Masonry & Tuckpointing in Hoffman Estates, Illinois

A village that began as one subdivision in 1955

Hoffman Estates has no old town to restore. By the village's history page, a local farmer sold a 160-acre farm in 1954 to Sam and Jack Hoffman of the Father and Son Construction Company, and the first homeowners moved in during late 1955, on half-acre lots, in Parcel A east of Roselle Road between Golf and Higgins Roads. Residents voted to incorporate on September 19, 1959, with about 8,000 people. In 1961 and 1962 the village annexed about 2,000 more acres, including Winston Knolls and Westbury.

So the masonry question is not how to coax a century-old lime wall through another winter. It is what a wall does between ages twenty and seventy, and what should already have been done to yours.

What the Census says about the age of your wall

The American Community Survey 2020–2024 five-year estimates (via Census Reporter) count 19,335 housing units in the village, give or take about 600:

• 207 (1.1 percent) built in 1939 or earlier, and 234 (1.2 percent) in the 1940s
• 1,684 (8.7 percent) in the 1950s and 3,846 (19.9 percent) in the 1960s
• 6,293 (32.5 percent) in the 1970s, the largest decade by far
• 3,280 (17.0 percent) in the 1980s
• 3,259 (16.9 percent) in the 1990s and 2000s, and 532 (2.8 percent) since 2010

About 74 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 60 percent of units are detached houses, 15 percent are attached townhome-style units, and 20 percent sit in buildings of five or more units. None of these tables records what your walls are made of, so anything below that depends on material is written as “if your house is…”.

No landmark commission we could find, and one listed building

The village's Boards & Commissions page lists eighteen groups, from the Active Transportation Advisory Committee to the Youth Commission. None has historic preservation, landmarks or design review in its name, and the village calls its volunteer commissions advisory. We looked for a local landmark ordinance and found none, but the municipal code sits in a search tool we could not read, so take that as “we found none”, not a legal opinion. Code Enforcement can confirm for your address in one call.

The National Register has one entry in the village: the Sunderlage Farm Smokehouse, 1775 Vista Walk, listed February 20, 1990, Greek Revival, significant year 1860. The record we read gives no wall material, so we will not guess at one.

What the village does regulate

Masonry rules live in the building permit handouts. Code Enforcement answers at (847) 781-2631.

• Brick and veneer. A permit category called Exterior Coverings covers siding, brick and veneers. Its conditions require a water-resistive barrier, say stone or masonry must sit on a brick ledge or a steel angle designed by an Illinois licensed architect or structural engineer, and require a final inspection.
• Tuckpointing and chimneys. Neither word appears in the handouts or on the permit page. We cannot tell you a like-for-like repoint needs a permit, and we cannot tell you it does not. Ask before work starts: the village says the property owner is ultimately responsible for making sure a permit exists.
• Roofs. A re-roof needs a permit, a copy of the roofing license, and flashing at wall-to-roof intersections and around roof openings, in corrosion-resistant metal.
• Stoops, steps and walls. The stoops-and-steps handout asks for a plat of survey and a scope of work or contract. A retaining wall over 18 inches needs a permit, and over 48 inches a structural engineer.
• Emergency repairs still need a permit, submitted within 24 hours after work begins.

Contractors must register on the village's BS&A Online portal, and the permit page carries a workers' compensation affidavit form, so ask whether the permit will be pulled under their account. A permit lapses if substantial work has not started within six months. The exterior-coverings conditions add work hours of 7 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and 8 AM to 6 PM on weekends, and a warning not to cut the wiring of the outside water-meter reading device.

Winter does the damage

As a regional reference, the National Weather Service's 1991–2020 normals for Chicago O'Hare show 37.86 inches of precipitation, 38.4 inches of snow and an overnight low at or below 32°F on 121.3 days a year. In February the average high is 35.7°F and the average low 21.8°F, so the temperature crosses freezing in both directions on an average day.

Water gets into a crack, freezes and widens it. The Brick Industry Association says the most common reason to repoint is water resistance, because cracked or debonded joints are a common way into a brick wall. The other source is the ground: the village's grading handout says slope must be maintained away from all structures, and its Engineering Division offers free drainage investigations at (847) 252-5800. If a wall base is stained or spalling after every thaw, fix the grade and downspouts before repointing.

Mortar at fifty: the post-war repointing rules

The talk about soft lime mortar describes older buildings. The Brick Industry Association notes that portland-cement mortar was not used in brickwork until after the turn of the twentieth century and that a building's age is a strong indication of what is in the wall, so a wall from the 1950s through the 2000s was laid in a portland-based mix, not an old lime-and-sand one. That makes the old rule less urgent here, not irrelevant: the BIA says repointing mortar should be similar to or weaker than the original. A harder mix loads the thin new strip of mortar and can spall the brick face. The Masonry Advisory Council gives the same warning and calls Type N, O or K typical.

