Masonry & Tuckpointing in Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines is not an old brick town, and pretending otherwise misses the real problem. Here the enemy of your masonry is water, and it is thoroughly documented.
This is not an old brick town, and that matters
A lot of local masonry pages open by implying the town is full of century-old brick. In Des Plaines that would be false, and it would send you looking for the wrong problem.
In ZIP 60016, 2,245 of 25,505 housing units — 8.8 percent — were built in 1939 or earlier. In 60018 it is 496 of 10,230, or 4.8 percent. Meanwhile 46.2 percent of 60016 was built before 1970, and 55.7 percent before 1980. The city is overwhelmingly a product of the 1950s through 1970s.
That has a direct consequence for your wall. The lime-mortar argument that dominates North Shore masonry pages — soft historic mortar, don't repoint it with hard Portland cement — mostly does not apply here, because most Des Plaines masonry was laid in the modern Portland cement era to begin with.
What applies instead is arithmetic and water. A house built in 1960 is 66 years old, which is past the usual 25-to-30-year repointing cycle twice over. And Des Plaines has a water problem with a paper trail.
The city bought sixty-eight houses and knocked them down
This is the fact that should shape how you think about masonry in Des Plaines, and it is not a marketing line. It is federal money and public record.
In April 2013 the Des Plaines River crested at a record 10.92 to 11.42 feet, breaking the previous record set in 1986 and 1987. A local state of emergency was declared on April 18, 2013. At least 800 homes and businesses were affected, and 60 water rescues were carried out.
The city has since purchased and demolished 68 flood-prone residential properties using FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, with state and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District match. Twenty-one of them were in the Big Bend subdivision, on a sharp bend of the river at the north end of town. The land is deed-restricted to permanent open space — nothing will ever be built there again. Some of those homes had flooded eight or nine times since the mid-1980s.
You do not spend federal mitigation money and permanently retire residential land over an occasional inconvenience. Recurrent moisture is a structural condition in parts of this city, and masonry is the part of a building that shows it first.
What water actually does to a wall
Flooding is the dramatic version. The routine version is what quietly costs people money, and it works the same way whether the river reaches you or not.
- Efflorescence — the white, chalky bloom on brick or basement walls. It is salt left behind as water moves through masonry and evaporates. It is not a stain to be scrubbed off; it is a report that water is travelling through the wall.
- Saturated mortar and freeze-thaw — wet joints in November are damaged joints by March. Water expands roughly nine percent when it freezes, and it does that inside your mortar.
- Spalling — when the brick face itself holds water and freezes, the face flakes and pops off. A joint can be replaced. A spalled face cannot.
- Clogged weep holes — on postwar brick veneer, small gaps at the base of the wall are supposed to let water out. Once they are blocked by mortar droppings, debris or landscaping, the cavity holds water instead of draining it.
- Rusting steel lintels — the steel angle above windows and doors corrodes when it stays wet, and rusting steel expands, lifting the masonry above it. The tell is rust staining or a lifted joint over an opening.
In a city with documented recurrent flooding and a river running through it, those five are not a generic checklist. They are the specific local failure modes.
Postwar brick veneer, and why the age arithmetic bites
Most Des Plaines masonry belongs to the postwar era, and postwar residential masonry is usually a veneer rather than a solid load-bearing wall. We should be careful here: no source documents brick veneer for the Des Plaines housing stock specifically, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
What we can say is how a veneer wall behaves as a system, if that is what you own. A brick veneer is a rain screen. It is expected to let some water through. Behind it sits a cavity, and the cavity is supposed to drain that water back out through the weep holes, while metal ties hold the veneer to the structure behind.
That system has consumable parts. The ties corrode. The weeps clog. The sealant joints harden and crack. On a wall built in 1960 those components are sixty-six years old, and none of them was designed to last that long without attention.
So the honest Des Plaines version of the mortar conversation is not about lime versus Portland. It is about whether the drainage path in your wall still works, and whether anyone has looked.
Nobody is going to make you do this
There is no preservation review to navigate in Des Plaines, and that is worth knowing plainly.
Des Plaines does not appear on the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office's list of 84 Certified Local Governments, updated February 5, 2025. CLG certification requires both a local preservation ordinance and a review commission, so its absence is strong evidence that Des Plaines has no active state-recognised local landmark programme.
That makes it the local outlier, which is mildly interesting: neighbouring Park Ridge was certified in 2012 and Glenview in 2003, and both have commissions. Des Plaines does not.
So no Certificate of Appropriateness applies to exterior masonry work here. Ordinary building permits apply as they would anywhere. The upside is speed. The downside is that nothing external will catch a bad specification for you — the contractor you pick is the entire quality control system.
What is on the National Register here
For completeness: the Des Plaines Methodist Camp Ground Historic District was listed on May 22, 2005, reference 05000429, and comprises roughly 100 cottages built between 1870 and 1930 in a late Victorian idiom. We could not confirm the cottages' construction material, so we are not going to tell you they are brick — and National Register listing imposes no obligation on an owner in any case.
