Building violation repairs in Chatham and Avalon Park
One of the most owner-proud stretches of the South Side, and it shows in what gets cited: not neglect, but 1920s brick that has reached the age where the mortar simply expires. Chatham has an unusually high count of open items per property, which almost always means one notice listing five or six things at once. Those are the notices worth pricing as a single job rather than a trade at a time.
Also covers Avalon Park, Burnside, Greater Grand Crossing.
What the City's record shows in 60619
cited properties
open violations
items per notice
What gets cited here, in order
- masonry47%
- permits and plans18%
- porches and stairs15%
- carpentry8%
- roofing and drainage6%
Cited buildings here were built around 1923 on average, and 77% of cited owners do not live at the property.
Chatham is mostly brick bungalows
The photograph is one of ours, a brick bungalow taken from cited to closed. It is not a picture of Chatham itself. It is the building type your blocks are made of, and the standard we finish them to.
Knowing the type matters more than it sounds. It decides whether your notice is a mortar problem or a framing one, whether a permit is needed before anyone touches it, and what the inspector will look at when they come back.
See more of our workWhat we fix most in Chatham
Notices here lead with masonry, then permits and plans. These are the trades that actually close cases on these blocks, and we self-perform all but the licensed ones.
Tuckpointing & Repointing
The joints get ground out and repointed to match, so the wall stops shedding mortar and the inspector stops writing it up.
On the notice as: Repair exterior wall, Building in disrepair
Brick Replacement
Cracked and missing brick swapped for units that match yours, so the repair disappears instead of announcing itself.
On the notice as: Repair exterior wall
Chimney Repair & Restoration
The most weather-beaten masonry you own, rebuilt, capped and made watertight so it stops feeding damage into the rest of the wall.
On the notice as: Chimney, Chimney capping
Steel Lintel Repair
Rusting steel above your windows replaced before it lifts the brick any further. This one gets worse and more expensive every year you wait.
On the notice as: Repair lintels
Porches, Stairs & Decks
Porches and exterior stairs rebuilt to current Chicago code, which is the item the City is least willing to be patient about.
On the notice as: Repair porch system, Repair exterior stair
Permits, Plans & Unpermitted Work
Drawings prepared, permits pulled under our licence, and old unpermitted work made legal. You never have to call the department yourself.
On the notice as: Plans & permits required, Work not allowed
Cited in Chatham? Find out what it costs.
We price every item on your notice in person, for free, and tell you honestly which ones are repairs and which are replacements.
Insured. A person answers, Monday to Saturday.