Remodeling contractor in Oak Lawn, IL

Building permits come from the Building Division of Community Development, on the lower level of Village Hall at 9446 S. Raymond Avenue. Applications go in through the village's online portal, and the village says a complete application takes 5 to 7 business days to process. Inspections are booked through the same portal.

Oak Lawn licenses contractors itself. Every contractor working in the village has to be licensed and insured with Oak Lawn before a permit is issued, and plumbers also have to show their Illinois Department of Public Health registration. We register before we pull.

The village publishes its own list. Finishing a basement or attic room, moving or adding walls, any change to the plumbing or electrical system, a new water heater, new windows and room additions all need a permit. Tile work, painting, new flooring and swapping a faucet, toilet or light fitting on existing shutoffs and wiring do not.

The Oak Lawn annex of the Cook County hazard mitigation plan records that the population tripled to 27,000 in the 1960s. The village annexed land west to Harlem Avenue and thousands of families moved out, many of them from the South Side of Chicago. Growth stopped for a while in April 1967, when a tornado killed 13 people. The population peaked around 63,500 in the mid 1970s.

A house built in that decade is now around 60 years old. Before anyone draws a new kitchen or bathroom, it is worth finding out what is behind the walls, how old the wiring and supply lines are, and how many times they have been patched.

Oak Lawn enforces the 2018 Chicago Electrical Code, alongside the 2018 International Residential Code and the 2014 Illinois Plumbing Code. That matters in a kitchen, where new countertop circuits, a range hood and an island all count as alterations to the electrical system and need a permit and an inspection.

Bathrooms are similar. Retiling and a new toilet on the existing shutoff need nothing from the village. Moving the tub drain, adding a second sink or turning a closet into a shower is a plumbing alteration, so it is permitted and inspected at rough and final stages.

The county plan notes that the village has had repetitive flood damage in several areas of town. Oak Lawn runs an online form for reporting flooding or a sewer backup, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District stabilised about 1,200 feet of Oak Lawn Creek between Central Avenue and Massasoit Avenue.

When you sell a single family home or a qualifying townhome, Oak Lawn requires a transfer stamp sewer inspection. If you are finishing a basement, it makes sense to look at the sewer line and the floor drains before the drywall goes up rather than after. A finished basement needs a permit in Oak Lawn.

A room addition needs a permit with a plat of survey, construction plans and a site plan. If the design needs relief from a setback, the village's Zoning and Planning Commission and Appeals and Review Board hear petitions for setback variations.

A detached garage or shed over 100 square feet needs its own accessory structure permit, and knocking down an old garage also needs a Cook County demolition permit. On a typical lot, an addition, a garage and a pool all compete for the same back yard, so we plan them together.

Oak Lawn treats an inground pool as a permanent pool. The village pool ordinance requires a fenced enclosure at least six feet high, with a self closing gate and a latch four and a half feet above grade. Pools and decks cannot sit in an easement, must be at least three feet from side property lines and five feet from the rear line, and at least fifteen feet from any street or village right of way.

No electrical service conductors may run over the pool or within ten feet of it horizontally. For an inground pool the village wants a permit application, a survey or site plan and three sets of plans for structural review. The review comes back as Comply or Does Not Comply, and the permit is not released until every contractor on it is licensed and insured in Oak Lawn. A final inspection checks the electrical work and the pool placement. Call JULIE on 811 before anyone digs.