Whole Home Renovation in Los Angeles and Across Southern California

A whole home renovation is a single, coordinated project that rebuilds most or all of a house at once: structure, roof, electrical, plumbing, insulation, windows, kitchen, bathrooms and finishes, usually down to the studs. Green Design and Build (CSLB #1110975, licensed, bonded and insured) is a full-service residential general contractor and design-build remodeler serving homeowners across Los Angeles County, Orange County, Ventura County, western Riverside County and western San Bernardino County. Realistically, a whole-house renovation takes 2 to 5 months of construction, plus roughly 1 to 3 months of design and permitting up front.

This page is about the big job. If you want to update a kitchen, two bathrooms and the flooring without touching the structure, that is a multi-room remodel and our remodeling services page is the better place to start.

Is this a renovation or a remodel?

Homeowners use the words interchangeably, but the difference matters for budget and permitting.

• Remodel: you change the look and layout of rooms inside the existing structure. Cabinets, tile, fixtures, flooring, maybe one non-bearing wall. The roof, foundation and most of the wiring and piping stay. See home remodeling in Los Angeles.
• Whole home renovation (this page): the work touches the systems that hold the house up and make it run. Down-to-studs interiors, new electrical service, a full repipe, foundation and seismic work, a new roof, new windows, reframed openings, often an addition or second story. It is permitted as one project and sequenced like new construction, because much of it is.

If your house is a 1950s to 1970s San Fernando Valley ranch with the original panel, galvanized pipe and single-pane aluminum windows, you are almost always in the second category, even if you started out thinking about a kitchen.

What a whole-house renovation in Southern California usually includes

Every project is scoped to the house, but the same list comes up again and again in pre-1980 Southern California homes.

Structure, foundation and seismic work

Most single-family houses in Southern California built before 1980 were not bolted to their foundations the way today’s code requires, and many have unbraced cripple walls under the floor. A gut renovation opens those areas anyway, so it is the cheapest moment you will ever have to add anchor bolts, brace the cripple walls and strap the framing. We also address settled or cracked slabs and stem walls, replace rotted sill plates, and add footings and beams where walls are coming out. Hillside lots in the Hollywood Hills, Sherman Oaks, Encino and Studio City usually need a geotechnical report before LADBS will approve structural changes. See our foundation repair and structural page and warning signs your foundation needs repair.

Roof

If the roof is within ten years of the end of its life, we replace it during the renovation, because the new roof ties into new framing, skylights, solar conduit and attic ventilation. Re-roofs in the City of Los Angeles require an LADBS permit; see whether you need a permit to replace your roof in Los Angeles and our roofing page.

Rewiring

Original 1960s and 1970s wiring in the Valley and Orange County usually means a fully loaded 100-amp panel, sometimes a Zinsco or Federal Pacific panel, and ungrounded circuits in older rooms. A whole-house renovation typically gets a new 200-amp service, new circuits throughout, dedicated circuits for kitchen appliances, EV charging and heat pumps, hardwired smoke and CO alarms, and AFCI/GFCI protection where code requires it. Electrical is performed by licensed tradespeople under the same permit. See electrical work as part of remodels.

Repiping

Galvanized steel supply lines corrode from the inside; if your pressure drops when two fixtures run, that is usually why. A gut renovation is the time to repipe in copper or PEX where the jurisdiction allows it, replace cracked cast-iron drains and install a new water heater. We camera the sewer lateral on every pre-1980 house before finalizing the budget, for the same reason our ADU cost article describes a $14,000 sewer surprise found during excavation. See plumbing as part of remodels.

Title 24 energy compliance

California’s Energy Code (Title 24, Part 6) applies to alterations, not only new homes. In a whole-house renovation that means insulation in opened walls and the attic, high-efficacy lighting with required controls, windows that meet the U-factor and solar-heat-gain limits for your climate zone, duct sealing and testing when HVAC is replaced, and a cool roof where required. We prepare the Title 24 documents that go in with the plan set and coordinate the HERS testing at the end.

Kitchen, bathrooms and living spaces

The rooms you will live in are designed at the same time as the structure, because the structure decides what is possible: beam sizes set how open a kitchen can be, drain routing decides where a second bathroom can go. Our kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling pages cover finishes and costs, and a room addition is often folded into the same permit when the plan needs a primary suite or a second story.

Windows, doors, exterior and finishes

New windows and exterior doors, stucco repair, exterior and interior paint, doors, trim and flooring are the final third of the schedule; our guides to window replacement, exterior painting, interior painting, hardwood floors and vinyl plank flooring cover what each of those costs on its own. Lead-safe work practices apply to any pre-1978 house, and an asbestos survey is required in the South Coast air district before demolition of materials that may contain it (older joint compound, acoustic ceilings, floor tile). Both are part of our demolition plan.

