Remodeling contractor in Western Springs, IL

The Community Development Department at 740 Hillgrove Avenue issues permits for new construction and alterations and inspects the work. Applications and contractor forms go to permits@wsprings.com, site engineering plans go separately to plans@wsprings.com, and inspections are booked by email. Staff will also take code and plan review questions by phone or video call before you submit, which is worth using on an addition.

Contractors are licensed by the village. A general contractor files a certificate of liability insurance and a surety bond, and the licence runs from the date of application to December 31 of that year. We get licensed before we pull.

The village incorporated in 1886 with a strong Quaker founding and filled in with commuters over the following decades. The original village is what the village now calls Old Town North and Old Town South. Forest Hills came in during the 1920s south of 47th Street, Springdale was annexed in the 1950s, Ridgewood in the 1970s, and the former Timber Trails golf course became a newer subdivision of single family homes and townhomes after 2005.

The village notes that many older homes still have gravity sewer connections and that some of its own sewer pipe dates back to the 1920s. That is a useful clue for what you will find under an Old Town kitchen floor.

In an Old Town or Forest Hills house a kitchen or bathroom remodel tends to mean old drain lines, undersized circuits and walls that have been opened before. The village's permit guide page carries a plumbing fixture worksheet and a residential electric service load calculator, which is a fair sign of what the reviewer looks at when you add a bathroom or a bigger range.

Plans and the permit application go in by email, and inspections are requested the same way. We line up rough plumbing and electrical so the walls are not left open waiting on a visit.

The combined sewer in Western Springs is limited to the area north of 47th Street. South of it, in Forest Hills, Springdale and Ridgewood, storm and sanitary sewers are separate. North of 47th, a heavy storm can surcharge the main and push water back toward basement drains, and the village says plainly that it cannot separate every sewer.

Its answer is the Overhead Sewer Cost Share Program, which reimburses owners of detached single family homes for part of the cost of a backwater check valve or an overhead sewer. If you are finishing a basement north of 47th Street, that is the first conversation we have, before drywall. The village's flood prevention guide also recommends keeping the main panel, outlets, furnace and water heater at least 12 inches above the projected flood level, which we design around.

Springdale and Ridgewood have their own drainage history. The village studied Springdale's Franklin and Howard Avenue area in 2020 and has carried out storm outfall work along Flagg Creek through Ridgewood. If your yard holds water, we look at grading before we look at finishes.

Building coverage is capped at 30 percent of the lot in the residence districts, and the village subtracts 440 square feet from that allowance and holds it for a garage, whether or not you have one yet. Height is limited to 35 feet or two and a half stories, whichever is less, and never more than 38 feet measured from the sidewalk level to the highest gable.

In the R1 district the minimum lot is 6,200 square feet and 50 feet wide, the interior side yard is 10 feet or 10 percent, and the rear yard is 30 feet. Enclosed accessory structures can cover no more than 10 percent of the lot. The village provides a gross floor area calculator and a zoning worksheet, and we fill them in before design starts, not after.

If the addition grows into a teardown conversation, note that new single family homes in Western Springs must have fire sprinklers, reviewed by the village's fire safety consultant and the fire department.

Western Springs treats pool fencing as part of the pool permit, not as a separate fence job, because the safety rules are more detailed. Accessory uses, enclosed or not, can take up no more than 35 percent of any required yard in a residence district, so the pool, deck, shed and patio are worth adding up together on a typical lot.

In Timber Trails, special easement provisions apply to the rear yards of lots 47 to 52 and 105 to 114. If your lot is one of those, we check the easement before we site a pool or fence.