Masonry & Tuckpointing in Mettawa, Illinois
Mettawa is small enough that the statistics people quote about it are not real. So this page is about what is actually on your land instead.
We are not going to quote you statistics about Mettawa
Most local pages open with numbers — what percentage of the town predates 1940, the median year built, how much of it is brick. We are not going to do that here, and the reason is the most useful thing we can tell you about this village.
Mettawa recorded 256 housing units at the 2020 Census. The American Community Survey estimate is 281, plus or minus 73 — a margin of error of more than 26 percent of the estimate itself. At that sample size, decade-by-decade year-built percentages are not statistically meaningful. The Census would suppress or flag them.
There is a second problem, and it is worse. A median year built of 1986 and a pre-1940 figure of about 14.5 percent do circulate for Mettawa — but NeighborhoodScout files its Mettawa page under a Lake Forest path, which suggests it may be describing a Lake Forest neighbourhood rather than the Village of Mettawa at all.
So the honest position is: anyone quoting you confident housing statistics about Mettawa is either repeating noise or describing a different place. This page is shorter than the others in this network because the verifiable material is thinner, and padding it out would be exactly the kind of invention we spend our time removing from these pages.
What we can talk about is what is actually standing on your land.
What Mettawa is, verifiably
The village incorporated on April 20, 1960, and the reason is consistent across sources: residents organising to block encroaching commercial development.
Its comprehensive plan describes it as a low-density rural residential community with many acres of private open space, with most land reserved for open space or compatible non-residential use. There is no commercial development, and the village has a genuine equestrian character.
Two things people repeat that we are going to flag rather than assert. The 5-acre minimum lot size is stated everywhere, but the village zoning ordinance could not be retrieved to confirm it — so we will say Mettawa is known for very large lots and leave the legal precision to the village. And the name is attributed to a Potawatomi chief, cited to a 1992 Chicago Tribune article and a 1957 book, neither of which we could read directly.
Around and within the village sit five Lake County Forest Preserves. Two are confirmed by name: Captain Daniel Wright Woods — 612 acres with a three-mile horse trail loop, at St. Mary's Road and Everett Road — and Old School. I-94 forms the western perimeter, Illinois Route 60, Town Line Road, has its own I-94 interchange here, and the Des Plaines River runs along the western boundary.
The one landmark, and why it is not a masonry reference
Mettawa has exactly one National Register listing: the Adlai E. Stevenson II Farm at 25200 North Saint Mary's Road.
It was listed on the National Register on September 14, 2003, reference 03000918, and designated a National Historic Landmark on April 23, 2014. The main house was built in 1938, replacing a 1936 house lost to fire, to a design by Perkins, Wheeler and Will. The site also holds a service building from 1937–39, a tennis court from after 1945, and a barn from 1958. It now sits within Lake County Forest Preserve District holdings.
It is a genuinely significant place. It is also not usable as a masonry reference, and we would rather say so than borrow the prestige.
No construction material is documented for the Stevenson Farm. The accessible description tells us only that the house was originally painted yellow and later repainted white. The National Historic Landmark nomination could not be decoded. If we cannot establish the material of the one nationally landmarked building in the village, we are certainly not going to tell you what your house is made of.
On regulation: we found no historic preservation commission and no landmark ordinance in Mettawa. But the village code itself was not accessible to us, so that is an absence of evidence rather than a certified absence, and we will phrase it that way. Ordinary building permits apply as they would anywhere.
The masonry that is actually here
On a very large lot, the masonry on a property is usually only partly the house. This is where a Mettawa job differs from a suburban one, and it is the part worth planning around.
- Chimneys, often several — a chimney stands above the roofline taking weather from every direction, with no wall sheltering it. On almost any large house it is the first masonry element to need attention, and on a property with multiple stacks the work multiplies.
- Freestanding site and privacy walls — masonry with no roof over it takes water from above as well as from both sides. It weathers on a distinctly faster clock than the house does, and the top course usually opens up first.
- Gate pillars and entry columns — at the head of a long drive, these are exposed on all four sides, often original to the property, and frequently the most visible masonry you own.
