Evanston sits just east of Oakley with rows of early 1900s brick two-story homes along Montgomery Road and Dana Avenue. Many of these houses still use original chimneys that settle on clay soils and face repeated freeze-thaw cycles common to the Mill Creek valley. Unity Wrench sends crews from 3075 Vandercar Way around the clock to handle cracked flues, spalled brick, and draft problems that appear when cold air sinks into the neighborhood’s narrow lots.
Access on side streets like Woodburn Avenue and Ashland Avenue is often tight, so our vans carry compact scaffolding and hand tools sized for the small driveways and rear alleys typical here. We see the same issues repeat on homes near the Evanston Recreation Center where mature trees drop leaves that clog caps and where older mortar has never been repointed. Homeowners call us because we know which blocks back up to the railroad cut and which face the prevailing west wind that drives rain into south-facing chimneys.
Around Evanston
We regularly work near:
- 📍Montgomery Road
- 📍Dana Avenue
- 📍Evanston Recreation Center
- 📍Woodburn Avenue
- 📍Ashland Avenue
Chimney Repair in Evanston — Local Notes
- •Narrow rear alleys behind Dana Avenue homes require ladder placement from the street side only.
- •Clay-heavy soil around Evanston causes differential settling that opens chimney-to-roof joints on pre-1920 brick houses.
- •Freeze-thaw cycles along the Mill Creek corridor spall soft brick on chimneys that lack proper caps.
- •Mature oak and maple canopies on Woodburn Avenue drop debris that blocks flues on two-story homes with limited roof access.