Chicago's older homes

The bungalow is the house many people picture when they think of Chicago. In Chicago, a bungalow has come to mean a single-family home, one and a half stories tall, longer than it is wide, and built between 1910 and 1940. It is made of brick, usually with stone trim. A federal Building America report looked at advanced energy retrofits, within a large weatherization program, for the archetypal Chicago brick bungalow. Two-flats, greystones and cottages have their own histories, and what each house was built with varies. The clues below help you read your own.

Source: WBEZ Chicago · U.S. Department of Energy

Central heating came with coal and factory-made parts. Steam power from coal and industrial mass production made early central heating possible, with heated air or steam sent through metal ducts or pipes. Late in the nineteenth century, steam and low-pressure hot water radiator systems were in common use in offices and homes. Coal-fired boilers sent hot water or steam to new cast iron radiators in every room.

If your bungalow has radiators, it was most likely built with a hot water boiler system. Steam also used radiators, but it was usually put in larger houses of three stories or more and in commercial buildings. If there are no radiators and no sign there ever were, your bungalow started life with a coal furnace feeding a network of ducts. Without electricity or fans, those early furnaces moved heat by natural convection, with heated air rising through ducts to the rooms above.

Source: National Park Service · Historic Chicago Bungalow Association

The two radiator systems work differently. Most gravity hot water systems heat the water to no more than about 180°F, and the water coming back to the boiler rarely falls below 120°F. Steam systems heat water to its boiling point, 212°F, and the rising pressure pushes steam through the pipes to each radiator. Steam moves under its own pressure without a pump, and it is easier than hot water to spread through large homes and tall buildings.

Systems have changed over the decades. Since the 1930s, many bungalow hot water systems were converted by adding a pump to the boiler. You can often tell the radiators apart: steam radiator sections join only across the bottom, while hot water radiator sections join across both top and bottom. A one-pipe steam radiator has an air vent on the side opposite the pipe, two-thirds of the way up.

Care differs too. Hot water radiators should be bled at least once a year, usually at the start of the heating season. Steam radiators do not need bleeding, because their automatic air vents let air out as steam comes in. Hissing valves are normal, while faulty valves or sagging pipes can cause knocking.

Source: Historic Chicago Bungalow Association

If your home's heating was ever converted from coal or oil, the chimney deserves attention. Chimney inspections are especially important where oil or coal heating systems have been converted to gas. Owners converting from oil to gas should have the chimney inspected at the time of the conversion, then every year after.

Whatever the age of the system, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission advises that a qualified heating contractor inspect the home heating system every year. The venting and chimneys page goes into chimneys and flues in more depth.

Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Old systems have real strengths and some quirks. Cast iron radiators take up room space, and replacement parts and repair help may be hard to find. Poorly kept radiators can damage wood floors, and steam systems in particular can be noisy. Heated air must move freely around each radiator, so decorative covers should have plenty of openings. If a radiator is not heating evenly, check whether the floor beneath it has settled; shims under the radiator will bring it back into line.

Historic radiators can be worth keeping. In one example from the National Park Service's guidance on historic heating, a round radiator in a small entry was judged a significant part of the historic system, to be kept when the system was upgraded. For cooling, ENERGY STAR names older homes with no ductwork, heated by radiators or baseboards and never fitted with central air, among the homes suited to ductless heating and cooling.

Source: Historic Chicago Bungalow Association · National Park Service · ENERGY STAR

Older homes can hide materials that need care before any heating work. Asbestos was commonly used in home building materials before the mid-1970s, and sometimes until the late 1980s, partly because it is a good insulator. It is not a concern if it is kept undamaged and intact, and disturbing it may release fibers into the air.

Homes built before 1978 probably contain lead-based paint. In general, anyone paid to do work that disturbs paint in housing built before 1978 must be certified. The asbestos and lead page explains both in more depth.

Source: Illinois EPA · City of Chicago · U.S. EPA