Evanston general contractor for whole-home remodeling and additions
Bofran Builders remodels, expands, and restores the kind of houses Evanston is known for: large frame and brick homes that have stood within a mile of the lake for a century or more. If you are looking for an Evanston general contractor who treats 1920s construction as something to work with rather than around, that is the work we have built our name on since 1999.
One crew from structure to finish
Bofran Builders is a Chicago general contractor run by Frank, who has been building on the North Side and in the near-north suburbs since 1999. Our shop sits at 3922 N Ashland Ave, about nine miles from downtown Evanston — close enough that the owner shows up on your site, not just at the contract signing.
What sets us apart on older homes is that our framing crew is in-house. When a remodel opens a wall and finds balloon framing, a sagging header, or joists notched by eighty years of plumbers, we do not wait on a structural sub — the crew that found the problem fixes it, that week. On pre-war houses, that is the difference between a schedule and a stall.
- Illinois licensed general contractor (TGC136082), fully insured
- In-house framing crew for structural work on older homes
- 5-year structural warranty on our work
- Written, line-item estimates — free, with no obligation
- One point of contact from permit application to punch list
What we build for Evanston homeowners
Most Evanston projects land in one of three buckets — whole-home remodeling, additions, and restoration — with kitchens close behind. Each card links to the full service page with photos, process details, and cost guidance.
Whole-home remodeling
Gut renovations and phased updates that modernize the systems, layout, and finishes of a vintage house while keeping the character that made you buy it — original trim, masonry, and proportions included.
Whole-home remodeling servicesHome additions
Rear additions, second-story additions, and sunrooms, framed by our own crew. Tying new structure into a balloon-framed or masonry house is exactly the kind of work that should not be subbed out.
Home addition servicesRestoration
Structural repair and restoration for homes that have taken a century of lake weather — rebuilt framing, corrected settling, water-damage repair, and the careful surgery old houses eventually need.
Restoration servicesKitchen remodeling
Kitchens rebuilt for how families cook now, inside footprints drawn a hundred years ago — including the wall moves, beam work, and rewiring that vintage kitchens almost always involve.
Kitchen remodeling servicesWhat an Evanston general contractor should know about old houses
About 42 percent of Evanston's homes were built before 1939 — one of the oldest housing stocks in the Chicago area. That vintage is a big part of why people love the town: generous frame Victorians and foursquares near the lake, brick bungalows and Tudors farther west, and the courtyard buildings and two-flats that line the older streets. It is also why remodeling here is a different job than remodeling a 1990s subdivision house.
Behind the plaster, a pre-1939 house usually means balloon framing or true-dimension lumber, knob-and-tube wiring somewhere in the walls, galvanized supply lines, little to no insulation, and a foundation of brick, stone, or early concrete. None of that scares us, but all of it changes how a project should be planned, priced, and sequenced. We open houses like this for a living, and our estimates account for what we expect to find — not just what is visible on the walk-through.
Home remodeling in Evanston starts behind the walls
Our approach to home remodeling in Evanston is systems-first: get the structure, wiring, plumbing, and insulation right while the walls are open, then put the finishes on top. That order protects your budget. Finish work is easy to price; structural surprises are what blow up a remodel that was scoped by someone who never looked past the drywall.
Evanston homes also take real weather. A century of freeze-thaw cycles and wind-driven rain off Lake Michigan is hard on masonry, parapets, window openings, and roof edges, which is why structural restoration work is a core part of what we bring to lakefront towns.
Permits through the City of Evanston
Evanston issues its own building permits, separate from Chicago's system, with its own plan review and inspection schedule. As your general contractor we handle that end to end: drawings, the application, scheduled inspections, and final sign-off. If your house sits in one of Evanston's historic districts, exterior changes can involve an added review step — something to know before you design, not after, and something we flag in the first conversation.
The kind of work we do
Photos from recent Bofran Builders projects across Chicago and the north suburbs.
Evanston project FAQs
Yes. As your general contractor we prepare the drawings, file the permit application, schedule inspections, and manage the process through final sign-off. Evanston reviews plans independently of Chicago, and permits on older homes often need documentation of existing conditions — we handle that as part of the job, not as an extra.
That is most of what we do. We keep the original trim, doors, masonry, and proportions where they are worth keeping, and rebuild what is behind them — framing, wiring, plumbing, insulation — to current code. The goal is a house that looks the way it always did and works the way it never has.
Yes — rear additions, second-story additions, and sunrooms. Our framing crew is in-house, which matters on additions because tying new structure into balloon-framed or masonry walls is where addition projects usually go wrong. Our home additions page has details, photos, and a cost calculator with live ranges.
Scope, size, condition, and finish level drive the number far more than the suburb does, and pre-1939 houses vary too much for a generic figure to be honest. Our online calculators give live ranges for additions and framing work; for a whole-home remodel we walk the house with you and price the actual scope. Estimates are free, written, and carry no obligation.
Yes. Bofran Builders holds Illinois general contractor license TGC136082 and carries full insurance, and our work is backed by a 5-year structural warranty. Our shop is at 3922 N Ashland Ave in Chicago, about nine miles from downtown Evanston.
Talk to us about your Evanston home
Tell us what you are planning — a whole-home remodel, an addition, a restoration project, a kitchen — and we will walk the house with you and put a real number on it. Building for Chicago and the north suburbs since 1999.
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