Masonry & Tuckpointing in Long Grove, Illinois

The famous bridge is steel

Long Grove's best-known structure is the Robert Parker Coffin Road bridge over Buffalo Creek, and it looks like a timber covered bridge. The truss underneath is steel: a pin-connected Pratt pony truss built in 1906 by the Joliet Bridge and Iron Company. The wooden cover came later, in 1972, to cut the clearance and keep heavy vehicles out.

We open with it because it is the village in one structure: what looks historic and what is masonry are separate questions here. The village's website calls its downtown Illinois' first historic district, yet the code's description of the downtown style lists clapboard and vertical boarding ahead of brick or stone. Assume nothing about an old wall until someone has looked at it.

What the Census says about the houses

How a wall should be repaired depends on when it was built, and Long Grove has a clean primary source. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2020-2024 five-year estimates, via Census Reporter) counts 2,784 housing units with a median year built of 1988:

• Before 1980: 619 units, about 22 percent. An estimated 8 predate 1940, but the margin of error is larger than that figure, so read it as “very few.”
• 1980 to 1999: 1,548 units, about 56 percent (922 from the 1980s, 626 from the 1990s).
• 2000 and later: 617 units, about 22 percent.
• Ownership: 2,599 of 2,699 occupied units are owner-occupied, about 96 percent.

These are survey estimates, and the table reports year built, not wall material, so nothing here says how many houses are brick, stone, stucco or siding. What a 1988 median does say is that the typical wall is close to forty years old: old enough that the flashing, sealant, ties and lintels around the brick can be reaching the end of their service life well before the brick does.

What tends to fail behind the brick

If your house is brick or stone veneer on a wood frame, the veneer is not the waterproof layer. It is built to pass some water and send it back out through flashing and weep holes. The Brick Industry Association's maintenance note (Technical Note 46) says veneer walls can tolerate moisture through minor cracks, and advises matching the cracks outside to the leaks inside before anyone cuts out mortar.

Its service-life table shows why brick is rarely the first thing to go: brick walls at 100 years and more, sealant joints 5 to 20, metal flashing and coping 20 to 75, metal ties 15 and up. On a 1980s or 1990s house, look first at:

• Weep holes that are clogged or too few; BIA says probe them open or drill supplemental ones.
• Sealant at windows, doors and expansion joints: remove it and re-seal over backer rod rather than laying a new bead on the old one.
• Flashing at the base of the wall, over openings and at the chimney.
• Steel lintels, sills and water tables. Rust on a lintel, or a sill that no longer slopes outward, is on BIA's list of conditions for an engineer, not a mason's quote.
• Cracks wider than about 2 mm (0.075 in.), running through several units, stair-stepping, or with widespread spalling: the same list.

Mortar comes after those. BIA's repointing triggers are joints eroded back more than a quarter inch, crumbling mortar, voids, hairline cracks and gaps between brick and mortar.

Tuckpointing needs a permit here

The village Building Department's FAQ says almost all building or property changes need a permit, and its examples include brickwork and tuckpointing alongside siding, roofing, paving, window and door replacement and demolition. Do not accept a contractor's word that a repair is exempt: call 847-634-9440 and ask.

Permits go through the CommunityCore portal, and the village contracts plan review and inspections to SAFEbuilt, LLC. It does not require contractor registration, but contractors must enroll for portal access, and license copies go in with each project. Owners are also told to check with their homeowners association first, since subdivision covenants can be stricter.

Expect a refundable security deposit and inspection slots in a morning or afternoon window, with no same-day visits. Working hours are weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 8 to 6, and Sundays 10 to 5 only by the occupant on their own home, which matters if the plan involves a mortar grinder.

Walls, piers and patios

Hardscape, drainage and demolition are separate permit categories, and J.U.L.I.E. (811) needs a call before a footing is dug. Along state or county highways and scenic roads, the fence chapter (Title 4, Chapter 9) applies within 100 feet: at least 70 percent open, posts no bigger than 6 by 6 inches, four feet high, natural materials such as wood. A solid brick wall or wide piers there would need an exception from the Village Board, so ask before the footing.

The one district with real review

Preservation rules here are concentrated, not village-wide. The code defines a B1 historic business district covering all land zoned B1 and tells the building commissioner to issue no permit inside it except on the Architectural Commission's approval (Title 7, Chapter 2). The commission checks work against the “Long Grove style,” a blend of Greek Revival and Victorian, in written decisions that can be appealed to the Village Board within 14 days. B1 also carries a security deposit of 110 percent of the estimated cost of the work.

