Home Inspector in Bay City, MI

Walk down Center Avenue and you are looking at what the sawmill money built. Those big Victorians are a big reason people move to Bay City, and they come with their own set of inspection points.

• Balloon framing with open wall cavities from basement to attic
• Stone and brick foundations repointed more than once
• Slate, or old roofing layered over old roofing
• Radiators and boilers that have been converted, maybe twice

We know where to look in a house like that, and we put it in plain words.

The Saginaw River splits Bay City, and the housing changes once you cross the Veterans Memorial Bridge. The east side has more of the old mansions and tight downtown lots. The west side, around Midland Street, leans toward modest frame houses and brick worker cottages.

A home inspector in Bay City should treat them differently. On the west side we spend more time on small additions, low crawlspaces and older electrical service.

This is low, flat ground close to Saginaw Bay, and the water table shows it. Damp basements and crawlspaces are common, especially out toward Bangor and Hampton townships.

Where moisture has been sitting, we can check for mold on the same trip and tell you whether you are looking at surface staining or something bigger.

Once you get past the city sewer lines into Kawkawlin, Monitor or Williams townships, a lot of homes run on private septic. A proper septic inspection tells you how the tank and drain field are holding up before you inherit them. Replacement is not cheap, so this one is worth doing.

Inside the city, the risk sits underground in a different way. Old clay and cast iron pipe, tree roots from mature boulevard maples, settled joints. A sewer scope inspection puts a camera in the line so you can see the condition instead of guessing.

We recommend it on most homes built before the 1970s.

Wind off the bay finds every gap. Our thermal camera shows where insulation is missing, where air leaks around old windows and where moisture is sitting inside a wall. It is included on every inspection, so you are not asked to choose between saving money and seeing the whole picture.

We inspect rentals, duplexes and small apartment buildings for investors, plus storefronts and mixed-use buildings along Midland Street and downtown Washington Avenue through our commercial inspection service. On new builds, we handle construction draw inspections for lenders as the work progresses.

You will probably deal with Chad Fisher directly. He grew up around construction, with a grandfather who built custom homes for more than 65 years, and he explains findings the way a builder would. If something in the report is unclear, call. When you hire a home inspector in Bay City, the conversation should not end when the PDF arrives. If a pipe is still a question after closing, the camera scope can be booked on its own.