What a sound repointing scope says

• Which joints. Only defective ones: mortar eroded deeper than a quarter inch, crumbling mortar, voids, hairline cracks, or cracks between brick and mortar.
• How deep and how cut. Removal to at least twice the joint thickness, by diamond-blade grinder, then cleaned and pre-wetted.
• Which mortar and colour. A named type, and a sample in an out-of-the-way spot so you can judge the match.
• Whose hands. The BIA warns that an excellent bricklayer may not be skilled at repointing; check prior repointing work.

If your house is brick veneer, follow the water

Much suburban brick is a single layer tied to a wood-frame wall. We cannot say how many Hoffman Estates houses are built that way, so this applies if your house is brick veneer. The Mason Contractors Association of America says veneer is designed on the assumption that water gets past the brick: flashing catches it and weeps, typically about 24 inches apart, let it out.

• Weeps. Open head joints or tubes along the bottom course and above openings. If they are caulked shut, painted over or buried under mulch, a patio or raised grade, the water has no way out.
• Lintels. Gorman Richardson Lewis Architects describe rust as the failure: steel expands as it corrodes and can push brickwork out of line or crack it. Their repair removes the lintel and three or four courses above, sets a hot-dip galvanized lintel with proper flashing, and rebuilds. Caulking over it can trap moisture.
• Sealant. The Masonry Advisory Council notes that caulking turns dry and brittle over a building's life, so sealant at windows, doors and movement joints wears out before the brick does.

Chimneys in a town of fifty-year-old houses

A chimney from 1976 has taken about fifty winters at the one place on the house with no eave above it. We do not know how many village houses have a masonry chimney, a factory-built fireplace in a framed chase, or neither, so read this as if your house has a chimney. The kind matters: the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) publishes separate inspection procedures for each.

Crown and cap

General Shale's chimney checklist says the cap should extend past the chimney walls with a drip edge and slope away from the flue, with the flue tile standing at least four inches above it. The cap should not be bonded to the tile: a three-eighths to half-inch gap filled with flexible sealant lets the tile expand without cracking the cap. A thin trowelled coat of mortar tends to crack from shrinkage. Metal caps, or reinforced concrete with galvanized steel over flashing, are the sound alternatives.

Flashing

The checklist describes step flashing under the shingles and stepped counterflashing coming out of the chimney walls and turning down over it, with a cricket behind chimneys wider than 30 inches along the roofline, all in metal. MASONRY magazine, from the Mason Contractors Association of America, calls relying on sealant instead of flashing inferior workmanship. Flashing is where trades overlap, so ask the roofer and the mason who owns it.

Brick and mortar joints

Cracks between brick and mortar, bug holes where mortar did not fill the joint, and badly cracked or spalled brick are suspect water entries. On a chimney only concave, vee or compacted grapevine joints belong; raked joints leave ledges that hold water. Head joints not filled to full depth, which tooling can hide, are the most common source of leakage in brick walls.

The liner, and the furnace you replaced

A Level 2 inspection includes a video scan of the flue for cracks, gaps and unused openings that should be sealed. Ask one question: if your furnace and water heater once shared a masonry chimney and the furnace has since been replaced by a high-efficiency unit vented through plastic pipe, the water heater may sit alone in a flue sized for two appliances. A trade-magazine article and a home inspector's write-up both describe the cooler exhaust condensing inside the chimney and attacking the mortar, with a correctly sized liner or a direct-vent water heater as the usual remedies.

When to have it inspected

• Every year. CSIA quotes NFPA 211: chimneys, fireplaces and vents shall be inspected at least once a year.
• Ask what a basic inspection covers. CSIA's Level 1 procedure calls for a look at the crown and flashing when the chimney is swept from the top. One done from the hearth may leave the top unchecked.
• Level 2 adds the roof, attic and a video scan. CSIA recommends it when the appliance or fuel changes, at sale, before relining, and after a chimney fire, storm or malfunction.

What a sound chimney scope looks like

• A written finding for each part: crown or cap, flashing, joints and brick, liner, and for a factory-built unit the chase pan, storm collar and rain cap.
• A crown rebuilt to the details above, not another skim of mortar, and metal step and counterflashing rather than a bead of sealant.
• Repointing only where defective, matched mortar, and spalled brick replaced rather than coated.
• For a liner: the appliance it serves, its size, and how it connects. The inspector's write-up mentions liners found disconnected inside the flue.

Signs your masonry needs a look

• Joints recessed more than about a quarter inch, crumbling mortar, or spalling brick faces after a thaw
• Brick above a window or door that is out of line or cracked, with rust near the lintel
• A cracked or flat chimney cap, flashing pulling away, or attic stains below it

Help with the cost

The village's CDBG-funded Single Family Home Repair Program, run by the North West Housing Partnership at (847) 969-0561, offers zero-interest deferred loans to income-eligible residents for code, safety and weatherization work. The village page does not say masonry qualifies, so ask first.

Questions Hoffman Estates owners ask