Kitchen Remodeling in Northridge, CA

Northridge kitchens come in two sizes. The 1950s–60s tracts south of Nordhoff and around the campus have the small closed kitchen of the era, 100–130 sq ft with a wall to the family room; the 1960s–70s ranches and the half-acre estates of Sherwood Forest and Devonshire Highlands were built larger, with a breakfast nook and a family room already attached, and the project there is less about square footage than about a dated layout, a soffited ceiling and cabinets that stop a foot short of it.

Two jobs hide inside every Northridge 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 100-amp panels in most 1950s–60s houses and 125–150 amps in the 1970s tracts; a full kitchen with an induction range usually means a 200-amp LADWP upgrade. The plumbing is typically galvanized supply lines in the 1950s–60s houses, copper in the 1970s tracts, slab floors almost everywhere, and chimneys and cripple walls that still carry 1994 earthquake repairs, 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 20–25 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 Northridge 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.

Northridge spreads across the northwest Valley from Nordhoff Street north to the 118, with the Cal State Northridge campus at its center, the Northridge Fashion Center on Tampa, Sherwood Forest and Devonshire Highlands on their half-acre lots to the south and north, and the Metrolink station on Wilbur Avenue a mile from campus. Our office is in Valley Glen, about 12 miles southeast, a 20–25 minute drive, and the LADBS counter that reviews Northridge permits is the Van Nuys Development Services Center on Van Nuys Boulevard, on the way.

On the tracts the remodel is a wall out on a beam, an island, and a 200-amp LADWP upgrade for the induction range; in Sherwood Forest and Devonshire Highlands it is a full re-plan of a big room, often with a second sink or a butler's pantry, and the finish level rises with the lot size. Nearly every Northridge house carries a 1994 repair somewhere, and when the kitchen walls are open we look at the chimney, the shear walls and the anchor bolts before we close them.

Northridge 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.