Remodeling contractor in Skokie, IL

Building permits come from the Building & Inspection Services Division of the Community Development Department at Village Hall, 5127 Oakton Street. Kitchen, bathroom and basement remodels each have their own Village handout, and applications go through the online permit portal with every document in PDF. Both you and the contractor sign the forms.

The Village says all contractors must be licensed and bonded, and it publishes the list of contractors currently registered with it. We register before we pull. Survey rules are strict. An addition needs a plat of survey made within the last 18 months, a pool needs a clear and legible plat, and the Village wants the surveyor's original digital file, not a scan or a phone photo. Larger projects can need the Appearance Commission, Plan Commission or Zoning Board of Appeals before a permit is issued.

Skokie was Niles Center until 1940. The first boom came in the 1920s, after the rapid transit line reached the new Dempster Street station in 1925 and developers laid out subdivisions such as College Hill, Devonshire Manor and Suffield Terrace. The Depression stopped it cold and thousands of lots sat empty.

After the war those titles were cleared and lots were resized for single family houses with 40 to 55 foot frontages. The Edens Expressway opened in 1951 and the village filled in fast. The Skokie Public Library's housing collection shows what went up: brick ranches, Colonials, tri levels, split levels and brick two flats and three flats. The library describes the single family bungalow as now pervasive. So expect a lot of brick and a lot of basements built in that postwar decade.

The Village kitchen handout asks for existing and proposed layouts with demolition marked, and a framing plan if any wall is added or rebuilt. That matters in a 1950s ranch, where opening the kitchen to the living room usually means a bearing wall. Every countertop receptacle and the dishwasher need GFCI protection, and a range hood rated at 400 CFM or more needs a makeup air system.

For bathrooms the Village wants a GFCI receptacle within 36 inches of each vanity bowl, safety glazing on any window within 5 feet of the tub or shower, and the tile backer board named on the plan. If you add fixtures anywhere in the house, a water service fixture unit calculation goes in with the permit to prove the existing service is big enough. Skokie also runs a lead service line replacement program. If your line is lead, the Village replaces the public portion out to the buffalo box and the private side is done under a building permit in Type K copper.

Skokie requires every basement to have either a door straight to the outside or an escape window, and a basement remodel permit has to show which one you have or are adding. A new door or window well also needs a plat of survey. The plans need a wall section, fire blocking details and compliance with the state energy code.

Water is the other half of a basement job. The Village recommends overhead sewers, check valves and sump pumps inspected every year with backup power, and it offers an overhead sewer cost share program. Its hazard plan names flooding at Devonshire Park, along Touhy Avenue and in areas south of Touhy. Skokie also uses its streets to hold stormwater for a few hours after heavy rain, with restrictors in the storm drains, so water standing out front after a storm is by design and is meant to keep it out of your basement.

Most single family lots fall in the R1 or R2 districts. R2 allows lots as small as 4,800 square feet and 40 feet wide, with side yards of 4 feet on lots under 70 feet wide, and R1 lots start at 6,600 square feet and 55 feet wide. In both, buildings can cover 40 percent of the lot and the floor area ratio tops out at 0.6. The rear yard is 30 feet or 20 percent of lot depth, whichever is less.

Height depends on lot width. On an R2 lot under 45 feet wide a house can reach 26 feet, with no more than 23 feet to the eave, which shapes any second story addition. Skokie also caps impermeable surface, counting buildings, drives and patios together, and excavation work can trigger a grading plan.

Skokie requires a permit for any swimming pool, above ground or inground. Under the Village code no part of a private residential pool may sit closer than 8 feet to a side or rear property line, and pumps, filters and disinfection equipment also stay 8 feet from any property line.

The pool or the yard around it must be enclosed by a 4 foot fence with self closing, self latching gates, latches at the top. Inground pools need a non slip walk at least 24 inches wide all the way around. Pool water has to come from the Village water system, and the Village will not issue a pool permit until the property has the off street parking the zoning code requires.