First Congregational Church at 766 Graceland Avenue was listed individually on August 27, 2019. It was built in 1929 to an Arts and Crafts design by Pond and Pond, Martin and Lloyd. A brick-and-limestone exterior is reported, but from a single secondary source, so treat it as likely rather than certain.
The Kinder House Museum at 789 Pearson Street, built 1907 in Queen Anne Revival style by hardware merchant Benjamin F. Kinder — whose son George became the city's third mayor — is documented by the Des Plaines History Center. Its exterior material is not specified anywhere, so we leave that blank rather than fill it in.
What we are not going to tell you
We are not going to tell you what your walls are made of, and in this city we are not going to tell you your house is historic when the numbers say it is not.
No source documents brick veneer or solid brick for the Des Plaines housing stock generally. The Census does not collect exterior wall material anywhere. A city-wide median year built of 1966 circulates on a real-estate aggregator, and since that is not a source we will build an argument on, we are leaving it out.
So, conditionally: if your house is brick or brick veneer — and given the era, veneer is the likelier of the two — then the questions worth asking are about drainage, weep holes, wall ties, lintels and chimney condition, not about historic mortar chemistry. A mason standing in front of the wall can tell you which of those is your problem. A website cannot.
Questions worth more than a price per square foot
- Are the weep holes at the base of the wall open? On a veneer wall this is the first thing a competent mason checks and the cheapest thing to fix.
- What condition are the lintels in above the windows and doors? Rust staining or lifting means the steel is expanding, and repointing around it solves nothing.
- Is there efflorescence, and where is the water coming from? Cleaning the bloom without finding the source is cosmetic.
- How does grading and downspout discharge sit against the wall? Masonry problems near a river corridor are frequently drainage problems wearing a masonry costume.
- Which mortar mix, and does it match what is on the wall now in colour, hardness and joint profile?
- What is the chimney doing? Above the roofline it takes weather from every direction and is usually the first thing to fail.
- How is the old joint being removed? An angle grinder in the wrong hands widens joints and scars brick edges permanently.
A mason who answers only with a price per square foot is quoting a different job than the one your building needs — and in Des Plaines, frequently the wrong problem entirely.
Signs your masonry needs a look
- White, chalky efflorescence on brick or basement walls — salt deposits left by water moving through the wall
- Mortar you can rake out with a house key, or that falls away as sand
- Joints noticeably recessed behind the face of the brick
- Spalling — brick faces flaking or popping off. Water is already getting in and freezing
- Rust staining or lifting above a window or door — the steel lintel is corroding and expanding
- Stair-step cracking following the joints — usually movement, not weather
- Damp patches inside on an exterior wall, particularly after a wet spring
On postwar brick, any of these is worth a look regardless of how recently the house was built, because a 1960 wall is already past the usual repointing cycle twice over. If your property is anywhere near the river corridor, treat the moisture signs as urgent rather than cosmetic.
Des Plaines and the surrounding area
Des Plaines sits north of O'Hare with the river running through it, between Park Ridge and Mount Prospect. If yours is a greystone, a landmark facade or a full estate elevation, start with our greystone, landmark and estate work, compare masonry in Park Ridge next door or masonry in Mount Prospect, or browse every area we serve across Chicagoland.
Questions Des Plaines owners ask
Is Des Plaines an old brick town?
No, and we would rather say so than sell you a history that is not there. In ZIP 60016, 2,245 of 25,505 housing units, which is 8.8 percent, were built in 1939 or earlier. In ZIP 60018 it is 496 of 10,230, or 4.8 percent. Meanwhile 46.2 percent of 60016 was built before 1970 and 55.7 percent before 1980. Des Plaines is overwhelmingly a product of the 1950s through 1970s. That matters practically, because the lime-mortar argument that dominates North Shore masonry pages mostly does not apply here. Most Des Plaines masonry was laid in the modern Portland cement era to begin with. The real local issue is water, and the arithmetic of age: a 1960 house is 66 years old and past the usual 25-to-30-year repointing cycle twice over.
How bad is the flooding in Des Plaines really?
Bad enough that the city has permanently removed houses. In April 2013 the Des Plaines River crested at a record 10.92 to 11.42 feet, breaking the previous record from 1986 and 1987. A local state of emergency was declared on April 18, 2013, at least 800 homes and businesses were affected, and 60 water rescues were carried out. Since then the city has purchased and demolished 68 flood-prone residential properties using FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds with state and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District match, 21 of them initially in the Big Bend subdivision on a sharp bend of the river at the north end of town. That land is deed-restricted to permanent open space, so nothing will be built there again. Some of those homes had flooded eight or nine times since the mid-1980s.
What does flooding and damp actually do to brick?
