Basement Finishing & Remodeling in Homewood, IL

Homewood's Building Division issues permits for building, electrical, plumbing and heating work and inspects it, and under the village code the division is made up of the fire chief and whatever staff the board provides. Nobody may work as a contractor in Homewood without registering first, and registrations lapse each year on their anniversary. We register before we pull. A plumbing permit application must also name the state registered plumbing contractor doing the work.

Do not assume anything below grade is permit free. Homewood struck eight items from the residential code's list of building work exempt from permits, shortened the code's 180 day expiration period to 90 days and made every permit expire one year after it is issued. No plumbing may be closed in until the plumbing inspector has had 48 hours' notice. We handle the permit and schedule the inspections around those clocks.

Homewood deleted the electrical code article covering nonmetallic sheathed cable, bans nonmetallic boxes and allows metal clad cable only in runs of eight feet or less. Conductors must be copper, 12 gauge at the smallest. In practice, plan on metal conduit and metal boxes behind the drywall. The village also wants a wall switch at every entrance to a habitable room and a smoke alarm near the gas furnace.

Plumbing and gas follow the same line. Water piping inside a Homewood house must be Type L copper or galvanized, plastic is not allowed in the potable water supply and wet venting is out. Gas lines must be black pipe, and CSST gas piping may not be concealed, which matters once a basement ceiling is closed in. Unvented gas log heaters and unvented room heaters are banned too, so a basement theater fireplace has to be a vented unit.

The county hazard mitigation plan names Ridge Road, where homes flood, and Chayes Park Drive, where a culvert collapsed, as the village's flood trouble spots, and counts six single family homes with repeated flood losses. It lists a hoped for relief project on Ridge Road between Ashland and Center, says the Heather Road area near Stewart Avenue still needs study, and warns that seven sanitary lift stations stop without emergency power, which it ties to basement backups.

If you are not sure how your street fares in heavy rain, ask the village's Public Works Department before you plan the room. Homewood's sewage goes to the Thorn Creek Basin Sanitary District, and the code keeps downspouts, foundation drains and areaway drains off the sanitary line. A basement that takes water needs a waterproofing contractor or plumber first. We will not finish over water.

Homewood keeps the residential code's emergency escape opening requirement but deletes exception 2 to it, along with the exceptions to the minimum opening area and to window well drainage. Drains from window wells and other areaways cannot tie into the sanitary line, and guards on open sided stairs and raised floors start at a 16 inch drop instead of the model code's 30 inches. Plan the escape window before you plan the bedroom.

For a parent or an adult child, zoning permits one attached or internal accessory dwelling unit per lot in all four residential districts. Each unit needs at least 220 square feet, an internal one may take no more than 25 percent of the house's floor area, it shares the driveway and the ownership, and the owner must live on the property. The residential code also asks every dwelling unit for at least one habitable room of 150 square feet.