Masonry & Tuckpointing in Glenview, Illinois
Glenview is not a historic masonry town. That is not a problem with this page — it is the whole point of it.
The town nobody writes masonry articles about
Every masonry company on the North Shore wants to talk about Winnetka estates and hundred-year-old lime mortar. It makes for a good story. Here is the number that story leaves out about Glenview:
In ZIP 60025, about 4.5 percent of housing predates 1940. Roughly 60 percent of it went up between 1950 and 1979. Another 17 percent has been built since 2000. Glenview has less pre-1940 stock than Lake Forest (~16.5%) or Highland Park (~24%). The Edens opened in 1951 and, in the Village's own words, farmland disappeared altogether.
So no, your house probably is not historic, and we are not going to sell you a heritage story about it.
But run the arithmetic that actually matters. Brick in this climate needs repointing every 25 to 30 years. A typical Glenview house is 50 to 75 years old. That is past the cycle twice over — and in a great many cases it has never been repointed at all.
That is the real Glenview masonry problem. Not that the buildings are precious. That nobody has been paying attention to them, because the trade's attention is two towns east.
Your house does not need lime mortar. Beware anyone who says it does.
You will find plenty of pages — including ours, for other towns — explaining that pre-1930 masonry sits in soft lime mortar, and that repointing it with hard Portland cement wrecks the brick. That is true. It is also irrelevant to your house.
A 1962 Glenview ranch was built with Portland cement mortar, and Portland cement mortar is what belongs back in it. A contractor who turns up offering lime mortar for a postwar house is not showing you expertise; he is showing you that he read the same article you did.
The principle underneath both cases is identical: match what is already in the wall. On a 1910 bungalow that means lime. On a 1962 ranch it means Portland. Same rule, opposite answer. A mason who only knows one of them is wrong half the time — and in this village, most of the time.
Postwar brick is a different animal
Here is what most Glenview owners have never been told about their own walls.
Most postwar brick is veneer — a single layer of brick standing in front of a wood frame, tied back to it, with an air gap behind. Unlike solid historic masonry, that brick is not holding your house up. It is a rain screen. It is designed to let some water through and drain it back out through weep holes at the base of the wall.
Which means veneer fails in ways an estate facade never does:
Corroding wall ties
The metal ties holding the brick to the frame have been sitting in a damp cavity for sixty years. When they go, the veneer starts working loose from the building. You see bulging, or a wall that sounds hollow, or brick that has visibly moved away from the house. That is not a mortar problem, and repointing will not fix it.
Blocked weep holes
Those small gaps at the base of the wall are the only exit water has. They get blocked by mortar droppings from the original build, by paint, by landscaping piled against the wall, by a patio poured later at the wrong height. Once water cannot leave the cavity it sits against the back of the brick and against your framing. Ask a mason to show you your weep holes. If nobody can find them, that is your answer.
The rusting lintel — the classic
This is the most common postwar masonry failure in the Chicago suburbs, and it is worth knowing by name.
The brick above a wide opening — a garage door, a picture window — is carried on a steel lintel. Water reaches the steel and it rusts. Rust occupies many times the volume of the steel it came from, so the lintel swells and jacks the masonry above it upward.
What you see: a horizontal crack along the mortar line above the opening, brick that looks lifted or bowed, sometimes rust staining down the face. Repointing that crack without addressing the lintel is cosmetic. The steel is still swelling. It will come back, and you will have paid twice.
And the chimney, which is usually first
On a postwar house the chimney is often the only real masonry on the building — and the hardest-working. It stands above the roofline, exposed on all four sides, taking freeze-thaw from every direction while the walls below sit sheltered, with a flue carrying moisture from inside. Open joints near the top, a cracked crown, a leaning stack, white staining, loose brick. It is also the one masonry failure that is a safety question and not only a cost one.
Nobody is checking your mortar
Glenview has no active historic preservation commission. The Village's current boards list runs to the Board of Trustees, Fire & Police Commissioners, Building and Electrical, Environment & Natural Resources, the Environmental Review Committee, two pension boards, the Foreign Fire Insurance Board and the two Glenview Development Commissions. A Historic Preservation Commission appears only in archived material, and we could not establish when or how it went away. The Village's own preservation handbook says it had designated three structures as landmarks and is "in the early stages of its preservation efforts."
So there is no Certificate of Appropriateness here, no hearing, no delay. Permits are a building-department question. The diligence is entirely yours.
