Home inspections in Sanilac County, from Marlette to Port Sanilac
We inspect across all of Sanilac County from our Grand Blanc office: Sandusky, Marlette, Croswell, Lexington, Port Sanilac, Brown City, Deckerville, Carsonville, Peck and the townships. Sanilac is farm country with a Lake Huron shoreline: nearly every home is on a private well and septic system, almost 1 in 10 is a manufactured home, and the lake towns are full of cottages that became year-round homes. So the add-ons that matter here are the well and septic package with the FHA or VA water test, a mold inspection for shoreline crawlspaces and farmhouse basements, lead and asbestos testing for the century farmhouses, and a radon test.
Every inspection is done by a certified inspector, comes with thermal imaging and a drone view of the roof when the weather allows, and the digital report is in your inbox the same day. A home inspection starts at $425; the final price depends on the size and age of the home, which is why the instant quote asks for the address.
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of Sanilac County homes were built before 1980, when lead paint and asbestos siding, flooring and insulation were still in use. We test for both.
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of Sanilac County homes date from before 1950: fieldstone basements, knob-and-tube wiring and clay sewer lines. Sewer scope and lead test recommended.
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of Sanilac County homes are manufactured homes, which need their piers, tie-downs, skirting and underbelly inspected. Our crawlspace robot goes under the home where an inspector cannot.
What buyers run into in Sanilac County
Wells and septic on almost every property
Outside Sandusky, Marlette, Croswell and the villages, nearly every home in the county is on a private well and septic system, often on acreage, and a failed drain field is the most expensive surprise a rural buyer can get. There is no county-wide time-of-sale rule for wells and septic in Sanilac County; a few townships and most lenders have their own requirements, so give us the address and we will tell you what applies. The well and septic package starts at $500, or the well alone from $275 and the septic alone from $300. VA loans require a water test on any private well and FHA lenders ask for one in most cases. We pull the sample, send it to a certified lab and deliver the results in the format the lender wants, usually in 2 to 7 business days. The water test starts at $175 and covers coliform bacteria, nitrates, nitrites, lead, arsenic and more.
Farmhouses, manufactured homes and outbuildings
The median Sanilac County home was built in 1971, 63% of the county's 21,756 housing units went up before 1980, 28% date from before 1950 and 9.5% are manufactured homes (Census American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024). Lead paint was legal until 1978 and asbestos was still common in flooring, siding, insulation and ceiling texture into the 1980s, so anything of that age gets a lead test (from $100) and, if you plan to pull up floors or siding, asbestos sampling: flooring installers, including Home Depot's, will not pull up pre-1980 vinyl or linoleum without an asbestos test (Home Depot's own installation guidance says so), so we sample flooring, siding and insulation and send it to an accredited lab. Manufactured homes need their piers, tie-downs, skirting and underbelly checked, which we do regularly, and rural listings come with pole barns and shops the home inspection standard does not cover; tell us at booking and we will price them with the inspection.
Lake Huron cottages, crawlspaces and mold
Lexington, Port Sanilac, Forestville and the shoreline townships are full of cottages that became year-round homes one addition at a time, with crawlspaces, bluffs and seawalls that see a lot of water, and the farmhouses inland have fieldstone basements that were never meant to be dry. That is where we find mold. Thermal imaging and moisture readings are part of every home inspection, and where a crawlspace is too tight or too wet to enter we send in our crawlspace robot (an Uplink Robotics inspection crawler; the maker says only 22 have been sold in Michigan, and three of them are ours) so it gets photographed instead of skipped. Our mold inspection (from $275) is done by an IAC2-certified inspector: thermal imaging and moisture meters to find the source, spore-trap air samples and surface samples, and accredited lab results that name the species. The EPA's rule of thumb is that anything that stays wet longer than 24 to 48 hours will usually grow mold, and a finished basement hides exactly that.
Radon
Michigan EGLE (the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy) says about 1 in 4 homes in Michigan tests above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L. Sanilac County has fewer reported tests than any county we serve: 13% of the 212 tests on EGLE's radon map came back above that level (27 of 212), so the county figure is a rough one and the only way to know a house is to test it. A 48-hour radon test starts at $200 and runs during the inspection.
Services and starting prices in Sanilac County
Prices are starting points. Add-on services (radon, well and septic, water, mold, sewer scope, termite, lead, pool and spa) are priced as shown when added to a home inspection; booked on their own they are quoted separately. Asbestos sampling starts at $300 with or without a home inspection. The final price depends on the size and age of the home, and the instant quote gives you a firm number before you book. Commercial building inspections are quoted by the building.
- Home inspection, starting at $425
- Radon testing, starting at $200 when added to a home inspection
- Well and septic inspection package, starting at $500 (well alone from $275, septic alone from $300) when added to a home inspection
- Water testing, starting at $175 when added to a home inspection
- Sewer scope, starting at $150 when added to a home inspection
- Mold testing, starting at $275 when added to a home inspection
- Termite (WDI) inspection, starting at $200 when added to a home inspection
- Thermal imaging, starting at $125
- Lead testing, starting at $100 when added to a home inspection
- Pool and spa inspection, starting at $125 when added to a home inspection
- Pre‒listing inspection, starting at $425
- New build blue tape inspection, starting at $525
- Investor property verification, starting at $250
- Soil testing, starting at $250
- Asbestos testing, starting at $300
Sanilac County towns we cover
Sandusky, Marlette, Croswell, Lexington, Port Sanilac, Brown City, Deckerville, Carsonville, Peck, Melvin, Applegate, Forestville, Minden City, Snover and Sanilac, Worth, Lexington, Buel, Fremont, Speaker, Elk, Flynn, Maple Valley, Lamotte, Moore, Marlette, Evergreen, Argyle, Austin, Bridgehampton, Custer, Delaware, Forester, Greenleaf, Marion, Minden, Washington, Watertown and Wheatland townships. If your address is in the county, we cover it.
Questions from Sanilac County buyers
Do you serve the Sandusky and Lexington area?
Do I need the septic inspection if the seller says the system is fine?
What should I add on a lake cottage?
Can I be there for the inspection?
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Areas We Serve