For walls, the standard lists clapboards and vertical boarding, smooth or sanded brick in a soft light red or painted, and split-faced limestone laid on its natural bed or fieldstone, with no stone foreign to the area. For minor remodeling, an existing building made of nonconforming materials may be worked on in those same materials, unless the job is so extensive that conforming is no great hardship.

Separately, a Historic Preservation Commission (Title 2, Chapter 6) sits with the same members. Since a 2024 amendment it reviews permit applications in B1 and in any approved landmark district or building and recommends conditions to the village board: advisory. We found no published list of designated landmarks, so if yours is an old building, ask the village.

Chimneys: where they fail and what a sound repair covers

A chimney is the most exposed masonry on a house: clear of the roof, weathered on four sides, carrying a flue that heats and cools. BIA says chimneys, sills and copings in severe exposures may need repair at shorter intervals than the walls. The residential-code table Long Grove adopted classes its weathering as severe with a 42-inch frost line, and the model code defines severe as heavy snowfall with long spells of little or no thawing, where de-icing salts get used widely.

Where masonry chimneys fail

• The cap. The 2021 residential code calls for a concrete, metal or stone cap, sloped, with a drip edge and a caulked bond break around the flue liner. BIA prefers factory-made caps, wants cast ones reinforced against cracking and warns against feathering them to a thin edge.
• The liner top. BIA's detail stands the liner at least 2 inches above the cap, sealed where they meet.
• Flashing. BIA shows base flashing rising at least 4 inches up the chimney face, with counterflashing set three-quarters to one inch into a mortar joint and mortared solid over it: the detail to compare a quote against. A chimney wider than 30 inches along the ridge, and off the ridge, should have a cricket.
• Joints and brick faces above the roofline, where open joints and spalled faces get the most weather.
• A veneer chimney. If yours is a wood-framed chase faced with brick or stone, the code requires through-flashing and weep holes in the veneer.
• A factory-built fireplace. A metal firebox and flue must be listed and installed to their listing, so repairs follow the manufacturer's listing, not brick practice. Know which kind you have before asking for quotes.

When to have it inspected

The Chimney Safety Institute of America, following NFPA 211, says chimneys, fireplaces and vents, gas-fired included, should be inspected at least once a year. Level 1 is the routine inspection. CSIA recommends Level 2, with a roof visit and a camera scan of the flue, when use changes, at sale, before lining or relining, after a chimney fire or a damaging weather event, and when Level 1 cannot settle whether the flue is serviceable. Scan before a cap or repointing job: roofline repairs say nothing about the liner.

What a sound repair scope covers

• Diagnosis first. BIA says to find the moisture source before repairing; “tuckpoint the top” alone has not done that.
• Replacement of spalled or loose brick, not mortar smeared over damaged faces.
• Repointing to a uniform depth of at least twice the joint width, generally about three-quarters of an inch, in layers no thicker than a quarter inch.
• Cap, flashing and cricket as separate line items.
• The liner, if a scan finds cracks or gaps: a clay liner to ASTM C315 or a listed lining system, itemized apart from joint work.
• A breathable repellent at most. BIA allows vapor-permeable siloxane or silane products on severely exposed masonry like chimneys; film-forming coatings do not belong on exterior brick, and nothing replaces flashing.
• The permit. The village lists brickwork and tuckpointing, so ask whether a chimney repair is handled the same way.

Questions worth more than a quote

• Is my wall veneer on a frame, or solid masonry? It changes what a cracked joint means.
• Where is the water coming from? A bid that jumps straight to cutting joints skipped BIA's first step.
• What mortar, and how do you know it is no stronger than what is there?
• Have you done repointing, not only bricklaying? BIA says an excellent mason may not be qualified for repointing, and skills should be tested before choosing.
• Who pulls the permit, and is it in writing with materials listed? Illinois requires a written contract above a small-job threshold; see the FAQ.

Signs your masonry needs a look

• Mortar you can scrape out with a key, or sand falling from the joints
• Joints eroded back more than about a quarter inch
• White deposits that keep returning after brushing: BIA says persistent efflorescence means water is still getting in
• Spalling, especially on chimney tops, sills and steps that see de-icing salt
• Rust stains or lifting above a window or door: a corroding steel lintel
• Stair-step cracks, or any crack wider than about 2 mm
• A damp mark beside the chimney, which sends you to the cap, flashing and chimney joints first

Questions Long Grove owners ask