Lake In The Hills Window Well Covers & Basement Windows
The village is refreshingly blunt about which houses flood here, and the honesty is worth repeating: areas along Woods Creek and Crystal Creek in the original part of the village are much more susceptible to flooding, and development since 1973 has been subject to much tougher building codes and is less likely to suffer flood damage — although, as the village adds, flooding is still possible.
That splits the town cleanly. About 8% of the housing predates 1970. Nearly 74% went up between 1990 and 2009, and the median home was built in 1995. Two different eras, two different sets of problems, often on the same afternoon's schedule for us.
Four lakes, two creeks, and a fen
Woods Creek Lake, Goose Lake, Willow Lake and Lake Scott all sit inside the village, fed and drained by Woods Creek and Crystal Creek. The village runs more than 104 miles of storm sewer into that system and employs a dedicated Stormwater Enforcement Officer.
Crystal Creek overflowed repeatedly between 1978 and 1999, putting roughly a foot of water against homes along it. In 1993, heavy rain nearly overtopped the Woods Creek Lake dam. In late 2023 the village stabilised a thousand feet of Woods Creek streambank and restored six acres of adjacent wetland.
Then there is the Lake in the Hills Fen, a 353-acre Illinois Nature Preserve inside the village. A fen exists because groundwater collecting in sand and gravel picks up minerals from limestone and seeps out at the base of the hills. If you live near it, groundwater is not a theoretical part of your basement's story — it is the local geology doing exactly what it has always done.
Permits and egress in Lake in the Hills
The village adopted the 2021 International Residential Code effective May 1, 2022. Windows and doors are listed as work requiring a permit, as are structural, electrical, plumbing and heating alterations. Egress windows, wells, sumps and drain tile are not itemised separately — the village's own instruction is to call and ask, at 847-960-7400 or cd@lith.org.
One thing to settle before you hire anyone, us included: contractors must be licensed with the village to work here.
The village keeps printed handouts for many permit types at Village Hall rather than posting them online, so if your project is at all unusual it is worth going in person. Under the 2021 IRC your well needs at least 9 square feet with 36 inches of projection and width, a ladder past 44 inches of depth, and a cover that releases from inside without a key, a tool or special knowledge.
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Lake In The Hills Window Well Covers | Lake In The Hills Window Wells | Lake In The Hills Egress Window Wells | Lake In The Hills Well Covers | Lake In The Hills Basement Window Well Covers