Masonry & Tuckpointing in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Glen Ellyn writes the line down: tuckpointing over 300 square feet, any chimney replacement or re-liner. Here is how to use that line, in a village whose median house was built in 1971.
Glen Ellyn puts the line in writing
Most of the useful numbers on this page come from the village itself. Its “What Application to Use” sheet names the masonry jobs that get an Over-the-Counter Building Permit, and a one-page list, “Work That Requires a Building Permit,” fills in the rest.
- Masonry tuckpointing over 300 square feet, listed under exterior alterations.
- Chimney or vent replacement, or a chimney re-liner, listed under HVAC.
- Siding or stucco over 300 square feet, and foundation stabilization, which the sheet files under the residential building permit.
- A retaining wall over 8 inches high, handled as a residential outdoor structure, and a new fireplace, which goes through a small building permit with plan review.
- From the longer list: restoration after fire, flood or accident, and any work in, or within 30 feet of, a designated flood area.
The same list carries its own escape hatch: ordinary repair and maintenance typically does not need a building permit if replacement materials are equivalent, structure and utilities are not altered and loads do not increase. It also says it is not a complete listing and that the Building and Zoning Official interprets it. A handful of failed joints reads like ordinary repair; a whole elevation is a different conversation. Either way the village decides, so ask the Building Division before you schedule.
Who may do the work, and when
Contractors working in Glen Ellyn register through the village's online permit portal. The Building Division page says each must meet the license and insurance requirements in Village Code Section 4-1-11, and that a contractor working in violation can be cited, stopped or have a permit suspended. The certificate of insurance has to list the Village as certificate holder and additional insured.
Then the clock: construction, deliveries, hauling and staging are limited to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For a true emergency the contractor emails the village before starting, and a permit must follow by the next business day.
Condos, townhomes and commercial buildings play by a stricter rule
The 300-square-foot cushion is written for houses. The village's list says a permit is needed for any work affecting the exterior appearance of a non-residential building, a multifamily building (apartments or condominiums) or an attached single-family building (duplexes and townhomes). The American Community Survey counts 3,186 of Glen Ellyn's 11,110 housing units in buildings of two or more units, plus 856 attached single-family homes, so this is not a corner case.
Separately, the Architectural Appearance Commission reviews exterior drawings and materials for new commercial, multifamily and townhome buildings and, in the C5A and C5B downtown districts, significant facade remodeling. Its page does not mention single-family houses. Boards and building managers should settle the permit question before collecting bids.
What kind of housing this is
The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey (5-year estimates, read through Census Reporter) gives Glen Ellyn 11,110 housing units and a median year built of 1971. Of those, 1,781 units, or 16.0 percent, date from 1939 or earlier, with a margin of error near 270 units. Another 260 were built in the 1940s, 5,406 (48.7 percent) in the 1950s through the 1970s, and 3,663 (33.0 percent) from 1980 on.
That is a post-war village with an older core, and the three groups need different conversations:
- Built 1939 or earlier. If your house is brick or stone, the original mortar may well be a soft lime mix. The village's preservation guide says replacement mortar should be softer than the bricks and no harder than the historic mortar, because high-cement repointing can create a bond stronger than old materials tolerate and lead to cracking and spalling.
- Built 1950 to 1979. Nearly half the town. A brick veneer or block wall from these decades is past fifty, with quite possibly the original flashing, weep details and chimney liner behind it. The median house, built in 1971, is 55 years old.
- Built 1980 or later. A third of the town. A failure here is more likely a specific detail than general age, so ask the mason to find the cause first.
What the numbers cannot say is what your walls are made of. No source we found counts brick, stone, stucco or siding across Glen Ellyn's homes, so a percentage quoted for “how much of the village is brick” did not come from data. The survey does show the audience: 6,983 detached single-family homes (62.9 percent of units), and 8,377 owner-occupied homes among 10,698 occupied (78.3 percent).
Landmark and National Register are not the same thing
Glen Ellyn runs a local landmark program through its Historic Preservation Commission, which, in the village's words, considers alteration applications for landmarks. The village's landmarked-properties gallery shows 20 individual properties, on streets including North Park Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, Prairie Avenue, North Main Street and Hill Avenue.
For landmarked homes the village publishes a review table. Maintenance needs no commission review, and neither does replacing something in kind. Review applies to street-visible windows and doors not replaced in kind, a new roof in a different material or pitch, new siding in a different material or size, a porch not replaced in kind, and additions; paint and interior work are not reviewed. Read that as a mason would: repointing that matches the wall reads as maintenance, and covering a brick wall with different siding does not. The permit list agrees: exterior work on a landmark needs a permit except ordinary repairs and maintenance.
