Round Lake Window Well Covers & Basement Windows
Round Lake has a local rule worth knowing before you touch anything drainage-related: every sump pump discharge in the village must connect to a storm sewer. Not a splash block, not out onto the lawn — the storm sewer.
It is also one of the newest-built places we serve. The village grew 213% between 2000 and 2010, 71% of its housing went up between 1990 and 2009, and the median home dates to 2003. Those subdivisions have now reached the age where the original builder-grade wells and sump systems come to the end of their first life.
Drained wetland, and what the ground remembers
Round Lake sits in the Squaw Creek watershed, which drains toward Long Lake and then into the Fox River and the Chain O'Lakes. Before settlement, wetlands covered roughly a fifth of that watershed; about 4,000 acres of it were drained for farming. The hydric soils left behind are still mapped across the area — the ground remembers being wet even where the water has been routed away.
Lake County is direct about why homes here flood: natural depressional areas, storm drains that get overwhelmed, and creeks blocked by debris. The county also notes that properties built before 1992, ahead of its Watershed Development Ordinance, take more flood damage than newer ones. In Round Lake that is a small minority of houses — but if yours is one of them, it is worth knowing why it behaves differently than your neighbor's.
One note on the name: Round Lake, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Park and Round Lake Heights are four separate villages with four separate building departments and four sets of adopted codes. Make sure you are calling the right one.
Permits and egress in Round Lake
Round Lake adopted the 2018 International Residential Code, and its permit list is refreshingly specific for a village this size: window modification, basement remodels, and sump and gutter discharge all require permits. Community Development is at 847-546-0963.
The sump rule is a genuine local amendment. The village amended its property maintenance code to require that all sump pump discharges from all buildings be connected to a storm sewer — stricter than the model code, and a rule people break by accident all the time when they replace a pump.
We read the village's code-update ordinance and found no Round Lake changes to the emergency escape and rescue requirements, so the 2018 IRC applies as written: 5.7 square feet of net clear opening, 24 inches of height, 20 inches of width, a 44-inch maximum sill, a well of 9 square feet with 36 inches of projection, a ladder past 44 inches, and a cover that opens from inside without a key, a tool or special knowledge.
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