Remodeling contractor in Lombard, IL

Permits come from the Building Division of the Community Development Department at 255 E. Wilson Avenue. Applications, documents and inspection requests all go through the village's online permit portal, and the Building Division will not start review until every required document is combined into a single PDF.

Every contractor doing permitted work in Lombard needs a Village of Lombard Contractor Registration Certificate, renewed yearly. Electricians must also show a licence from a testing municipality, plumbers a State of Illinois registration and roofers a state roofing licence. We register before we pull, then we handle the permit and the inspections.

Census figures put the median Lombard home at 1971. About 21 percent of homes date from 1940 to 1959 and another 36 percent from 1960 to 1979, so most of our work here is in houses built after the Second World War.

The village describes its R2 district as the existing single family neighbourhoods in the core of Lombard, with smaller lots than the R1 district. The minimum there is 7,500 square feet and 60 feet of frontage, which leaves less room to spread out than people expect.

Lombard's bath and kitchen handout asks for a plan of the existing layout showing what will be demolished, removed or moved, then a full proposed plan with an electrical layout for the whole scope. Moving a toilet, a tub or a closet has to show on paper.

The electrical rules are specific. In a bathroom, a receptacle must sit within 36 inches of each basin, and every bathroom receptacle needs GFCI protection. In a kitchen, countertop receptacles go so that no point along the wall is more than 24 inches from an outlet, all GFCI protected. In an original 1960s kitchen, that often means new circuits.

If the drain line under the house needs work, the village treats a full sewer replacement as a new sewer, requires a cleanout at any repair and wants video of a lined sewer before and after. Nothing gets backfilled before inspection.

On April 18, 2013, Lombard had a significant flood, both inside and outside its mapped floodplains. The village notes that some areas still have older combined sanitary and storm sewers, where backups happen more often, and that its separated storm sewers are designed for about 5.15 inches of rain in 24 hours.

That history shapes a basement job. The village offers an Overhead Sewer Grant for homes with chronic sanitary backups, and a basement finish is a sensible time to reroute fixtures to an overhead system. Downspouts piped underground must discharge no more than 15 feet from the house and no closer than 15 feet to the public sidewalk, and any grading or fill needs a fill and grade permit.

For an addition to an R2 house built before September 15, 2011, the front setback is 30 feet. Side yards are 6 feet, but one side must be 9 feet if the house has no attached garage, and the rear yard is 25 feet. Height tops out at two and a half stories or 30 feet, whichever is less.

The rule that limits most additions is open space. Every R2 lot must keep at least 50 percent of its area as open space, and the village counts only lawn, garden and natural landscape. Permeable pavers do not count. We measure your survey against that number before we sketch anything.

Lombard keeps a short list of local landmarks, including the Sheldon Peck Homestead and Babcock's Grove House, and altering one may need a certificate of appropriateness. The Historic Preservation Commission also advises owners on additions to landmark houses.

Lombard adopted the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code with one notable change. A power safety cover cannot stand in for the barrier. Every pool needs a real one, at least 48 inches high, with no gap that passes a 4 inch sphere, set at least 20 inches from the water, and gates that open away from the pool and close and latch on their own.

Pools cannot sit in a required front, corner side or interior side yard, or in an easement, and the pool still has to leave the lot with its 50 percent open space. If the house wall forms part of the barrier, every door to the pool needs an audible alarm, windows with sills lower than 48 inches need alarms too, and a pet door into the pool area must be secured.

For an inground pool the village wants a construction plan set, equipment specifications and an engineering plan set with existing grading and drainage. The pump plugs into a GFCI outlet at least 6 feet from the pool wall, a second GFCI convenience outlet goes between 6 and 20 feet away, and the job closes with a final building and a final electrical inspection.