Chicago City Inspections

[Account Closed]

Does anyone have experience dealing with Chicago city inspectors? I'm doing some repair-and-replace structural renovations (not moving walls or making any additions) on a three-flat on the North Side / Lakeview area and I'm not sure what to expect when it comes to having the city do inspections. Like a lot of Chicago houses its pretty old but its in good condition (except for the damage I need to have fixed).

The owners unit has a duplex up into the attic (however there is still an attic space above the duplex-up). I’m going to need to pull permits for some of the work I’m doing and a city inspector will likely go through my whole house. The duplex up is nice - the attic space has 7+ ft high ceilings in the bedrooms and hallway (there's a small part of the hallway that's about 6.5ft high) and each room has a window and ventilation. The duplex up has two forms of egress.

Anyone have any insight as to what I can expect when it comes to city inspections? Also I should note that a city inspector did walk through my entire house when I wasn't there - we temporary shored the house and he put a stop work order on it. However he worked it out with my contractor and eventually removed the stop work order and told us to keep working.

[Prashanth Mahakali]

@Jonathan Klemm Thank you for the mention!

@Account Closed  It looks like you are doing structural work without a permit. Please confirm. If so, you would have to go through the process and get the stop work order removed by having an Architect submit plans and go through the permit process. It looks like someone called the inspector due to a concern. Is the building occupied while you are performing the work. I would caution you against making contact with the city yourself without getting a professional with you. This is either an Architect or an attorney. Good luck!