Open-plan conversions, cabinet-and-counter refreshes and full gut renovations for Lake Balboa's 1950s tract ranches — permitted through LADBS, built by one crew under one fixed-price contract.
Professional, licensed & insuredFixed-price proposalsPermits pulled & closedOur own crew, not subs
Tell us about the project. We call back to schedule the on-site estimate in Lake Balboa.
Kitchen Remodel Contractor in Lake Balboa, CA: Right Image Builders (CSLB #1021284) remodels kitchens for 1950s single-story tract ranches, typically 1,200–1,700 sq ft on 6,000–7,500 sq ft lots across the tract streets between Victory Boulevard and Sherman Way, the blocks around Beilenson Park and the lake and the Balboa Boulevard corridor, with its own crew and permits through LADBS, City of Los Angeles, at the Van Nuys counter. Typical build 5–8 weeks on site once permits are issued. One fixed written price after a free on-site estimate.
Licensed general contractor, CSLB #1021284, licensed since 2016, 5.0★ Google (45 reviews), 4.9★ Angi (103 reviews). Office in Valley Glen, about 10–15 minutes from Lake Balboa. Planning ranges by tier and neighborhood are in the kitchen remodel cost guide.
Right Image Builders is a licensed general contractor remodeling kitchens across Lake Balboa — the tract streets between Victory Boulevard and Sherman Way, the blocks around Beilenson Park and the lake, the Balboa Boulevard corridor and the streets near Birmingham Community Charter High School. We build open-concept conversions, full remodels and cabinet-and-counter refreshes, with every permit pulled through LADBS (City of Los Angeles) at the Van Nuys Development Services Center and one fixed price after a free on-site estimate; our crew is based in Valley Glen about 10–15 minutes away. CSLB #1021284. Call (818) 210-4544.
Lake Balboa is 1950s tract housing built in one push: single-story ranches of 1,200–1,700 sq ft on flat 6,000–7,500 sq ft lots, each with a small closed kitchen on the back wall, a service porch beside it and a detached garage at the end of the driveway. The kitchen is usually 90–120 sq ft, so the first decision in nearly every Lake Balboa project is the wall between the kitchen and the living room: take it out on an engineered beam and the house becomes the open plan it never had.
Two jobs hide inside every Lake Balboa kitchen remodel. The first is the finishes: cabinetry, stone or quartz counters, tile, lighting and appliances. The second is the house underneath. The electrical here is typically 60- to 100-amp panels from the 1950s; a 200-amp LADWP upgrade is usually part of a full kitchen. The plumbing is typically galvanized supply lines and original cast-iron drains in the 1950s houses, slab floors on most blocks, and the galvanized lines are replaced with copper or PEX while the walls are open. Opening the wall to the next room means an engineered beam and a structural permit, and the new lighting has to meet Title 24.
Our office is in Valley Glen, about 10–15 minutes away, and the project lead who does your estimate runs the build. On these streets logistics are simple: a small dumpster on the driveway, deliveries staged in the garage, and the site cleaned every evening. Most Lake Balboa families stay in the home for the 5–8 weeks on site, with a temporary kitchen set up and the dust contained to the work area.
Shaker, slab, inset, and Eurostyle cabinet programs built and installed by our own team — dovetail drawer boxes, soft-close hardware, pantry and organization systems. We size cabinetry to the real dimensions of a Lake Balboa tract kitchen, not a showroom rendering.
We work directly with stone fabricators — no middleman markup. Quartz (Silestone, Cambria, Caesarstone, MSI), quartzite, granite, porcelain slab, and natural marble. Waterfall islands, integrated undermount sinks, and matched backsplash are all in scope.
The signature Lake Balboa project: taking out the wall between a closed galley kitchen and the living room. We coordinate the structural engineering, beam sizing, temporary shoring, and LVL or steel install — all permitted through LADBS, all under our contract.
Large-format porcelain, handmade ceramic, natural stone, subway, and zellige — installed by our in-house tile crew with proper edge and transition systems. New luxury vinyl plank or tile flooring flows the kitchen into the adjacent rooms once the wall is gone.
Panel-ready refrigerators, integrated dishwashers, range hood venting, pot-filler rough-in, under-cabinet LED, and microwave-drawer cutouts — all planned before cabinets go in, so nothing is hacked in afterward.
Older Lake Balboa homes almost always need electrical brought to current code — dedicated circuits, GFCI protection, island outlets, and panel work. We handle the rough-in, the LADBS inspections, and the sign-off, so the kitchen is safe and legal, not just pretty.
Professional, licensed and insured, and we put that in writing at every step, because a remodel is a trust decision before it is a construction decision.
California general contractor license CSLB #1021284 (General Building B), active since 2016, with general liability and workers' compensation insurance. Check the license yourself at cslb.ca.gov before you sign anything, with us or anyone else.
The proposal lists what is demolished, what is built, which finishes are included and which permit covers it. If it is not written down, it is not in the job.
When walls, floors or roofs open up we photograph what is behind them and send you the pictures. Anything beyond the scope is priced in writing before the crew continues. You never find out from the invoice.
California law caps a home-improvement deposit at $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract, whichever is less. We follow it. Progress payments follow the work, and the final payment comes after your walkthrough.