The village's 2009 preservation guidelines are plain about masonry: match the joint size and profile, use replacement mortar softer than the bricks and no harder than the historic mortar, clean with the gentlest method that works, never sandblast brick or stone, and test-patch chemical cleaners. For chimneys: keep existing brick chimneys, avoid cement-like coatings, and repoint with a lime and very low Portland mortar, since pre-mixes are generally not appropriate for older brick.
The National Register is a separate list. Glen Ellyn has the Main Street Historic District (listed 1984, Queen Anne and Gothic Revival styles), the Downtown North and Downtown South districts (2013), Stacy's Tavern (1974) and Lake Ellyn Park. The National Park Service states that listing places no restrictions on what a non-federal owner may do with their property, and the village's page on the downtown listing describes benefits, including tax incentives for certified rehabilitation of income-producing properties, and no owner restrictions. In the village documents we read, review attaches to landmarked homes, not to the register.
One reason to know your status: the village's preservation grant for homes at least 50 years old is a one-to-one match, but the commission must qualify the home first, with landmark status or National Register listing among the qualifications. The page does not say which work is eligible, so ask whether masonry is.
Water: freeze-thaw, flooding and foundation walls
Start with the physics. The USGS puts the density of ice about 9 percent below that of liquid water, so water that freezes inside a joint, a brick face or a chimney crown needs more room than it had. Repeat that every winter and something gives.
Then the weather. NOAA's 2022 Illinois State Climate Summary reports annual precipitation above average since 1990, a sharp rise in 2-inch extreme rain events, and that more than 90 percent of urban flooding damage claims from 2007 to 2014 fell outside the mapped floodplain. The village's own drainage page says urban flooding can occur in all types of rain events.
For masonry, that puts foundation walls, window wells, stoops, steps and retaining walls beside wet ground. The village's permit list treats the related work as permit-grade: foundation waterproofing, perimeter foundation drains, sump pumps and gutter downspouts all appear on it. If a masonry quote turns out to be a drainage problem in disguise, the permit conversation changes with it.
Chimneys in a town that heats with gas
Heating-fuel data from the same survey: of 10,698 occupied homes, 8,499 (79.4 percent) use utility gas, 1,809 use electricity, and the estimate for wood as the main fuel is zero. Beside 6,983 detached houses, that makes the typical Glen Ellyn chimney one of two things: a fireplace lit for pleasure, or a flue serving a gas furnace or water heater.
Where chimneys give out
If your house has a masonry stack, check these places, roughly in the order water reaches them:
- Crown and cap. The top surface of the masonry and any rain cap. The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) lists a distorted rain cap among the signs of chimney-fire damage.
- Mortar joints above the roofline. CSIA lists smoke escaping through mortar joints, and cracks in exterior masonry, among the same signs.
- Brick faces. Flaking or missing faces suggest water is already getting in and freezing.
- Flashing. The metal where the stack meets the roof. If the roof was replaced, ask who re-flashed the chimney.
- Flue liner. CSIA lists cracked or collapsed flue tiles and displaced mortar among those signs.
Gas appliances and old flues
CSIA explains that high-efficiency gas furnaces produce flue gases with a lot of water vapor, that the vapor plus chlorides from combustion air makes a flue more corrosive, that terracotta liners can flake under those conditions, and that many gas appliances vent into chimneys that once served oil furnaces. It adds that animals can nest in a flue and that a chimney can be unsafe even when rarely used. If your furnace or water heater has been replaced since the chimney was built, ask whether the flue was re-sized and lined for the new appliance. A chimney replacement or re-liner is permit work in Glen Ellyn, so the answer should be on paper.
How often to look
NFPA 211, as CSIA quotes it, calls for an inspection at least once a year. Add a look after any furnace or water heater change, a chimney fire, roofing work near the stack, and before you buy or sell a house with a fireplace.
What a sound repair scope looks like
- A written scope that names each part separately: crown, cap, flashing, mortar joints, brick replacement and liner.
- Joints repointed where they have failed, with mortar matched to the brick. On a landmarked house the village guide asks for lime and very low Portland content.
- Cracked or spalled units replaced rather than coated over; the village guide advises against cement-like coatings on brick chimneys.
- A liner specification sized to the appliance, and a clear statement of who pulls the permit.
- Photographs of each part before and after, so you can see what was done above your roofline.
Questions worth asking before anyone sets a ladder
- Is this over 300 square feet, and who is pulling the permit?
- Are you registered with the village, and does your insurance certificate name the Village?
- Which mortar, matched to which brick, and how will the old joint come out? Ask to see a small sample section finished first.
- Is this a masonry problem or a drainage problem? Look at grade, gutters and downspouts before the walls.
- For the chimney: which part is failing, what does the written scope say, and what is the liner sized for?
