Wet Building Solutions has been recommending repairs for moisture intrusion issues, as well as assisting homeowners and Avondale property owners with carpentry, masonry, roofing and structural engineering services related to moisture intrusion since 2015.

We are a leading resource for all things historic – carpentry, roofing and masonry – a consultancy that Avondale homeowners trust for guidance on everything from simple door pan flashing installation to rebuilding parapets to roof replacement and truss repair. We take earning our client's trust very seriously.

Wet Building Solution's owner and Chicago's leading moisture intrusion repair specialist, Bob Kelly has evaluated over 400 buildings in and around Chicago. Most of those buildings are now dry or in the process of drying. Click to read testimonials.

Call Wet Building Solutions

312-720-2168

to get the job done right, the first time

To date, Wet Building Solutions has evaluated 7 buildings in Avondale, including one of the original historic single family homes on the National Register. If you'd like a recommendation from one of your neighbors, give us a call, we will get permission from our client to share their contact information.

Our service list includes the following:

• Moisture Intrusion Diagnosis

• Building Envelope Analysis

• Building Evaluation

• Wet Building Consulting

• Roof Consulting

• Masonry Consulting

Some interesting info about Avondale...

The first European settler in Avondale was Abraham Harris who settled the area around 1853. It is commonly thought that John Lewis Cochran, a developer from Pennsylvania named the village in honor of the miners and rescue workers who died in the Avondale coal mine fire. Avondale was racially integrated even in the 1880s when African American families settled there and built Avondale's first church. Today, Avondale's population is so diverse that its nickname is "Where Eastern Europe meets Latin America".

The Polish Village or Jackowo [jat͡sˈkɔvɔ] and Wacławowo [vat͡swaˈvɔvɔ], together make up one of Chicago's largest Polish areas. The neighborhoods derive their Polish names from the two Polish Roman Catholic parishes - Saint Hyacinth's Basilica (Bazylika Św. Jacka) and St. Wenceslaus Church (Kościół Świętego Wacława). Milwaukee Ave is the district's main commercial strip, which includes a number of sausage shops, restaurants, and bakeries. In English the area is usually referred to as the Polish Village - the name featured on signs hung on street lamps over the district. Pulaski Avenue, named after the Polish Revolutionary War hero, runs through the area.

The Polish communities of Jackowo and Wacławowo appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Polish settlement spread further northwest along Milwaukee Avenue. The neighborhood experienced its heyday as the cultural nexus of Chicago's Polonia during the 1980s and 1990s with the so-called Solidarity and Post-Solidarity waves of Polish migration to Chicago, including a number of political refugees.

Just to the north of Jackowo is Wacławowo and the parish of St. Wenceslaus. Housing stock primarily consists of brick two-flats built prior to World War II and a number of bungalows.

Chicago's rapid expansion transformed the area's farms into clusters of factories and homes. At the start of the 20th century as area was booming, Belmont Gardens and Avondale were at the Northwestern edge of the Milwaukee Avenue "Polish Corridor"- a stretch of Polish settlement which spanned this thoroughfare all the way from Polonia Triangle at Milwaukee, Division and Ashland to Irving Park Road.

Belmont Gardens, due to its proximity to trains along the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, developed into the Pulaski Industrial Corridor. It was adjacent to his own factory that Mr. Walter E. Olson built what the Chicago Tribune put at the top of its list of the "Seven Lost Wonders of Chicago", the Olson Park and Waterfall Complex, a 22-acre garden and waterfall remembered by Chicagoans citywide as the place they fondly reminisce heading out to for family trips on the weekend. The ambitious project took 200 workers more than six months to fashion it out of 800 tons of stone and 800 yards of soil.

Kosciuszko Park, colloquially known as "Koz Park", or the "Land of Koz", is a prime example of a local identity born thanks to green spaces. Kosciuszko Park, dedicated in 1916, is named after the Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko. He was the designer and builder of West Point. Kosciuszko fought in the American Revolution and was awarded U.S. citizenship and rank of brigadier general as a reward.

Adjacent to Kosciuszko Park's border with Avondale near the intersection of George and Lawndale is St. Hyacinth Basilica, build in 1894. A local shrine, St. Hyacinth's features relics associated with Pope John Paul II, including an ornate jeweled crown that was blessed by the pontiff.



In 1937, Dad's Root Beer was founded in Avondale by Ely Klapman and Barney Berns. The factory has since been converted into condominiums.

Avondale Zip Code: 60618

Trusted building evaluation, leak diagnosis, roofing and masonry consulting for historic and contemporary homes in Avondale

Why work with just any consultant when you can rely on Bob Kelly from Wet Building Solutions? We are a full service building evaluation, leak diagnosis and engineering services provider. Kelly is also an Illinois licensed roofer and roofing consultant, as well an experienced masonry consultant. Get the peace of mind you deserve working with a reliable consultancy that always goes above and beyond expectations. Call 312-720-2168 to schedule a building evaluation today.