A licensed builder who is also a certified home inspector

Why the combination matters more than either credential alone

A home inspector spends their career learning what fails in houses: which framing details lead to problems, where water actually gets in, which plumbing runs from the 1960s are still fine and which ones aren't. A builder spends their career pricing and executing fixes for exactly those problems. Most people in this market only ever get one of those perspectives on their project. Mike gives you both, from the same person, before a wall gets opened up.

That matters most at the estimate stage. When Mike walks your kitchen or basement before writing a number, he's not just measuring for cabinets. He's looking at it the way he'd look at a house he was inspecting for a buyer, checking framing, plumbing runs, panel capacity, moisture signs. What he finds there goes into the estimate up front, instead of showing up as a change order three weeks into the job.

One person accountable, not a rotating cast of subs

A lot of remodels in this market get run by a general contractor who's really a project coordinator, handing off framing, plumbing, electrical, and finish work to a rotating set of subcontractors with no single person who's seen the whole job from open wall to final trim. When something doesn't line up between trades, you're the one stuck figuring out whose fault it was.

Mike is the licensed builder of record on every project, and he's the one who's actually on site, not just the one who signs the contract and disappears until the walkthrough. Trades still get brought in for licensed work like electrical and plumbing, that's normal and required, but there's one person who saw the house before demo, priced it accordingly, and is accountable for how it all fits together at the end.

No incentive to invent work

Because Mike inspects homes for a living, separate from any construction he's bidding, he has no financial reason to tell you something's wrong that isn't. An inspector who never picks up a hammer has to be right about what they find, because their entire business is their credibility on a report. That same discipline carries over into how he estimates construction work: if something doesn't need to be replaced, he says so, even when saying so means a smaller number on the estimate.

This is the opposite of how a lot of remodeling estimates get built, where every finding conveniently turns into more billable work. You're welcome to get a second opinion on anything Mike flags. That's the point of being licensed and certified separately for both things.

How a project actually starts

It starts with a phone call to (248) 988-0099 and a walkthrough of your house, not a form that generates a form-letter callback. Mike looks at the space, asks what you actually want out of it, and tells you honestly whether your budget lines up with that scope, using real numbers, not a vague 'let's see what we can do.' If it doesn't line up, you'll hear that at the walkthrough, not after a deposit's been paid.

From there you get a written estimate tied to a defined scope, not a verbal range. If you move forward, permits get pulled where required in Macomb or Oakland County, and the schedule and payment structure get laid out before the first day of work, not negotiated as you go.

What Mike won't do

He won't quote a number designed to win the job and then make it up in change orders. He won't skip the walkthrough that catches problems before they become surprises. He won't take on more projects at once than he can actually be present for. And he won't tell you a repair is needed because it's profitable to tell you that, since his inspection work depends on the opposite habit.

Where he works

Social Construction Co. is based in Sterling Heights and serves homeowners across Macomb, Oakland, and Northern Wayne counties, including Rochester Hills, Troy, Royal Oak, and Hazel Park. As a residence-based business, there's no public office address to visit, but Mike is on the phone and on your property for the walkthrough, which is where the work actually starts anyway.