- Pool surrounds and terrace coping — horizontal masonry holds standing water instead of shedding it, which makes it the fastest-failing surface on any estate property. Add chlorinated splash-out and the mortar takes a beating.
- Equestrian and outbuilding masonry — stables, tack rooms and barns in a village with genuine horse country. These get inspected far less often than the house and are frequently decades behind on maintenance.
- Retaining walls, steps and garden walls — the small structures that get deferred until they stop being cosmetic.
The practical consequence: a quote based on walking around the house will miss most of the masonry on a Mettawa property. Ask for the whole site to be walked, and expect that to take a while.
Which mortar, without pretending we know your house
Since we will not tell you when your house was built, we will give you both cases and let the mason in front of the wall decide.
Masonry laid before roughly 1930 sits in lime-based mortar, softer than modern Portland cement. That softness is the design: lime mortar is the sacrificial element in the wall, moving and weathering so the brick or stone does not. Repoint it with hard Portland cement and the relationship inverts — the joint becomes stronger than the masonry, moisture leaves through the face instead of the joint, and you get spalling, which cannot be undone.
Masonry laid after that sits in modern Portland mixes, where a modern mix is the correct answer rather than a compromise, and the issues shift to age and hardware: corroded wall ties, clogged weep holes, cracked sealant joints and rusting steel lintels above openings.
The rule that binds this whole network together is simple and it is the one question worth asking any contractor: match what is actually in the wall. Lime on an older wall, Portland on a newer one. A mason who reaches for the same bag regardless is not matching anything.
Questions worth more than a price per square foot
- Will you walk the entire property, not just the house? On acreage, the site walls, pillars, pool surround and outbuildings are usually where the deferred work is.
- How many chimneys are there, and what condition are they in? Expect this to be the first item, not an afterthought.
- Is my mortar lime or Portland, and how can you tell? The answer should reference the existing joint, not a standard specification.
- What is the freestanding masonry doing along its top course? Walls with no coping or failed coping take water straight down into the core.
- How will equipment reach the far side of the property? Long drives, soft ground and mature trees are real logistics on a large lot.
- What is happening at the pool surround and terrace? Horizontal masonry fails first and gets looked at last.
- How is the old joint being removed? An angle grinder in the wrong hands widens joints and scars brick and stone edges permanently.
A mason who answers only with a price per square foot is quoting a different job than the one your property needs — and on acreage, probably a small fraction of the actual masonry.
Signs your masonry needs a look
- Cracked chimney crown, or mortar washing out of the stack above the roofline
- Freestanding walls, gate pillars or entry columns leaning, or with open joints along the top course
- Mortar you can rake out with a house key, or that falls away as sand
- Spalling — brick or stone faces flaking or popping off. Water is already getting in and freezing
- Loose, rocking or lifted units around the pool surround, terrace or steps
- Stair-step cracking following the joints — usually movement, not weather
- Outbuilding and stable walls nobody has looked at in a decade
On a large property the pattern is consistent: the house gets attention and everything else gets deferred, so the freestanding and horizontal masonry is usually years further along than the building. That is also the cheapest place to catch a problem, if someone actually looks.
Mettawa and the surrounding area
Mettawa sits between Libertyville and Lake Forest, west of the Des Plaines River, in a corner of Lake County defined by very large lots and forest preserve. If yours is a greystone, a landmark facade or a full estate elevation, start with our greystone, landmark and estate work, compare masonry in Lake Forest or masonry in Lincolnshire, or browse every area we serve across Chicagoland.
Questions Mettawa owners ask
Why does this page not give housing statistics for Mettawa?
Because at this size they are not meaningful, and we would rather explain that than print a number. Mettawa recorded 256 housing units at the 2020 Census, and the American Community Survey estimate is 281 plus or minus 73, a margin of error exceeding 26 percent of the estimate itself. At that sample size, decade-level year-built breakdowns are statistically empty and the Census would suppress or flag them. There is a second problem too: a median year built of 1986 and a pre-1940 figure around 14.5 percent do circulate, but NeighborhoodScout files its Mettawa page under a Lake Forest path, which suggests it may describe a Lake Forest neighbourhood rather than the village. So anyone quoting confident Mettawa housing statistics is either repeating noise or describing a different place.
