Remodeling contractor in Jefferson Park, Chicago

Jefferson Park is in the city, so the City of Chicago Department of Buildings issues the permit. The city requires a general contractor licence for most construction, alteration and repair work, and it licenses plumbing, electrical and mason contractors separately. Any outfit working outside the general contractor's control must hold its own licence and be listed on the permit. We pull the permit, list the trades and book the inspections.

Jefferson Park's houses are about a decade younger than Portage Park's, just to the south. CMAP's 2026 snapshot shows the split: 35.7 percent of homes were built before 1940 and 44.1 percent between 1940 and 1969, with a median year built of 1951. So one block can hold a brick bungalow from the 1920s next to a 1950s brick house.

It is also a two flat area. About 18.7 percent of homes are in two unit buildings and 16.6 percent in three and four unit buildings, against 46.5 percent detached single family houses. That mix matters for plumbing, permits and scheduling.

In a bungalow, expect plaster walls and a narrow plan. In the post war houses the Chicago Bungalow Association dates to the 1930s through the 1960s, such as the one and a half story brick Cape Cod, the second floor sits under a sloped roof. An upstairs bathroom there is mostly about headroom, so we lay out the tub and the vanity where the ceiling is tallest.

In a two flat, each unit needs its own working kitchen and bath. We sequence the work one unit at a time when a tenant or a relative is living in the other one.

On April 18, 2013 more than five and a half inches of rain fell on one Jefferson Park home near Foster and Natoma avenues, and its basement took a foot and a half of water. About 150 homeowners in the 45th Ward reported flooded basements that week. The local alderman credited the city's Rainblocker valves, which slow the flow from street catch basins into the sewer, with holding water on the streets instead of in houses.

In 2015 crews worked on replacing a sewer about 100 years old beneath Lawrence and Montrose avenues and connecting it to the Deep Tunnel, a project aimed at basement flooding in Jefferson Park. Better main sewers help, but the line from your house to the street is still yours. Have a licensed plumber televise it before you finish a basement. The city's Private Drain Repair Program covers broken drains under the public way for buildings of up to four units, which covers a two flat.

A Cape Cod or bungalow attic is the obvious place to find a bedroom, and a dormer is the usual way to get standing room. In RS districts the height limit is 30 feet, and the floor area ratio caps at 0.65 in RS2 and 0.90 in RS3. A rear addition on a detached house must leave a rear setback of 28 percent of lot depth or 50 feet, whichever is less.

Front additions are harder. In RS districts the front setback is the average of the nearest two lots on either side, leaving out the shallowest one, so enclosing a front porch can run into the line set by your neighbours. We check the block before we draw anything.