Home & Room Addition Contractor in Valley Glen, CA

The typical Valley Glen house is a 1,200–1,700 sq ft 1940s–50s ranch on a 6,000–7,500 sq ft lot, and the room that is missing is usually a primary suite, a second living space or a home office. Adding it runs $120K–$250K for a room or suite addition, takes 3–6 months of construction after 2–4 months of design, engineering and plan check, and is permitted through LADBS at the Van Nuys counter on Van Nuys Boulevard.

On these lots a rear addition is the usual answer: a primary suite or family room off the back of the house on its own foundation, with the roof line and stucco matched so it reads as original. Where the yard is small or you want to keep it, a second story over part of the house adds the square footage without touching the lot, after a structural evaluation of the existing foundation and framing.

We are based inside Valley Glen, so the project lead who does your consultation runs the build and is on site daily; the first thing we do is pull your parcel on ZIMAS so you know the buildable square footage before you spend anything on drawings.

Valley Glen runs from Burbank Boulevard north toward Sherman Way, with Los Angeles Valley College at Fulton and Burbank, the Tujunga Wash greenway and the Great Wall of Los Angeles mural along Coldwater Canyon on its east edge, and Van Nuys on the west. Our office is at 13709 Burbank Blvd, at Woodman, inside the neighborhood: the crew that shows up has been working these exact blocks for years, and the LADBS counter that reviews the permit, the Van Nuys Development Services Center at 6262 Van Nuys Blvd, is about a mile and a half away.

Most Valley Glen parcels are R1 single-family lots, flat, with no hillside or fire-zone overlay, which makes plan check the most predictable kind in the Valley. The rules that matter are the floor-area limit for the lot, the front, side and rear setbacks, and the height limit for a second story; we check all three on ZIMAS at the free consultation. A rear addition trades yard for square footage; a second story keeps the yard and adds the structural evaluation of the 1940s–50s foundation and framing before design.

The addition is designed, structurally engineered and permitted through LADBS, with inspections at foundation, framing, rough systems, insulation and final; the permit is closed at the end so the new square footage is on record when you refinance or sell.

A Valley Glen 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 1950s lots without hillside review, the schedule is usually the most predictable in the Valley.

The sequence is plans and structural calculations, plan check at the LADBS Valley Glen 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 Valley Glen office and answers plan-check corrections; a contractor who knows that counter keeps a Valley Glen 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.