Down to the studs, or phased over several months?

There are two honest ways to renovate a whole house, and the right one depends on cash flow and where you will live.

	All at once (gut renovation)	Phased over 2–5 months
Permits	One permit set, one plan check, one set of inspections	Separate permits per phase; later phases can trigger updated code requirements
Cost	Lowest total cost; trades mobilize once and structure is opened once	Higher total cost; some work gets opened twice, prices rise between phases
Living arrangements	Usually move out for 2–5 months	Can often stay in the house, phase by phase
Disruption	Intense but shorter	Lower intensity, but the house is a project for months
Design coherence	One design, one finish palette, systems sized for the final plan	Risk of mismatched finishes and undersized panels or drains if phase one did not plan for phase three
Best for	Owners who can fund the whole project and relocate; investors; houses with structural or system problems that must be fixed together	Owners staying in place, funding from income, houses whose systems are already sound

If you phase, we still design the whole house first and size the electrical service, the plumbing mains and the structural changes for the final plan, so phase one never has to be redone.

Can you live in the house during a whole-home renovation?

For a true down-to-studs renovation, the practical answer is no. There will be weeks without water, power or a working bathroom, and lead and asbestos abatement require the house to be empty. Owners typically rent nearby or stay with family for the two to five months of construction, and we put that cost into the budget conversation early.

Staying works only when the house can be split into two zones with a sealed dust wall, one bathroom and a temporary kitchen stay functional, and the structural and system work is concentrated in the first phase. What does not work is planning to stay in a gut renovation and discovering in month two that the house has no floor.

Where we work

We renovate houses across Greater Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, Orange County, Ventura County, western Riverside County and western San Bernardino County from our office at 16120 Sherman Way in Van Nuys. Regional pages: San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, western Riverside County and western San Bernardino County.

Recent project: complete home remodel in Encino

A single-family house stripped to the framing and rebuilt: white kitchen with a quartz waterfall island, black-marble primary bath, a second bath with backlit mirrors, and a slat-wood fireplace wall in the living room. See the full project.

Why homeowners choose Green Design and Build for a whole-house renovation

Green Design and Build is led by Dekel Sofer. We are a General Building Contractor (CSLB #1110975, verify the license here), bonded and insured, with hundreds of completed projects and a 4.7-star rating across 146 Yelp reviews, many of which name the project manager who ran the job. One point of contact runs your job from the first site walk to the final inspection.

How long does a whole home renovation take?

Twelve to eighteen months is the realistic answer for a whole-house renovation in Los Angeles, counting design and permits. Anyone quoting six months for a gut renovation is quoting construction only, and probably optimistically.

Phase	Typical duration	What happens
Feasibility and site review	2–4 weeks	Walk-through, measurements, sewer camera, panel and roof assessment, zoning check, preliminary budget
Design and engineering	10–20 days	Floor plans, structural engineering, Title 24, geotechnical report if hillside, finish selections
Plan check and permits	1–6 weeks	LADBS or the local building division; corrections cycles; HPOZ or HOA review where applicable
Construction	2–4 months	Demolition and abatement, structure, rough trades, inspections, insulation, drywall, finishes
Close-out	1–4 weeks	Final inspections, HERS testing, punch list, certificate of occupancy or final sign-off

Plan-check time is the part nobody controls. LADBS handles the City of Los Angeles, including Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Studio City, Woodland Hills, Northridge and North Hollywood; Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Santa Clarita, Long Beach, Torrance and every Orange County city run their own building divisions; unincorporated areas go through LA County, Ventura County or Riverside County Building and Safety. Houses in a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone add a separate review, homes in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone must meet Chapter 7A exterior requirements for windows, vents, siding and roofing, and Orange County master-planned communities add HOA and CC&R review before the permit is issued.

How much does a full house remodel cost in Southern California?

Our general contractor cost guide already publishes the honest answer: Los Angeles general contractor pricing generally runs $150 to $450 per square foot depending on project type, and full home renovations run $100,000 to $300,000 or more. Read the complete breakdown in how much a Los Angeles general contractor costs.

The table below is a typical Los Angeles budgeting range, not a quote. Structural scope, hillside conditions and finish level move a project from the bottom of a band to the top of the next one. For the full breakdown, including what each level of work buys, the permit path, the rules that can turn a remodel into a rebuild and what the work returns at resale, see our whole-home renovation cost guide.

Scope	Typical Los Angeles budgeting range (per sq ft)	What is included
Whole-house cosmetic refresh	$100–$175	Paint, flooring, doors, lighting, fixtures, cabinet refacing; no walls, systems or roof
Multi-room remodel (see remodeling services)	$150–$250	Kitchen and baths rebuilt, some non-bearing walls removed, partial electrical and plumbing
Full gut renovation, down to studs	$250–$400	New electrical service and wiring, full repipe, insulation, windows, kitchen, all baths, roof, finishes
Gut renovation plus structural or addition	$350–$500+	Everything above plus foundation and seismic work, beam and wall changes, added square footage, hillside engineering

Two things push a Southern California house to the high end: hillside geotechnical and structural requirements, and finish choices.

