Home Inspector in Washington Township, MI

Washington Township sits at the transition between suburban Macomb County and open country, and the housing reflects that. You'll find larger lots, custom and semi-custom builds, and a meaningful number of older farmhouse and rural properties mixed among newer estate subdivisions. The lot sizes alone change the inspection — more property means more exterior, more outbuildings, and more drainage to evaluate.

The rural character introduces systems you won't find in a dense subdivision. Some properties in this township are on or were historically on well and septic. If a home has a private well or a septic field, those are specialty evaluations outside a standard home inspection, and I'll tell you plainly what's included and what needs a separate specialist. I would rather set that expectation on the phone than surprise you in the report.

Older farmhouse properties in the township are a category of their own: balloon framing without fire blocking, additions built across multiple decades with mismatched framing and wiring, knob-and-tube remnants in the oldest homes, and stone or block foundations that need to be assessed on their own terms rather than against modern poured-wall standards. These homes can be excellent buys. They just require an inspector who won't panic at the sight of them.

Pre-1970 farmhouses, village homes, and early ranches

The old Washington village center west of M-53, the Mount Vernon and Clifton Mills areas, and scattered farm parcels hold the township’s oldest housing. Homes from this era commonly have balloon framing, additions from several decades, cloth-insulated or knob-and-tube remnants, galvanized supply lines at the end of their life, and stone or block foundations. I trace the electrical from the service to the farthest outlet I can reach, open the panel, and photograph every foundation wall inside and out. I also look hard at where each addition meets the original structure, because that seam is where roofing, flashing, framing, and wiring from different eras were asked to get along.

1970s–1980s ranches and colonials on the first subdivision lots

The first real subdivision push came off 26 Mile and Van Dyke. Homes from the late 1970s into the 1980s can carry polybutylene supply piping (gray plastic, 1978–1995), Federal Pacific or Zinsco panels, original single-pane aluminum windows, and roofs and furnaces that are on their second or third replacement. I check the panel brand and breaker condition, identify the supply piping material at the water heater and under sinks, and look for the moisture staining that failing windows and flashing leave behind. These are usually solid houses. The question is what has been replaced and what is still original.

1990s–2000s golf-course and estate subdivisions

Housing units in the township jumped 62 percent during the 1990s, and this is the era most buyers here are shopping. Glacier Club, The Orchards, Copperwood Commons, and Autumn Creek are typical: big two-story homes, walkout or daylight basements on the rolling ground near Stony Creek, multi-zone HVAC, complex roof lines with lots of valleys, and builder-grade windows now 25 to 35 years old. Roofs from the 1990s are at or past replacement age. I fly the roof with the drone, walk every valley and penetration I can safely reach, run the thermal camera across the ceilings below, and check the sump pit and footing-drain discharge, because a walkout on clay soil lives or dies by drainage.

New construction, 2015 to today

Powell Ridge, White Oaks, and the Lombardo and Pulte projects are still selling, and new does not mean finished. Homes from this era commonly show grading that slopes toward the foundation, missing kick-out flashing, high-efficiency furnace condensate and venting mistakes, attic insulation gaps around can lights and bath fans, and punch-list items the builder never closed. I inspect new builds the way I inspected aircraft coming out of maintenance: the paperwork says it was done, so I go verify it. A pre-drywall inspection while the framing and rough-ins are open, and an 11-month inspection before the builder warranty expires, are the two best-value inspections a new-construction buyer can order.

Macomb County sits in EPA Radon Zone 3, the lowest-potential category, and the county health department estimates roughly 5 to 10 percent of homes test above the EPA action level of 4.0 pCi/L; EGLE’s test-result map puts Macomb at about 11 percent. Those are county averages, not predictions for one house. Radon comes up through the soil, and a walkout basement on rolling ground can read very differently from the ranch two streets over. A 48-hour continuous-monitor test placed in the lowest livable level answers the question for $175, and it fits inside your inspection contingency window.