes, and Colonial Revivals (about 17%)

The oldest streets fan out from downtown, from the modest bungalow blocks to the larger homes on Vinsetta Boulevard. Beyond the wiring and laterals I already described, homes from this era commonly have galvanized supply lines reduced to a pencil-width opening, a steam or hot-water boiler that may have been converted to forced air with undersized ducts snaked through closets, original wood windows with broken sash cords, and asbestos in pipe wrap, floor tile, and siding. Additions are the other story. On a 6,500-square-foot lot the only way to grow was up or back, and the seam where a 1990s dormer meets 1925 balloon framing is where I find roof leaks, fire-blocking gaps, and the bath fan that vents into the attic.

1940s and 1950s brick ranches and Cape Cods — the largest group

Nearly 29 percent of Royal Oak was built in the 1950s and another 15 percent in the 1940s, so the postwar brick ranch or Cape Cod, not the bungalow, is actually the most common house in the city. These are solid houses with a predictable list. Homes from this era commonly have a 60-amp fuse panel or an early breaker panel that has been fed additional circuits for decades, galvanized water lines at end of life, a clay lateral, a block foundation with a floor drain tied to the combined sewer, and asbestos on the original duct joints. I pull the panel cover, test every accessible receptacle for grounding, look at the water meter side of the supply for the material change, and pay particular attention to the basement floor drain, because in a combined-sewer city that drain is where the street ends up during a big storm.

1960s and 1970s infill (about 22%)

Royal Oak was mostly built out by 1960, so the 13 percent from the 1960s and 9 percent from the 1970s tend to be infill on the last open parcels and the northern edge toward Troy and Clawson. Homes built from about 1965 through 1973 commonly have aluminum branch-circuit wiring, and Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels turn up through the whole period. I check devices for aluminum conductors and look for the purple-labeled connectors or the pigtails that indicate someone addressed it. These homes usually still have their original cast-iron drain stacks, and cast iron from the 1960s is now at the age where the horizontal runs under the basement slab scale up and crack. That is another reason the sewer scope earns its keep on anything in this city built before 1980.

Teardown rebuilds, downtown condos, and lofts (about 10% since 2000)

The newest housing in Royal Oak is two very different things. On the bungalow streets, a small house comes down and a 3,000-square-foot new build goes up on the same narrow lot, often reusing the original water service and sewer lateral to the street. I verify whether the service line and lateral were replaced with the house, because a 2022 home connected to a 1925 lead service line is more common than buyers expect, and I check the grading against the neighbors, who are now looking uphill at a new foundation. Downtown, condominiums and lofts like Main North, SkyLofts, and the Harrison townhomes bring a different scope: I inspect inside your unit and flag the building envelope, roof, and shared mechanicals that reach you through the association, starting at $375.

Oakland County is EPA Radon Zone 2 and roughly 30 percent of tested homes in the county come back above 4.0 pCi/L, per EGLE. Old basements with block walls, floor drains, and stone or dirt-floored corners under the front porch are the kind of construction that lets soil gas in, so I would not assume a Royal Oak bungalow is low just because it is small. Testing is the only way to know, and a 48-hour continuous-monitor test in the lowest livable level runs during your inspection window for $175. If the result is high, mitigation is a standard fix and a normal negotiation item.