Is Mettawa a historic village?
Not in the sense that would matter for masonry. It incorporated on April 20, 1960, and the consistent account across sources is that residents organised to block encroaching commercial development. Its comprehensive plan describes a low-density rural residential community with many acres of private open space, with no commercial development and a genuine equestrian character. Two things commonly repeated we will flag rather than assert: the 5-acre minimum lot size is stated widely but the village zoning ordinance could not be retrieved to confirm it, so we describe Mettawa as known for very large lots instead; and the name is attributed to a Potawatomi chief, cited to a 1992 Chicago Tribune article and a 1957 book, neither of which we could read directly.
What about the Stevenson Farm?
It is Mettawa's only National Register listing and a genuinely significant place, but it is not a masonry reference. The Adlai E. Stevenson II Farm at 25200 North Saint Mary's Road was listed on the National Register on September 14, 2003 under reference 03000918 and designated a National Historic Landmark on April 23, 2014. The main house was built in 1938, replacing a 1936 house lost to fire, to a design by Perkins, Wheeler and Will, and the site also holds a service building from 1937 to 1939, a tennis court from after 1945 and a barn from 1958. It now sits within Lake County Forest Preserve District holdings. But no construction material is documented for it. The accessible description says only that the house was originally painted yellow and later repainted white, and the landmark nomination could not be decoded. If we cannot establish the material of the one nationally landmarked building in the village, we are not going to tell you what your house is made of.
Do I need any approval to do masonry work in Mettawa?
We found no historic preservation commission and no landmark ordinance in Mettawa. However, the village code itself was not accessible to us, so that is an absence of evidence rather than a certified absence, and we would rather phrase it precisely than give you a guarantee we cannot back. Ordinary building permits apply as they would in any village. If your project is substantial, or if it touches anything near the forest preserve boundaries, it is worth a call to the village before scheduling rather than after.
What masonry work do estate properties actually need?
Considerably more than the walls of the house, and this is where quoting goes wrong on acreage. Chimneys come first: a stack above the roofline takes weather from every direction with no wall sheltering it, and on a large house there is often more than one. Freestanding site and privacy walls weather faster than the building because they take water from above as well as both sides, and the top course usually opens up first. Gate pillars and entry columns at the head of a long drive are exposed on all four sides and are often original to the property. Pool surrounds and terrace coping are horizontal, so they hold standing water rather than shedding it, which makes them the fastest-failing masonry anywhere on a property, and chlorinated splash-out adds to it. Then there are stables, tack rooms and barns, which in a village with real horse country get inspected far less often than the house.
Should my house be repointed with lime or Portland mortar?
It depends on when the wall was built, and since we are not going to guess your construction date, here is both cases. Masonry laid before roughly 1930 sits in lime-based mortar, which is softer than modern Portland cement, and that softness is deliberate: the mortar is the sacrificial element in the wall, moving and weathering so the brick or stone does not. Repoint it with hard Portland cement and the joint becomes stronger than the masonry around it, so moisture leaves through the face rather than the joint and carries expansion stress with it, producing spalling that cannot be reversed. Masonry laid after that sits in modern Portland mixes, where a modern mix is correct rather than a compromise, and the issues become age and hardware: corroded wall ties, clogged weep holes, cracked sealant and rusting steel lintels. The single question worth asking any contractor is how they intend to match what is already in the wall.
Why is this page shorter than your other city pages?
Because Mettawa has less verifiable material than the other towns we cover, and we decided that padding it would be worse than admitting it. Most pages in this network run to two and a half or three thousand words because there is that much documented, checkable local detail: housing age from primary Census tables, named historic districts with contributing-building counts, preservation ordinances we can quote, buildings with confirmed construction materials. For a village of roughly 256 homes, most of that simply does not exist, and the parts that appear to exist turn out on inspection to describe somewhere else. Writing another fifteen hundred words of generic masonry filler with Mettawa's name inserted would look more thorough and be less useful. The genuinely local content is what is on your acreage, so that is what this page is about.
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 Mettawa. 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.