One thing we will not tell you
We will not tell you what your walls are made of. No source publishes a facade-material breakdown for Glenview, and the Census does not collect it. Any contractor who tells you "Glenview homes are brick" is reading a template, not your address.
What we will say is conditional and still useful: if your house has brick anywhere — full elevations, a front face, a chimney, a stoop — and it went up between 1950 and 1979, it is decades past due. A mason standing in front of the wall settles it in a minute.
What is actually historic here
For the record, since it comes up: Glenview has exactly two National Register listings. Kennicott's Grove at Milwaukee and Lake Avenues was listed on the Register August 13, 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark on January 7, 1976 — two separate things that get conflated constantly, including by people who should know better. And Hangar 1 at the former Naval Air Station, 1901 Fourth Street, listed November 12, 1998.
Note what that means for masonry. The Kennicott House of about 1856 is board and batten wood siding — unusual in Illinois, and with no facade to repoint. George Grant Elmslie's Redfield Estate of 1929 at The Grove is Tudor Revival, though its material is not documented. Glenview's oldest neighborhood is The Park, established 1894 by a Swedenborgian religious society near Glenview and Shermer Roads. The Village itself incorporated in 1899, on a vote of 59 to 51, with about 350 people — having chosen the name by popular vote on May 7, 1895, over "Rugenville" and "Glendale."
Questions worth more than a price per square foot
- Is this veneer or solid masonry? If he cannot tell you, he has not looked.
- Where are my weep holes, and are they open?
- What is the condition of the lintels over the garage and the big windows?
- Are the wall ties still holding? Any bulging or hollow-sounding areas?
- Which mortar mix, matched to what is in the wall now, at what hardness? The right answer here is a Portland mix — but it should still be matched, not guessed.
- Which joint profile — and does it match the existing?
A mason who cannot answer those is not cheap. He is quoting a different job than the one your house needs.
Signs your masonry needs a look
- Mortar you can rake out with a house key, or that falls away as sand
- Joints noticeably recessed behind the face of the brick
- A horizontal crack above a garage door or picture window, brick above it looking lifted — a rusting lintel
- Veneer that bulges, sounds hollow, or has pulled away — corroded ties
- Weep holes blocked, or nowhere to be found
- Damp patches or white efflorescence on interior walls
- Spalling — brick faces flaking or popping off
- A stoop or steps pulling away from the house
- Chimney: open joints, a cracked crown, or a stack that is not plumb
Any of these on a wall built fifty years ago is worth attention before another freeze-thaw season. Chicago-area winters do the damage; the mortar just tells you first.
Glenview and the surrounding area
Glenview sits inland from the lake, west of Wilmette and south of Northbrook, in the belt where the North Shore stops being old and starts being postwar. If your project is a greystone, a landmark facade or a full estate elevation instead, start with our greystone, landmark and estate work, compare tuckpointing in Wilmette or Skokie, or browse every area we serve across Chicagoland.
Questions Glenview owners ask
My Glenview house is not historic. Does it still need tuckpointing?
Almost certainly, and the reason is arithmetic rather than heritage. Brick in this climate generally runs 25 to 30 years between repointings. About 60 percent of Glenview's housing was built between 1950 and 1979, which means a typical Glenview house is now 50 to 75 years old — past the cycle twice over, and in many cases never repointed once. Historic towns get all the masonry attention because the story is better. Glenview has the opposite problem: nobody talks about its masonry, so nobody maintains it, and it quietly runs decades past due.
Is Glenview a historic masonry town?
No, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. In ZIP 60025 only about 760 of 17,061 housing units — roughly 4.5 percent — were built in 1939 or earlier, and only 8.8 percent predates 1950. Meanwhile 60.1 percent went up between 1950 and 1979 and 17 percent has been built since 2000. That is less pre-1940 stock than Lake Forest at about 16.5 percent or Highland Park at about 24 percent. The Edens Expressway opened in 1951 and, in the Village's own words, farmland disappeared altogether. Glenview's masonry conversation is a postwar one, and that is a different job from an estate facade — not a lesser one.
Should a mason use lime mortar on my 1960s Glenview house?
No — and if someone offers to, that is a red flag rather than a mark of expertise. Historic pre-1930 masonry was laid in soft lime-based mortar, and repointing it with hard modern Portland cement destroys the brick. That argument gets quoted a lot, and it is true, but it does not apply to your house. A 1960s house was built with Portland cement mortar, and Portland cement mortar is what belongs back in it. The principle that actually governs both cases is the same: match what is already in the wall. A mason who only knows one answer is wrong half the time — in this village, most of the time.
