Home & Room Addition Contractor in Granada Hills, CA

The typical Granada Hills house is a 1,500–2,200 sq ft 1950s–60s ranch on a 7,000–10,000 sq ft lot, and the extra lot width is what makes a ground-floor addition the usual answer: a primary suite or family room off the back or the side on its own foundation, with the roof line and stucco matched. In Old Granada Hills the parcels reach 20,000 sq ft and a full wing or a courtyard plan is possible; in Knollwood the slope sets the footprint.

An addition on a 1,500–2,200 sq ft 1950s–60s ranch on a 7,000–10,000 sq ft lot is engineered from the foundation up: footings and a floor to match the house, framing and a roof tied into the existing roof line, plumbing to the lateral for a new bath, electrical on new circuits, HVAC extended or a dedicated mini-split, and stucco, trim and windows matched so the addition reads as original. The electrical service here is typically 100-amp panels in most 1950s–60s houses; a 200-amp LADWP upgrade is part of most full kitchens, which is why a 200-amp upgrade is often part of the project.

We are based in Valley Glen, about 25 minutes away, and the project lead who does your consultation runs the build and is on site at every milestone. The first thing we do is pull your parcel on ZIMAS so you know the buildable square footage before you spend anything on drawings.

Granada Hills climbs from the flat tracts around Balboa Boulevard and Chatsworth Street up into Knollwood and the foothills north of Rinaldi, with Old Granada Hills and its walkable Chatsworth Street village on the west, Granada Hills Charter High School in the middle and O'Melveny Park, the city's second-largest park, at the top. Our office is in Valley Glen, about 14 miles south by the 405, a 25-minute drive, and the LADBS counter that reviews Granada Hills permits is the Van Nuys Development Services Center on Van Nuys Boulevard.

Old Granada Hills has its own Residential Floor Area district, which caps how much house the lot can carry, and parcels north of Rinaldi fall under the Granada Hills Specific Plan and the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, so the first thing we do is pull the parcel on ZIMAS and tell you the buildable square footage before any drawing. Plan check runs through LADBS at the Van Nuys counter, with the structural engineering, Title 24 and, on the hillside, the grading review in one set of plans.

The addition is designed, structurally engineered and permitted through LADBS (City of Los Angeles) at the Van Nuys Development Services Center, with inspections at foundation, framing, rough systems, insulation and final, and hillside review where the parcel requires it; the permit is closed at the end so the new square footage is on record when you refinance or sell.

A Granada Hills home addition typically needs a few months of design, structural engineering and LADBS plan check, then about three to five months of construction for a ground-floor addition and longer for a second story. On level lots the schedule is the most predictable part of the project; hillside parcels add grading and access review to plan check.

The sequence is plans and structural calculations, plan check at the LADBS Granada Hills office, then foundation, framing and roof tie-in, rough electrical, plumbing and HVAC with inspections at each stage, insulation, drywall, exterior match to the original stucco and finishes, and final inspection. Second stories add the structural evaluation and any reinforcement before framing. Your fixed-price proposal shows the whole schedule with realistic dates.

Verify the license at cslb.ca.gov (ours is 1021284) — active, classified for structural work, bond and workers' compensation on file — and get insurance certificates in writing. Ask who prepares the plans, who engineers the structure and who takes the permit through the LADBS Granada Hills office and answers plan-check corrections; a contractor who knows that counter keeps a Granada Hills project on schedule.

Require a written fixed-price contract with an itemized scope, named allowances, written change orders and progress payments tied to completed work; California caps the down payment at $1,000 or 10 percent, whichever is less. Ask how the addition's foundation, roof and stucco will be tied into a 1950s house so it reads as original, and who manages the schedule day to day.