Roof Repair and Replacement in Suburban Cook County

Northwest Cook County roofing: postwar ranches to 1980s two-stories

The northwest suburbs grew outward from their railroad stations. Des Plaines, Arlington Heights and Palatine have older cores near the Metra tracks, wrapped in blocks of brick ranches, Cape Cods and split-levels from the years after World War II. Farther out, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Streamwood and much of Elk Grove Village were built later, mostly from the 1960s into the 1980s, in large phases.

That building pattern shows up on the roof. A subdivision built out over a few years usually got the same shingles, vents and gutter details on every house, so those roofs tend to wear out together. When one house on a block is re-roofed after a hailstorm, it is often the first of several. The problems we find again and again on these homes:

• Low-pitch rear additions and enclosed porches tied into the main roof with little or no step flashing.
• Bathroom fans that exhaust into the attic instead of through a roof or wall cap, leaving frost and mildew on the sheathing.
• A second layer of shingles from an earlier overlay, which has to come off before a new roof goes on.
• Five-inch gutters on long ranch-house eaves that overflow in a heavy summer downpour.

Our Schaumburg roofing and Des Plaines roofing pages take a closer look at how each town’s housing wears.

The near-west suburbs: bungalows, Tudors and Prairie houses

South and east of O’Hare, towns such as Oak Park, River Forest, Elmwood Park and La Grange were largely built out before the war. Their streets mix brick bungalows with low hipped roofs and front dormers, square-plan foursquares, Tudor Revival houses with steep front gables and, in Oak Park and River Forest especially, Prairie-style homes with broad, shallow roofs and deep overhangs.

Each style fails in its own way. Bungalow dormers leak where the dormer side walls meet the main roof. Tudor gables are steep enough that crews need roof jacks and toe boards before a single shingle comes off. Prairie overhangs sometimes hide built-in gutters, wooden troughs lined with sheet metal that rusted through long ago and now drain into the soffit. Where a town has a local historic district, a change in roofing material or color can need a preservation review before the permit is issued. We check for that during the first visit, not after the order is placed.

NWS-surveyed storm tracks through suburban Cook County

Damage surveys by the National Weather Service’s Chicago office trace several recent storms straight through the towns we serve:

• June 13, 2022: an EF-0 tornado began in unincorporated Schaumburg Township and ran about two miles into Roselle. Straight-line wind on its west side reportedly blew over two parked planes at Schaumburg Regional Airport.
• July 12, 2023: brief EF-0 tornadoes touched down in Schaumburg and on both sides of O’Hare, one tracking from Itasca toward the airport and another from the airport toward Park Ridge.
• July 14, 2023: straight-line winds estimated near 80 mph caused widespread tree damage across Elk Grove Village, worst around Elk Grove High School.
• July 15, 2024: a derecho produced 32 confirmed tornadoes in the Chicago forecast area, a record for one event there, including an EF-0 that crossed O’Hare from Bensenville to Rosemont.

Tornado paths are narrow; the straight-line wind around them is not. After storms like these, what we find most often is not a missing roof but shingles that lifted, broke their seal strips and settled back down, creased tabs along ridges and rakes, and punctures from falling limbs. Our storm damage repair page explains what we photograph and how we write it up for your insurer.

Village permits and unincorporated Cook County

Suburban Cook is divided among dozens of villages and cities, and their roofing rules differ more than most homeowners expect. Four of the towns closest to us show the range:

• Schaumburg treats a residential reroof as an express permit, with no plan review but a required final inspection.
• Des Plaines lets small repairs go without a permit, but requires one once work reaches a quarter of the roof within twelve months.
• Arlington Heights requires a village contractor license in addition to the state roofing license; our Arlington Heights roof replacement page walks through the village’s re-roof checklist.
• Palatine asks for the signed contract, showing the state roofing license number, to be uploaded with the application.

Homes in unincorporated pockets, such as parts of Schaumburg Township, are permitted by the Cook County Department of Building and Zoning instead. The county publishes its own reroof permit requirements and a map viewer for checking whether a parcel is unincorporated. We confirm which office has jurisdiction before we quote, so permit cost and timing are already in the estimate.

Flat roofs along the commercial corridors

Golf Road, Higgins Road and the streets around O’Hare are lined with offices, warehouses, strip centers and restaurants under low-slope roofs. Their failures are different from a house’s: ponding behind rooftop units, split seams in aging membranes, clogged internal drains and loose perimeter metal after a wind event. We inspect, repair and replace these roofs and give property managers dated photo reports they can budget from. See commercial roofing for the systems we work with.

Cook County roofing questions

How can I tell whether my Cook County home is in a village or unincorporated?

Your property tax bill lists the taxing districts for the parcel; a village or city named there usually means that municipality issues your permits. Cook County also offers an online map viewer showing whether a parcel is unincorporated. If it is still unclear, send us the address and we will check before quoting.

Which Cook County suburbs are closest to your crews?

Elk Grove Village is about five miles from our Addison shop in a straight line. Schaumburg and Des Plaines are under nine miles, Arlington Heights is about eleven, and Palatine about thirteen. Towns farther east, such as Oak Park, are a longer drive but still on our regular routes.

Can you repair the built-in gutters on an older west-suburban house?

Yes. Built-in gutters are troughs framed into the roof edge and lined with metal; when the lining fails, water runs straight into the cornice and wall. We can reline them with new metal or a membrane, or, where you prefer it and any historic review allows it, convert them to hung seamless gutters. We explain the difference in appearance and cost before you choose.