Home Addition Contractor in Agoura Hills

Ask whether the contractor knows who reviews what. Agoura Hills does its own planning and its own plan check at City Hall on Ladyface Court; LA County handles fire review and, on septic lots, Public Health review. Under the published RS thresholds, a second story on a one-story house goes to a Planning Commission hearing, so the design has to be ready for public comment. Then ask who forms the footings and who signs the fixed-price scope. Master Construction, Lic. #1027281, is licensed and insured and family owned since 1994, and it carries the SPAR file, the building permit and the build with in-house concrete, electrical and plumbing crews.

Type and size set the base: a bump-out under the 30 percent line, a room addition reviewed by the Director, and a second story that goes to the Planning Commission are different jobs. The lot comes next. A sloped pad needs a geotechnical report and stepped footings, an oak's protected zone may need a permit and an arborist, and an older septic system needs an evaluation that can lead to a larger tank. A Very High fire lot may add a fuel modification plan. Panel capacity, HVAC, a school fee over 500 sq ft and finishes follow. The site walk comes first, and the written fixed-price scope follows it.

Planning sets the pace, and we found no City processing time published for additions, so we schedule by review tier. A first-story addition under 30 percent of the original floor area normally skips site plan review. A larger one-story addition waits on the Director, and a second story on a one-story house waits on a Planning Commission hearing, held the first and third Thursdays. Decisions can be appealed for 15 days. Hillside lots add a geotechnical report before the file is complete. Plan check follows Planning approval. On site, a bump-out is shortest and a second story longest because part of the roof comes off.

Usually two City approvals, in order. Planning issues a Site Plan/Architectural Review permit, administratively for some projects and through the Planning Commission for most others, unless the addition is a first-story addition under 30 percent of the original floor area. Building and Safety then issues the building permit after plan check, booked by appointment. Both file through MGO Connect, and Building and Safety answers at (818) 597-7334. Depending on the lot, add an Oak Tree Permit, hillside submittals with 5 ft contours and a geotechnical report, LA County Public Health septic approval and an LA County Fire fuel modification plan.

The RS zone allows two stories up to 35 ft, so the answer is usually yes, with a public process. Under AHMC 9243.9 as published, any second story added to a one-story house goes to the Planning Commission, which must find the design in keeping with the character of the surrounding neighborhood. Story poles are required only where a height or setback variance is involved, at the Director's discretion. On a hillside parcel, an addition over the lesser of 700 sq ft or 30 percent of the floor area takes added review. An engineer also reviews the existing footings and walls before design is fixed.

It can. Most of Old Agoura and Indian Hills has no sewer, and Los Angeles County Public Health, not the City, reviews the septic system. If the system is more than 15 years old or has no record of approval, a licensed contractor evaluates the tank and dispersal field to confirm they can take the added bedrooms. The County counts any room of 70 sq ft or more, including an office or den, as a bedroom equivalent, door or no door. If public sewer runs within 200 ft, septic approval is not issued and the house connects to the sewer when the system fails or needs an upgrade.

Usually, for ground-floor work. A rear room addition or bump-out is framed and closed in against the existing wall, and the opening into the house is cut late, behind dust barriers. On a stepped hillside addition, the excavation and footing work happens outside the house, so daily life inside is mostly untouched until the connection. A second story is different: part of the roof comes off and the rooms below become a work zone, and many families move out for that stretch. The smoke alarm upgrade reaches every story. Before you sign, the schedule lists the days each room is out of use.

If you have one, twice. The association runs its own architectural approval under its CC&Rs, and the City also routes Site Plan/Architectural Review applications to the relevant HOA for comment and notifies its representatives before a public hearing. Civil Code 4765 requires the association's own decision in writing, with reasons for a denial and a path to reconsideration, though it does not override the CC&Rs. Many tract neighborhoods carry an association, while Old Agoura largely does not. We prepare the board package and the MGO Connect set from the same drawings so neither review waits on the other.

Build an addition when the space serves the household: a bedroom for a large family, a ground-floor primary suite, an office. It joins the house, shares the kitchen and keeps the garage parking the city requires, and only the added value is reassessed. Build an ADU when you want a separate unit with its own entrance and kitchen for a relative, a caregiver or a long-term tenant. The ADU rules, including the city's pre-approved plans, are on our ADU construction in Agoura Hills page. On a septic lot, either one starts with the system evaluation. We build both.