What is brick veneer and why does it change the job?
Most postwar brick is veneer: a single wythe of brick standing in front of a wood frame, tied back to it, with an air gap behind. Unlike solid historic masonry, veneer is not holding your house up — it is a rain screen. It is designed to let some water through and drain it back out through weep holes at the base, down the cavity behind. That design has consequences at 60 years old. The metal ties that hold the veneer to the frame corrode. The weep holes get blocked by mortar droppings, paint, landscaping or a new patio. And once water cannot leave the cavity, it sits against the back of the brick and against the framing. So on a Glenview house the questions are different from a historic facade: are the ties still doing their job, and can water still get out?
Why is the brick above my garage door or picture window cracking?
That is the single most common postwar masonry failure and it has a specific cause. The brick above a wide opening — a garage door, a picture window — is carried on a steel lintel. When water reaches that steel it rusts, and rust occupies many times the volume of the steel it came from. The lintel expands and jacks the masonry above it upward. You see a horizontal crack along the mortar line above the opening, brick that looks lifted or bowed, sometimes rust staining. Repointing that crack without dealing with the lintel is cosmetic; it will come back, because the steel is still swelling. Ask any mason who quotes this what they intend to do about the lintel itself.
Does Glenview review exterior masonry work?
Not in any preservation sense. Glenview has no active historic preservation commission — its current boards list runs to the Board of Trustees, Fire and Police Commissioners, Building and Electrical, Environment and Natural Resources, the Environmental Review Committee, two pension boards, the Foreign Fire Insurance Board and the two Glenview Development Commissions. A Historic Preservation Commission appears only in archived material, and we could not establish when or how it was dissolved. The Village's own preservation handbook says it had designated three structures as landmarks and is in the early stages of its preservation efforts. Practically: nobody is reviewing your mortar. Permits are a building department question, not a landmark one.
Is my Glenview house even brick?
We genuinely do not know, and neither does anyone else writing about this town. No source publishes a dominant residential facade material for Glenview, and the Census does not collect it. Any contractor telling you what Glenview houses are made of is guessing at your address from a template. What we can say is conditional and still useful: if your house has brick or brick veneer anywhere — full elevations, a front face, a chimney, a stoop — and it went up between 1950 and 1979, it is decades past the usual repointing cycle and worth a look. A mason standing in front of the wall settles the question in a minute.
What about the chimney?
On a postwar house the chimney is usually the first thing to fail and often the only real masonry on the building. It stands above the roofline, exposed on all four sides, with no shelter from anything, and it takes freeze-thaw from every direction while the walls below stay comparatively protected. Add a flue carrying moisture and combustion gases from the inside and you have the hardest-working masonry on the house. Look for open or missing joints near the top, a crown that is cracked, a stack that reads as leaning, white staining, or loose brick. A chimney is also the one masonry failure with a safety dimension rather than just a cost one.
What is actually historic in Glenview?
Less than the marketing suggests, and it is mostly not masonry. Glenview has exactly two National Register listings. Kennicott's Grove at Milwaukee and Lake Avenues was listed on the National Register on August 13, 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark on January 7, 1976 — two separate designations that get conflated constantly. And Hangar 1 at the former Naval Air Station, 1901 Fourth Street, was listed November 12, 1998. Worth knowing for a masonry conversation: the Kennicott House of about 1856 is board and batten wood siding, which was unusual in Illinois — it is a wood-frame house with no facade to repoint. George Grant Elmslie's Redfield Estate of 1929 at The Grove is Tudor Revival, though its material is not documented. The oldest neighborhood is The Park, established in 1894 by a Swedenborgian religious society near Glenview and Shermer Roads.
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 Glenview. 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.
What are the warning signs on a postwar Glenview house?
Mortar you can rake out with a house key or that falls away as sand. Joints recessed noticeably behind the face of the brick. A horizontal crack above a garage door or picture window, with the brick above it looking lifted — that is a rusting lintel. Brick veneer that bulges, or sounds hollow, or has moved away from the wall — that is corroded ties. Weep holes at the base of the wall that are blocked or that you cannot find at all. Damp or white efflorescence on interior walls. Faces flaking or popping off, which is spalling. A stoop or steps pulling away from the house. And on the chimney: open joints, a cracked crown, or a stack that is not plumb.