Woodland Hills Whole-Home Rebuild: Foundation, Pool and Everything In Between

A single-storey ranch in the Woodland Hills foothills, taken back so far that only a few walls of the original house remained. New foundations, new framing, a rebuilt pool, a new covered patio and a full interior. This is the largest project on this site, and the one with the most of the work in the middle photographed rather than just the finish.

Project at a glance

Location	Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, CA
Completed	2026
Project type	Whole-home rebuild
Scope	Demolition to a few retained walls, new foundations, framing, roof, exterior, full interior, kitchen, bathrooms, pool demolition and rebuild, covered patio, block retaining wall, hardscape and pool deck

What stayed, and what came out

Once the finishes came off, the honest answer was that very little of the existing structure was worth keeping. A few walls stayed. Everything else — interior partitions, ceilings, the rear elevation, the mechanical systems — came out, and the house was rebuilt around what remained.

That decision is worth making early and deliberately, because it changes the permit path, the engineering and the sequence of the whole job. Keeping walls is not sentimentality; it affects how the work is classified and reviewed. Discovering halfway through demolition that the existing framing cannot carry the new design is the version that costs money.

Foundations and framing

New footings were formed and tied before anything went back up. On a hillside lot this is the part that has to be right — the forms and reinforcing steel in the photographs below are the reason the rest of the house sits where it should in ten years.

From there the house was reframed: new walls, a new roof structure over the rear, and the long covered patio framed as part of the building rather than bolted on afterwards. More on how we handle this stage on our foundation work and new home construction pages.

The pool, the patio and the yard

All of the outdoor work was ours. The existing pool was stripped out and rebuilt — new shell, new forms and steel, new waterproofing, a raised spa — rather than resurfaced, and the deck and terrace were poured around it once the structure was done. A block retaining wall went in to hold the grade behind the pool.

Doing the house and the yard under one contract is the reason the paving lines up with the sliders and the patio roof sits at the right height against the fascia. When those are two separate trades on two separate schedules, the joints are where it shows. See outdoor living and patio covers for how we approach that work on its own.

Inside the finished house

White board-and-batten outside with black window frames and dark trim. Inside, a steel-and-glass entry door, wide plank floors, a panelled fireplace wall, a new kitchen with a large island, and a primary bathroom in large-format marble with a freestanding tub. Sliders run across the back so the terrace reads as part of the living space rather than something beyond it.

When a remodel becomes a rebuild

There is a point in most large projects where continuing to remodel stops being the cheaper option. It is rarely a single dramatic discovery. It is an accumulation: the foundation needs work, the framing needs work, the roof is at the end of its life, the electrical is original, the layout does not work, and each of those is being fixed around structure that is being kept for its own sake.

The question worth asking early is what the existing building is actually contributing. If the answer is a foundation you are replacing, framing you are opening up, and a roof you are removing, then the thing being preserved is not the house — it is the paperwork.

What tips the decision

• Foundation condition. Once a foundation needs substantial replacement, one of the strongest arguments for remodelling has gone.
• How much wall is staying. There is a practical threshold past which so little original structure remains that keeping it costs more in complexity than it saves.
• The layout you actually want. Some plans cannot be reached from the existing structure without removing most of it. Working around a plan that does not fit is the most expensive way to be disappointed.
• Code that gets triggered anyway. Beyond a certain scope the project picks up requirements across the whole house regardless. When that has happened, one advantage of remodelling has already been spent.
• Time. A rebuild is not automatically slower. Working around existing structure is often the slower path.

The argument for keeping the existing building

It is not sentimental, and there are real reasons a remodel wins.

Existing non-conforming conditions are the big one. Many older Los Angeles houses sit closer to a property line, or cover more of the lot, than current zoning would allow for new construction. Those conditions can often be retained in a remodel and are lost in a demolition — meaning the rebuilt house may legally have to be smaller, or set further back, than the one that came down. That single fact decides the question on a lot of constrained lots.

Mature landscaping, an existing pool and hardscape, and existing utility connections are also worth real money and are far easier to keep when the house stays.

Doing it honestly

The failure mode we see is a project that was priced and permitted as a remodel and then became a rebuild by increments, without anybody stopping to re-plan. That is how a job ends up with a new house sitting on decisions made for an old one — a layout constrained by walls that no longer exist, and a budget that was never scoped for what got built.

If the analysis says rebuild, it is better to make that call deliberately, at the start, with the drawings and the permit matching what is actually going to happen.

These are typical Los Angeles budgeting estimates, not a price list or a quote. Your project can come in lower or higher depending on the house, the scope and the finishes; the only real number is a written proposal after a site visit.

Before, during and after

When a renovation becomes a rebuild

Most whole-home projects do not start out as rebuilds. They start as a renovation, and then the walls come open. Older Los Angeles houses hide undersized footings, framing that was altered by a previous owner without a permit, wiring that cannot carry a modern load, and rot where a roof has leaked quietly for years.

At some point the honest arithmetic changes: patching around what is there costs more than replacing it, and gives you a worse house. Reaching that point is not a failure of planning. Reaching it in month four, with no allowance for it, is.

We would rather have that conversation at the feasibility stage than during demolition, which is why the first site visit looks at the structure and not the finishes. How we run a project sets out the sequence, and whole-home renovation covers the more common version of this work, where the house stays and the inside changes.

Questions about rebuilding versus remodelling

Will I lose my setbacks if I demolish?

Potentially, and it is the most important question to answer before anything comes down. Existing non-conforming setbacks and lot coverage can often be retained in a remodel and are generally lost in a rebuild. On a tight lot this can mean a smaller house. Establish it with the city at feasibility stage, not after demolition.

Is a rebuild more expensive per square foot?

Not necessarily — and the comparison is usually made wrong. A deep remodel that includes foundation work, re-framing, a new roof and full new systems approaches new-construction cost while inheriting an old building’s constraints. Compare the total for the finished result, not the headline rate.

How long does the approval take?

Longer than the construction, frequently. Design, engineering, plan check and permitting run in months. Whichever route you take, the paperwork is the long pole and the earliest thing to start.

What happens to the pool and the landscaping?

They can usually stay, and they need protecting properly rather than hopefully. Site access, material storage and heavy equipment all want the same space that a pool and mature planting occupy. Where they are worth keeping, that belongs in the site plan from day one.

More whole-home renovation work, new home construction, and our Woodland Hills service area page.

Thinking about a similar project?

We build across the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles, including Woodland Hills. The site visit takes about two hours, it is free, and it is where we tell you whether what you are picturing is a renovation or a rebuild. You get a written proposal within 48 hours of that visit. Read our guide to kitchen remodeling in Woodland Hills for local costs, permits and timelines.

Call (800) 348-3050 or send us the details and we will come back to you within one business day. More completed work is on our projects page.