Several distinct things, and they are the specific local failure modes here rather than a generic checklist. Efflorescence, the white chalky bloom on brick or basement walls, is salt left behind as water moves through masonry and evaporates, so it is not a stain to scrub off but a report that water is travelling through the wall. Saturated mortar in autumn becomes damaged mortar by spring, because water expands about nine percent when it freezes and it does that inside the joint. When the brick face itself holds water and freezes, the face flakes and pops off, which is spalling, and unlike a joint a spalled face cannot be put back. On brick veneer, weep holes at the base of the wall are supposed to drain the cavity, and once blocked the wall holds water instead. And steel lintels above windows and doors rust when they stay wet, expanding as they corrode and lifting the masonry above them.
Do I need a permit or historic approval to tuckpoint in Des Plaines?
No preservation approval, no. Des Plaines does not appear on the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office's list of 84 Certified Local Governments, updated February 5, 2025. Since CLG certification requires both a local preservation ordinance and a review commission, its absence is strong evidence that Des Plaines has no active state-recognised local landmark programme, and we found no Certificate of Appropriateness requirement for exterior masonry work. That makes Des Plaines a local outlier, since neighbouring Park Ridge was certified in 2012 and Glenview in 2003 and both have commissions. Ordinary building permits apply as they would anywhere. The trade-off is that nothing external will catch a bad specification for you, so the contractor you choose is the entire quality control system.
What is brick veneer and why does it matter for my house?
Brick veneer is a single wythe of brick hung on the outside of a structural wall rather than carrying the building's load, and it was the standard residential approach through the postwar decades when most of Des Plaines was built. We should be careful here, because no source documents brick veneer specifically for the Des Plaines housing stock, so we are describing how the system behaves rather than asserting what you own. A veneer works as a rain screen: it is expected to let some water through, and a cavity behind it drains that water back out through weep holes while metal ties hold the brick to the structure. Every part of that system is consumable. Ties corrode, weeps clog with mortar droppings or landscaping, sealant joints harden and crack. On a 1960 wall those components are 66 years old and none was designed to last that long unattended.
Are Des Plaines homes brick?
Many visibly are, but no source documents brick veneer or solid brick for the Des Plaines housing stock generally, and the Census does not collect exterior wall material at any geography, so anyone quoting you a percentage has invented it. What we can offer is conditional and still useful: if your house is brick or brick veneer, and given the construction era veneer is the likelier of the two, then the questions worth asking are about drainage, weep holes, wall ties, lintels and chimney condition rather than about historic mortar chemistry. A mason standing in front of the wall can tell you which of those is your problem in a few minutes.
Does Des Plaines have any historic buildings?
A few, though none of them changes what applies to your house. The Des Plaines Methodist Camp Ground Historic District was listed on the National Register on May 22, 2005 under reference 05000429 and comprises roughly 100 cottages built between 1870 and 1930 in a late Victorian idiom; we could not confirm the cottages' construction material, so we do not claim they are brick. First Congregational Church at 766 Graceland Avenue was individually listed on August 27, 2019, built in 1929 to an Arts and Crafts design by Pond and Pond, Martin and Lloyd, with a brick-and-limestone exterior reported by a single secondary source. The Kinder House Museum at 789 Pearson Street, built 1907 in Queen Anne Revival style by hardware merchant Benjamin F. Kinder, is documented by the Des Plaines History Center, but its exterior material is not specified anywhere. In all cases, National Register listing imposes no obligation on a private owner.
My basement wall has a white powdery bloom on it. Is that a masonry problem?
It is a symptom, and it is worth taking seriously rather than scrubbing off. That bloom is efflorescence: mineral salts carried through the masonry by water and left behind on the surface when the water evaporates. The salts themselves are usually harmless; the message is not. It means water is actively moving through the wall, and in a city with documented recurrent river flooding that is a question about drainage as much as about masonry. Cleaning the surface without finding the source just resets the clock. A competent contractor will want to look at grading around the house, downspout discharge, the condition of the mortar joints, and whether the weep holes on a veneer wall are open, before quoting anything cosmetic.
How often does brick need tuckpointing in Des Plaines?
Brick in this climate generally runs 25 to 30 years between repointings, but that is an average rather than a schedule, and here exposure and moisture decide it more than age does. A south and west elevation takes the driven rain, a chimney above the roofline takes weather from every direction and usually fails first, and a wall on a busy arterial takes traffic spray and road salt that a quiet interior block never sees. The bigger local variable is the river corridor: properties in or near the floodplain sit in ground that stays wetter longer, which accelerates everything described above. If your house is anywhere near the water, treat moisture signs as urgent rather than cosmetic. Any mason quoting a whole-house number without walking every elevation is guessing.
Is MasonryPros.us a masonry contractor?
No. MasonryPros.us is a free matching service operated by Media Express LLC, a Chicago digital agency founded in 1995. We do not perform masonry work and we have no office in Des Plaines. You describe the job once, and we match you with local contractors who do that specific type of work. There is no obligation to hire.