Remodeling contractor in Northbrook, IL

Building permits come from the Development and Planning Services Department at Village Hall, 1225 Cedar Lane. The Village requires plumbing, electrical, concrete and general construction work to be done under contractors it has licensed, and that licence lasts one year. We register before we pull, and we handle the permit and the inspections.

Some work needs no permit at all. The Village lists like for like plumbing fixture and electrical fixture replacements, drywall repair and new flooring among the jobs that are exempt. Move a sink, add a circuit or open a wall and you are back in permit territory. Once a permit is issued it is valid for 18 months, after which an extension is needed.

Northbrook is a 1960s and 1970s town. CMAP's 2025 housing profile, built on Census data, puts the median year built at 1975, with 39 percent of homes built between 1960 and 1979 and another 16 percent between 1940 and 1959. About one home in five dates from 2000 or later, and roughly 78 percent of all units are single unit buildings.

That mix shapes the work. A house from 1965 is now on its second or third kitchen, and the plumbing and wiring behind the cabinets often date from the original build. A post 2000 house usually needs layout changes rather than new services. We open the walls knowing which of the two we are likely to find.

In an older Northbrook kitchen the expensive surprises are rarely the cabinets. They are a drain line that has to move for an island, or a panel with no room for the circuits a modern kitchen needs. Because the Village wants licensed trades on plumbing and electrical, we price the rough work properly before you commit.

Bathrooms follow the same rule. A straight swap of a toilet or vanity in the same spot is a like for like replacement. Relocating the shower or adding a second sink in a primary bath is a plumbing permit with rough and final inspections.

The North Branch of the Chicago River drains most of Northbrook, and the Village says its level during a storm is one of the things that decides whether streets and basements flood. After widespread flooding in September 2008, the Village Board set up cost sharing programs to help residents protect their own property.

One of them matters before you finish a basement. The Overhead Sanitary Sewer Cost Participation Program is open to homes built before 1965 that are converting from a gravity sewer to an overhead system. Development and Planning Services does an eligibility inspection first, then issues a permit, then inspects the rough plumbing and the final. If your house qualifies, we suggest doing the overhead conversion before any drywall goes up.

Northbrook adopted a new Zoning Code that took effect on 22 September 2025, so older advice about setbacks may be out of date. Under the new code every single family district caps building coverage at 35 percent and total lot coverage for a detached house at 50 percent. The rear setback is at least 40 feet in all of them. Minimum lot sizes run from 7,000 square feet in the densest district to 50,000 in the estate district, and interior side setbacks run from 6 feet up to 40.

Trees can decide where an addition goes. Under the Village's tree chapter, a permit to remove a heritage tree, or a landmark tree standing in a required yard, needs review by the Tree Protection and Preservation Review Board and approval by the Board of Trustees. We check the trees on the plat before we draw the footprint.

Northbrook builds pools to the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code with its own amendments, and the big one is fence height. The model code asks for a 48 inch barrier. Northbrook requires 60 inches, with a self closing, self latching gate and a lockable latch at 54 inches. Doors and windows with a sill below 60 inches that open toward the pool need a listed alarm, a listed safety cover or another approved form of protection, and the pool contractor has to secure the area before the pool is filled.

Placement is tight too. A pool, spa or its equipment cannot sit in a required front or corner side yard, and the water's edge has to be at least 6 feet from any property line. The permit drawings show the deck, the fence and gates, the equipment pad and the electrical service. If the pool and deck add more than 400 square feet of hard surface, the Village's civil engineering checklist applies as well.