We know these houses before we arrive.
A Portage Park bungalow, a Winnetka Tudor and a Lakeview courtyard building need three different kinds of carpenter. We work from a shop in Niles across 23 areas, and we know which profile belongs in which house before the tape comes out.
Close to the shop
Within a few minutes of Niles. Same-week estimates, and we are back the next day if something needs adjusting.
Park Ridge
next doorPark Ridge is our closest neighbour, and it is mostly 1920s to 1950s colonials, Tudors and centre-entrance houses with solid original trim worth keeping.
Niles
next doorOur own base.
Edison Park and Norwood Park
next doorTwo of the last bungalow-and-Cape-Cod pockets inside the city limits, and among the most house-proud.
Morton Grove
1.4 miPostwar ranches on generous lots, many still on their original layout.
Des Plaines
1.9 miMid-century ranches and raised ranches across most of the town, with older frame houses near the river and downtown.
Edgebrook and Sauganash
2.2 miThe quietest and most architectural corner of the north-west side: Tudors, colonials and custom houses on curved streets backing onto the forest preserve.
Glenview
2.4 miTwo Glenviews, and they want opposite things.
Jefferson Park
3.8 miChicago bungalow country, and the transit hub that made it.
Skokie
4.2 miBrick bungalows and postwar ranches, densely built and well maintained.
The North Shore and near suburbs
Older, larger houses where the existing millwork sets the standard new work has to meet.
Wilmette
5 miEast Wilmette is early-century: Prairie-influenced houses, foursquares and centre-entrance colonials with woodwork that was expensive when it was new and is irreplaceable now.
Winnetka
5.2 miThe most demanding woodwork we are asked for.
Northbrook
5.3 miLarge postwar and 1980s houses on big lots, plus a steady run of tear-down rebuilds.
Evanston
5.5 miOne of the oldest and most varied housing stocks in the region: Victorians, foursquares, greystones and courtyard buildings, plus a large share of two-flats and condo conversions.
Portage Park
5.6 miThe heart of the bungalow belt, and we have worked here.
Jobs finished here
The north side of the city
Bungalows, two-flats, greystones and condo conversions, from Lincoln Square down to Wicker Park.
Lincoln Square and Ravenswood
6.3 miFrame workers cottages, two-flats and greystones, most of them a hundred years old and most of them rehabbed at least once.
Irving Park and Old Irving
6 miUnusual for the north-west side: Victorian farmhouses and Queen Annes from before the bungalow boom, standing next to the bungalows that followed them.
Albany Park
6.2 miTwo-flats and three-flats, bungalows and courtyard buildings, much of it owner-occupied with a rental unit.
Avondale
6.9 miWorkers cottages and two-flats, and the highest remodelling demand of any area in our range.
North Center and Roscoe Village
7 miFrame cottages and two-flats being raised, dormered and extended, alongside new construction filling in the gaps.
Logan Square
8.3 miGreystones and boulevard houses with some of the best surviving interior woodwork in Chicago, plus a large stock of two-flats mid-conversion.
Bucktown and Wicker Park
10.5 miVictorian workers cottages and Italianate houses squeezed onto narrow lots, most of them gut-rehabbed at least once, plus a decade of infill new construction.
Lincoln Park
9.8 miRowhouses, Victorians and high-end gut rehabs at the top of the market, where the finish carpentry is the visible part of the budget.
Lakeview
9.5 miWe have worked here repeatedly.
Jobs finished here
Not on the list?
This is where we work most, not a fence. If you are anywhere in Chicago or the surrounding suburbs, ring us and ask. We travel for the right job.
Send a drawing, or a photo from your phone.
We will visit, measure and give you a written estimate. It is free, and there is no obligation.
Free estimates. Licensed and insured. A person answers Monday to Saturday.
