Design, structural engineering, plan check, and construction under one roof. We check your zoning before anyone draws anything.
Licensed & insured · Free in-home consultation · Fixed written pricing
Most additions are bought for one of two reasons: the household grew, or the floor plan never made sense in the first place. Those produce very different projects, and the second one is where the money is most often wasted.
A house that feels small is not always a house that needs to be bigger. Postwar Valley homes in particular were laid out with compartmentalized rooms, a hallway eating the middle of the plan, and a kitchen closed off from everything. It is common to walk into a 1,600 square foot ranch, listen to what is not working, and find that reworking the existing plan solves most of it for a fraction of what a 400 square foot addition would cost. We say so when that is the case. It is a smaller job for us and the right recommendation.
When you genuinely need the space, an addition is the highest-stakes residential project short of a new build. It involves foundation, structure, roof, envelope, and the connection between new construction and a sixty-year-old house that has settled in its own particular way. Getting that junction right, so the roofline reads as original and the floors meet without a step, is most of the craft.
We coordinate the design, the structural engineering, and the energy compliance, run the plan check, and build it with one crew. You are not standing between a designer and a builder who each blame the other.
Before design, we check what your parcel actually allows: floor area, lot coverage, height, and setbacks. Hillside properties on the south side of Ventura Boulevard carry additional restrictions that flat-lot properties three streets north do not. Designing first and checking zoning second is the most expensive sequence in this business.
Submitting plans for an addition puts the whole house in front of a plan checker. Prior unpermitted work, most often an enclosed patio or a converted garage, surfaces at that point. Sometimes it can be legalized as part of the project. We look for it during the walkthrough so it is planned for rather than discovered.
A fixed written construction price once design and engineering are settled, with allowances itemized. Additions have more site variables than any other project we do, which is exactly why the price comes after the drawings rather than before them.
Call (818) 881-8333Where the square footage goes matters as much as how much of it there is.
Extending into the back yard. The most common addition on a Valley lot and usually the least disruptive, because the work happens away from the front of the house and the existing structure stays largely intact until the connection. This is the natural way to enlarge a kitchen, add a family room, or extend a primary suite. The constraint is rear setback and lot coverage, and on lots where an ADU is also being considered, the two compete for the same yard.
The most requested single addition we do. Postwar homes gave the primary bedroom barely more space than the secondary bedrooms and gave it a bathroom that was an afterthought. Adding a proper suite with a real bathroom and a walk-in closet changes the daily experience of the house more than almost anything else, and it consolidates two projects, since the bathroom is being built new rather than remodeled.
The answer when the lot has no room left. It is also the most involved project of the group, because the existing foundation and framing have to carry a load they were not designed for. That evaluation is a structural engineering question answered during design, and in older houses the answer commonly includes some reinforcement. A stair also has to come from somewhere, which means the existing floor plan changes whether you wanted it to or not.
Pushing a wall out a modest distance to make one room work. Smaller than a full addition and frequently the smarter move, particularly for a kitchen that needs another few feet of counter run or a bathroom that needs room for a real shower. Whether it needs a new foundation depends on how far it goes.
Turning a garage into living space as part of the house rather than as a separate unit. Straightforward compared to a new addition since the structure exists. The work is in the slab, insulation, the door opening, and the ceiling height. If a separate rentable unit is what you actually want, that is an ADU and a different page.
The roofline is what tells everyone whether an addition was done well. A rear addition that meets the existing roof at an awkward pitch, or a second story with proportions that do not match the original, reads as an addition forever. Matching pitch, eave detail, and window proportion costs very little at the drawing stage and cannot be fixed afterward.
Seven phases. Two of them happen entirely on paper, and they are the two that determine whether the rest goes smoothly.
We walk the house and the lot, talk through what is not working, and check what the parcel allows for floor area, coverage, height, and setbacks. Sometimes this conversation ends with a recommendation to rework the existing plan instead.
Floor plan, elevations, roof integration, and site plan, then structural engineering and Title 24 energy compliance. For a second story, this is where the existing foundation and framing get evaluated for the added load.
Submittal, corrections, response, resubmittal, permit issued. We manage each round. Existing unpermitted conditions, if any, are addressed as part of this.
Protection of the existing house, demolition where needed, excavation, forms, steel, and pour. Foundation inspection before anything goes on top of it.
Framing goes up, the new roof is tied into the existing one, and the structure is dried in. For a second story, this is the phase where the house is most exposed and where scheduling around weather matters most.
Plumbing, electrical, and mechanical rough-in with inspection, then insulation, drywall, flooring, trim, paint, and any kitchen or bathroom inside the new space. The connection between old and new floors and ceilings gets detailed here.
Final sign-off, then we walk it with you and clear the punch list before final payment. Your square footage is now permitted and on record, which is what makes it count at resale.
Additions have more variables than any other residential project, and very few of them are visible from the curb.
Hold 10 to 15 percent in reserve. Additions open up existing structure, and existing structure in a house built decades ago is where prior repairs, prior additions, and prior shortcuts live.
We price the construction after the drawings are done, in writing, with allowances itemized. A square-foot number quoted before anyone has looked at your foundation is not a price, it is an advertisement.
We build additions throughout Encino and the surrounding San Fernando Valley and Westside communities. Tap your city for local zoning and permitting.
Not on the list? Call (818) 881-8333 — we travel outside our core area for the right project.
We will walk the house, check what the lot allows, and tell you honestly whether an addition or a reworked floor plan solves the problem. No charge, no obligation.