What a written estimate from us includes

• Scope by trade and by room, with material specifications and stated allowances
• Permit, plan check, Title 24, engineering and geotechnical fees as separate lines
• A schedule with milestones tied to payments, never to calendar dates
• A recommended contingency of 10 to 15 percent for a pre-1980 house, because you will find something behind the walls
• Change orders in writing: any change to scope, materials, price or schedule is approved before the work is done

The opposite is described in how to hire a general contractor without getting scammed: a $28,000 kitchen bid $17,000 under two others, run on a one-page contract and a 60 percent deposit, abandoned at roughly 60 percent complete with unpermitted electrical the next contractor had to redo. On a whole-house project the same mistakes cost ten times as much.

Whole home renovation FAQs

What is the difference between a whole home renovation and a home remodel in Southern California?

A whole home renovation in Los Angeles rebuilds the house’s structure and systems: foundation and seismic work, new electrical service and wiring, a full repipe, roof, windows, insulation and every interior room, usually taken down to the studs under one permit. A home remodel updates the finishes and layout of one or more rooms inside the existing structure without replacing the systems. The renovation costs more per square foot and takes longer, but it resets the age of the house.

How much does a whole house renovation cost in Southern California?

Full home renovations in Los Angeles generally run $100,000 to $300,000 or more, and general contractor pricing across project types falls between $150 and $450 per square foot. A down-to-studs gut renovation with new systems usually lands in the upper half of that range, and adding structural work, a hillside lot or an addition pushes it higher. We price every project line by line after a site review, so treat these as budgeting ranges rather than a quote.

How long does a whole home renovation take in Southern California?

A whole home renovation in Los Angeles realistically takes 2 to 5 months of construction, plus roughly 1 to 3 months of design and permitting before work starts. Design and engineering take ten to twenty days, plan check at LADBS or a city building division takes one to six weeks, and construction runs two to four months depending on structural scope. Hillside lots, historic zones and HOA reviews add time to the front end.

Do I have to move out during a gut renovation?

For a down-to-studs renovation, yes: the house will be without water, power and working bathrooms for stretches, and lead or asbestos abatement requires it to be empty. Most owners rent nearby for two to five months and we treat that as part of the project budget. Staying is possible only on phased projects where one bathroom and a temporary kitchen can be kept running behind a sealed dust wall.

Should I renovate all at once or in phases?

Renovating all at once costs less in total, needs one permit and one plan check, and finishes in months rather than years, but it requires funding the whole project and moving out. Phasing spreads the cost and lets you stay in the house, at the price of opening some areas twice and re-permitting each phase. Either way we design the whole house first so the panel, plumbing mains and structural changes are sized for the final plan.

Does a pre-1980 house in Southern California need a seismic retrofit during renovation?

Most Southern California houses built before 1980 lack the foundation anchor bolts and braced cripple walls that current code requires, and a gut renovation is the least expensive time to add them because the framing is already exposed. The City of Los Angeles does not mandate a retrofit for single-family homes, but our structural engineer will specify bolting, bracing and hold-downs whenever we touch the foundation or remove bearing walls. Some ZIP codes qualify for the state’s Earthquake Brace + Bolt grant program, which we can check for you.

Do I need to rewire and repipe an older house?

If the house still has its original 100-amp panel, ungrounded circuits, or galvanized supply pipes, rewiring and repiping during a whole-house renovation are usually the right call because the walls are open. A new 200-amp service supports today’s kitchen appliances, heat pumps and EV charging, and a copper or PEX repipe fixes the low-pressure and rusty-water problems common in 1950s to 1970s Valley homes. These trades are performed by licensed tradespeople and inspected under the project permit.

What permits does a whole home renovation need in Los Angeles?

A whole home renovation in the City of Los Angeles needs a building permit with full plan check through LADBS, plus electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits, structural engineering, Title 24 energy documentation and, on hillside lots, a geotechnical report. Cities such as Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Long Beach and every Orange County city issue permits through their own building divisions, and unincorporated areas use the county. Historic zones and HOAs add their own review before the permit is issued, and we manage the entire process.

Does Title 24 apply when renovating an existing home?

Yes, California’s Title 24 energy code applies to alterations as well as new construction. In a whole-house renovation that typically means insulation in opened walls and the attic, high-efficacy lighting with required controls, windows that meet climate-zone U-factor and solar-heat-gain limits, duct sealing and HERS testing when HVAC is replaced, and a cool roof in some cases. The compliance forms are prepared with the plan set and verified at final inspection.