Where we take requests from
We pass requests to plumbers in Lake County, IL, town by town. These ten towns have a page of their own so far, and the form works the same from anywhere in the county.
Towns with a page of their own
Each page covers what plumbers in Lake County actually meet in that town: where the water comes from, how hard it is, who owns the sewer line, and how old the houses are.
What plumbers in Lake County deal with
Water is the first split. Nine of the ten towns above drink Lake Michigan water. Lake Zurich does not. It pumps from five deep wells in a sandstone aquifer, and it has signed up to join the lake supply later this decade. That one difference changes the water softener question. The raw well water was hard, the village treats it, and what reaches the faucet is softer than the lake water next door.
Where the water goes matters as much as where it comes from. Waukegan, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and the east side of Gurnee send waste to the North Shore Water Reclamation District. Libertyville and Deerfield run plants of their own. Vernon Hills, Lake Zurich, and part of Grayslake sit with Lake County Public Works, and Buffalo Grove is split across two counties and two agencies. In Buffalo Grove, Gurnee, Highland Park, and Deerfield the homeowner owns the line from the house to the village connection, so a collapsed lateral is a homeowner's bill.
Then there is the ground itself. Libertyville and Gurnee sit on the Des Plaines River flood corridor, and Gurnee calls that river its most dangerous flood hazard. Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Waukegan drain the other way, down steep ravines cut into the lakefront bluff. Lake Zurich has its own lake, and Grayslake sits among wetlands. Housing age finishes the picture. About a quarter of Highland Park's houses went up before 1939, old enough that galvanized steel supply lines and cast iron drains are common. The middle house in Grayslake dates from 1994. The same symptom in those two towns usually has a different cause.
If your town is not listed
Send a request anyway. We take requests from anywhere in Lake County, and the list of town pages is shorter than the list of towns we cover. Waukegan and Highland Park have pages because we wrote them first, not because Mundelein or Antioch are out of bounds.
Put the town name in the request form. If nobody covers it, we will say so rather than sit on the request.
Four things that change across the county
- Hard water is not everywhere
Lake Zurich's raw well water ran 14 to 18 grains per gallon. Ion exchange brought the treated supply down to 6 to 8, and the village now tells residents a softener is a matter of preference. Source for Hard water is not everywhere
- Lake water is softer than people expect
The regional lake supply sits near 8 grains per gallon. The agency that treats it says the water holds almost no iron and does not usually scale up pipes, and it warns that softening it further can make the water more corrosive. Source for Lake water is softer than people expect
- The Des Plaines River floods the same places
Gurnee treats the river as the town's worst flood hazard. Around 100 homes and 16 businesses took water in July 2017, and the village now runs a voluntary floodplain buyout with the county and FEMA. Source for The Des Plaines River floods the same places
- The lakefront drains through ravines
Highland Park has regulated work in its ravines and bluffs since rules adopted in May 2008. Lake Forest and Waukegan share the same landscape, where runoff drops through steep narrow cuts instead of spreading across flat ground. Source for The lakefront drains through ravines
Not sure we cover you?
Put your town in the request form and we will tell you straight away.