We submit the plans, meet the inspector and close the permit. You get the closed-permit record, which is what a buyer, an insurer or an appraiser will ask for.
The people who estimate the job are the people who build it. No subcontractor hand-offs, no call center; your project lead answers the phone during the job and after it.
Lake Balboa is the west side of the old Van Nuys grid, from Victory Boulevard north to Sherman Way between the Sepulveda Basin and Reseda, with Anthony C. Beilenson Park and the lake itself at Balboa and Victory, Birmingham Community Charter High School on Haynes Street, and the Metro G Line busway station on Balboa Boulevard. Our office is in Valley Glen, about five miles east along Victory or Sherman Way, a 10–15 minute drive, and the LADBS counter that reviews every Lake Balboa permit is the Van Nuys Development Services Center on Van Nuys Boulevard, between the two.
The kitchens are the same floor plan with different decades of patching: near the park and along Victory the houses have had owners' worth of cabinets screwed over the originals, and the tracts toward Sherman Way often still have the 1950s plywood boxes. Either way the win is a wall out, a peninsula or small island, a window enlarged over the sink and the service porch folded into the kitchen as a pantry or laundry. Everything is permitted through LADBS at the Van Nuys counter, ten minutes from the house.
Lake Balboa is City of Los Angeles, so the kitchen is permitted through LADBS (City of Los Angeles) at the Van Nuys Development Services Center. The electrical and plumbing permits are pulled before demolition, inspections are scheduled around the framing and rough-in stages, and the permit is closed at final so the work shows as permitted when you sell.
Right Image Builders prices a kitchen remodel in Lake Balboa the same way every time: a free on-site visit, a measured scope, the LADBS requirements checked for your address, and an itemized fixed price in writing within a few business days.
Hidden conditions are priced in writing when they are found, not on the final invoice; the number you sign is the number you pay, and the final payment follows your walkthrough.
For planning ranges before the visit, see the kitchen remodel cost guide.
A senior member of our team visits your Lake Balboa kitchen, listens to what you want, and gives you an honest read on cost and timeline. No pressure, no call-center runaround.
Within 3–5 business days you get a fully itemized, fixed-price proposal — cabinets, stone, tile, electrical, permits, labor. The number is committed before we start.
One crew, all LADBS permits, your project lead on-site. We hand you a finished kitchen with a closed permit. Final payment is due only after your walkthrough approval.
Tell us about your kitchen and we'll get back to you within 4 business hours with next steps. No obligation, no sales pressure — just a straight answer on what your project takes.
Prefer to talk it through?
We hired Right Image Builders for a full kitchen remodel and couldn't be happier. The owner personally showed up to every major milestone. The fixed-price contract was exactly what we needed — no surprise invoices, no scope creep. Our kitchen looks like it belongs in a magazine.
Our kitchen went from a 1980s relic to something out of Architectural Digest. Right Image Builders was meticulous with every detail — the cabinetry alignment, the backsplash grout, the countertop templating. Genuinely impressive work.
Two bathrooms, new hardwood floors, kitchen cabinets, and a laundry room — all in one project. Right Image Builders coordinated everything flawlessly. They answered every text within the hour. This is how construction is supposed to work.
Plain answers on costs, permits, materials and hiring, written for Los Angeles houses and kept current.
What changes at each tier, permits, weeks on site, resale.
Read the guide →Decision guideReface or replace the cabinets? For Los Angeles kitchens: when the boxes are worth keeping, what refacing cannot…
Read the guide →Decision guideQuartz, quartzite or marble for a Los Angeles kitchen? Hardness, heat, stains and etching, sealing, look, and how…
Read the guide →AnswersDirect answers from the Los Angeles remodeling FAQ, kept current.
Read the answers →Yes. Right Image Builders is a licensed California general contractor, CSLB #1021284, with general liability and workers' compensation insurance; verify the license in minutes at cslb.ca.gov under "Check a License" and ask us for the insurance certificates. The Lake Balboa estimate is free and on site, done by the project lead who will run the job, and the itemized fixed-price proposal follows within 3–5 business days.
Right Image Builders, a licensed general contractor (CSLB #1021284) based in Valley Glen about 10–15 minutes from Lake Balboa, remodels kitchens across the tract streets between Victory Boulevard and Sherman Way, the blocks around Beilenson Park and the lake, the Balboa Boulevard corridor under one fixed-price contract: design, permits through LADBS, and construction by one crew, with final payment only after your walkthrough. 5.0★ on Google (45 reviews) and 4.9★ on Angi (103 reviews).
Go to cslb.ca.gov, choose "Check a License" and enter the number; ours is 1021284. Confirm the license is active, classified B (General Building Contractor), bonded, and shows workers' compensation. Then ask for a written fixed-price contract with scope, materials, schedule and payment terms; California law requires it, and it is the only way to hold any contractor to the promise.
Three things: the scope you choose, the condition of the house once we open it up, and the finish level. Each is settled in writing, first in the fixed price after the free on-site visit, then in a written change order if a Lake Balboa house hides something, so the number never moves without your signature; LADBS requirements are built in. Planning ranges by tier are in the kitchen remodel cost guide.
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Free on-site consultation. Fixed-price proposal. One local team from demo to final walkthrough — with every LADBS permit pulled and closed.
(818) 210-4544