What we could not establish
We found no data on what Glen Ellyn's walls are made of, and we do not guess. We did not read the municipal code text of the landmark ordinance; the review rules above come from the village's published handouts. The permit list says it is not complete, and the adopted-codes sheet shows 2018 editions of the residential and fuel gas codes for applications received after January 1, 2024, so confirm what applies to your address with the Building Division.
Glen Ellyn and the surrounding area
Glen Ellyn sits in DuPage County beside Wheaton, Lombard and Glendale Heights, with Naperville in the wider ring. If yours is a landmark facade or a larger estate-scale elevation, start with our greystone, landmark and estate work, read the neighboring page on masonry in Wheaton or the one on masonry in Naperville, or browse every area we serve across Chicagoland.
Questions Glen Ellyn owners ask
Do I need a permit to tuckpoint in Glen Ellyn?
The village's What Application to Use sheet lists masonry tuckpointing over 300 square feet as an Over-the-Counter Building Permit. Its list of work that requires a building permit says ordinary repair and maintenance typically does not, provided replacement materials are equivalent, structural components and utility systems are not altered and loads do not increase. That list is not complete, and the Building and Zoning Official interprets it. A few failed joints looks like ordinary repair, a whole elevation looks like permit work, and the village decides, so call the Building Division before you schedule.
Does chimney work need a permit in Glen Ellyn?
Chimney or vent replacement, or a chimney re-liner, is listed on the village's permit chooser as an Over-the-Counter Building Permit, and masonry fireplaces appear on the village's list of work that requires a building permit. A new fireplace needs a small building permit with plan review. The sheets we read do not say whether repointing a chimney alone counts as ordinary repair, so ask the village, and ask whoever quotes the job to state in writing who pulls the permit.
Is my Glen Ellyn house a landmark, and can I still repair it?
The village's landmarked-properties gallery lists 20 individual properties, so most houses are not landmarks, and you can check the gallery yourself. If yours is one, the village review table says maintenance and replacement in kind need no Historic Preservation Commission review. Review applies to changes such as street-visible windows and doors not replaced in kind, a new roof in a different material or pitch, new siding in a different material or size, a porch not replaced in kind, and additions. Paint color and interior remodeling are not reviewed.
Does National Register listing restrict what I can do to my house?
The National Park Service states that listing places no restrictions on what a non-federal owner may do with their property, though it notes that state or local preservation laws may apply. Glen Ellyn's register listings are the Main Street Historic District, the Downtown North and Downtown South districts, Stacy's Tavern and Lake Ellyn Park. In the village documents we read, review attaches to local landmarks, not to the register.
How old are houses in Glen Ellyn?
The 2020-2024 American Community Survey gives a median year built of 1971 across 11,110 housing units. About 16 percent, 1,781 units, were built in 1939 or earlier, and nearly half, 5,406, in the 1950s through the 1970s. So the typical masonry job here is a wall or chimney that is fifty or more years old, with an older core that may sit in softer lime mortar.
Are Glen Ellyn houses brick?
Some are, but we cannot give a percentage, because we found no source that counts exterior wall material for the village, and any number quoted to you did not come from data. If your house is brick, veneer or block, the useful questions are its age, where water is getting in and whether the chimney has been checked.
Which mortar should be used when repointing in Glen Ellyn?
It depends on what is in your wall. The village's preservation guidelines say to match the joint size and profile and to use replacement mortar softer than the bricks and no harder than the historic mortar, and for chimneys to use a lime and very low Portland content mix. They are written for historic properties, but the principle is a fair test of any contractor's answer.
How often should a Glen Ellyn chimney be inspected?
At least once a year. The Chimney Safety Institute of America quotes NFPA 211 as calling for annual inspection and advises a yearly check by a certified chimney sweep. Because about 79 percent of occupied Glen Ellyn homes heat with utility gas, many chimneys serve gas appliances, and CSIA warns that their flue gases can corrode a flue and flake terracotta liners. An inspection after any furnace or water heater change is worth the call.
Do condo, townhome and commercial owners need a permit for exterior masonry repairs?
The village's list says any work affecting the exterior appearance of a non-residential building, a multifamily building such as apartments or condominiums, or an attached single-family building such as a duplex or townhome needs a building permit, with no square foot cushion stated for those buildings. The Architectural Appearance Commission separately reviews new commercial, multifamily and townhome buildings and significant facade remodeling downtown. Associations and managers should confirm the permit first and collect bids second.
Is MasonryPros.us a masonry contractor?
No. MasonryPros.us is a free matching service run by Media Express LLC, a Chicago digital agency. We do not do masonry work and we have no Glen Ellyn office. You describe the job once, and we match you with contractors who handle that kind of work, with no obligation to hire. Nothing on this page replaces a written scope or a conversation with the village.