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Two-Flats & Three-Flats

The building type that defines this city, and the rehab work that goes with it. More plaster than anyone plans for.

The building

Why a two-flat produces so much more debris than its footprint

A Chicago two-flat or three-flat sits on a standard 25-foot lot and does not look like much from the street. Then you open it up and find two or three complete dwellings stacked on top of each other, each with its own kitchen, its own bathroom and its own century of alterations.

Everything that a single-family gut produces, you get two or three times over. Two kitchens. Two or three bathrooms, usually with cast-iron tubs and mortar-set tile. Separate heating runs. Decades of separate decorating decisions. And in between, common stairs and a shared basement that has been nobody's responsibility since the 1970s.

Then there is the plaster. Pre-war Chicago interiors are plaster over wood lath, not drywall, and it is the material that decides the container. It comes off in slabs with the lath nailed to it, it does not compact, and it is heavy enough that a 20 yard container reaches its legal travelling weight while it still looks two-thirds full. That is the single most important sentence on this page.

Deconversions

Undoing what somebody did in 1972

A large part of our two-flat work is deconversion — taking a building that was cut into units and putting it back to one or two dwellings. Logan Square, Humboldt Park and Avondale produce a steady stream of it.

Deconversion debris is its own category, and it is deceptive. You are removing things that were added: a second kitchen, an extra bathroom, partition walls that were never part of the original plan, dropped ceilings, panelling, a separate entrance stair. The square footage you are touching is small. The volume is not.

It also tends to be mixed in an awkward way — cabinetry, pipework, drywall over original plaster, flooring laid over flooring. It packs badly, which is the argument for a larger container, while the plaster underneath is the argument for a smaller one. The usual resolution is a 20 yard with a planned swap rather than a 30, and in an alley the 20 is the easier container to place anyway.

Demolition debris from a Chicago multi-unit rehab

Sizing

What these jobs actually take

Job	Containers	Note
Single unit refresh — kitchen and bath	One 15 yard	Cast iron and mortar-set tile set the weight
Single unit gut to the studs	One 20 yard, possibly a swap	Plaster weight, not volume, decides it
Two-flat deconversion	20 yard plus one or two swaps	Removing an added kitchen and bath per floor
Two-flat full gut	20 yard, three or four swaps	Plan the swap schedule before day one
Three-flat full gut	20 yard, four to six swaps	Or a 30 if the alley will genuinely take one
Common stair and basement only	One 15 yard	Shared basements hold more than anyone expects
Rear porch rebuild	One 20 yard	Bulky light timber — cut it down and it halves

Notice how often the answer is “a 20 yard and swaps” rather than a bigger box. In the city that is not a compromise — it is the container that fits the alley, and swapping it is a twenty-minute job.

Planning the swaps

Sequence the containers like you sequence the trades

Tell us the whole job at the start If you know it is four containers over three weeks, say so on day one. We plan the run rather than fitting each one in as the call comes, and the swaps land when you need them.
Strip the salvage before the destructive phase Cast-iron radiators, copper, brass fittings, original millwork and doors, and the brick if anything is coming down. Afterwards you are picking through a pile and it never happens.
Keep one clean heavy container Concrete, brick and block in their own box. On a permitted job this is what does most of the work towards the city's recycling percentage, because it is measured by weight. How the 50 percent rule works →
Put the plaster in early, not late If plaster goes into a container that is already half full of bulky light material, you will hit the weight limit with a lot of unused space. Heavy first.
Give the driver one site contact Somebody who can answer a placement question in the alley at seven in the morning. On a multi-container job nothing saves more time.

What comes out of these buildings

Things worth stopping for

Cast-iron radiators. Heavy, and they have a scrap route of their own. A three-flat can yield a surprising tonnage, and putting them in the mixed container is the easiest percentage you will ever give away.

Chicago common brick. If anything structural is coming down, the brick is salvageable whole and there is a genuine reclaim market for it. It is the one material where working slowly pays.

Original millwork and doors. Not a disposal question but worth saying: architectural salvage operators in this city will take them, and once they are in the container they are gone.

Knob-and-tube wiring and old pipe. Copper and brass have a route; galvanised and cast-iron drain pipe is heavy and goes in the metal stream.

And the one to stop for. Pre-1980 buildings mean assume asbestos until tested — floor tile and mastic, pipe and boiler wrap, some skim coats. Licensed abatement, excluded from the recycling calculation, and not something any container can take. The full list →

Common questions

What people ask when they call

Why not just use a 30 yard and be done with it?

Two reasons. It will not fit most Chicago alleys, and on plaster demolition you reach the weight limit before you fill it anyway. A 20 with swaps is faster in practice.

How quickly can you swap a full container?

Usually next working day, and often same day where the run allows. On a planned multi-container job we schedule them rather than react to them.

Does the city recycling requirement apply to my rehab?

If the work has a building permit, yes — recyclable C&D debris at 50 percent, documented after the project by the permit holder. A cosmetic refresh without a permit is a different matter.

Can the container stay for the whole rehab?

Yes, with swaps as it fills. On a public way placement the permit period has to cover the whole time, so tell us the real duration at the start rather than extending repeatedly.

We are removing a second kitchen and bath. What size?

A 20 yard usually covers a deconversion per floor, with a swap if the partition walls are plaster rather than drywall. Tell us which and we will be more precise.

What about the rear porch?

Its own container, usually a 20. Porch timber is bulky and light so volume is the limit — cut the joists and stringers short and the same porch fits a much smaller box.