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Home Remodeling in Agoura Hills
Whole-home remodels, additions and ADUs for Agoura Hills' 1970s-80s housing stock. One licensed contractor from design through final inspection.
Houses in Agoura Hills are good bones wearing dated clothes. The 1970s and 80s subdivisions that make up most of the town were solidly built, sized generously for their day, and are now two full design generations behind how families live. That gap is our favorite kind of project. Master Construction (Lic. #1027281) remodels these homes whole-house and room by room, with the regional practice described on our home remodeling page and our own crews on every trade that matters.
Remodeling the Late-70s Floor Plan
The era's plans share a signature: compartmentalized rooms, a sunken living room or conversation pit, dark hallways through the center of the house, and generous square footage arranged for formality nobody uses. The remodel playbook is consistent because the plans are: open the kitchen to the family room, raise the sunken floor or embrace it deliberately, pull light into the core with enlarged openings, and spend the formal dining room's square footage on something the household actually does.
Under the surfaces, three systems usually need the same generation of attention. Panels sized in 1978 meet electrical upgrades, original supply lines meet repipes, and single-pane aluminum sliders meet modern glazing. A whole-house remodel is the cheapest moment those upgrades will ever have, because the walls are already open and the trades are already mobilized.
Hillside and split-level homes remodel differently than flat ranches, and this town has plenty of both. Level changes constrain where plumbing moves; stepped foundations complicate opening certain walls; and decks, drainage and grade interact with any footprint change. We design around those constraints from the first sketch instead of discovering them in framing, and the budget carries them as known conditions rather than as the change orders that sour so many hillside remodels.
Additions, ADUs and Making Square Footage Work
Additions here answer two pressures: households that outgrew three bedrooms, and multigenerational arrangements that need real separation. On flat portions of a lot, ground-floor additions run conventionally. On slopes, an addition may step down the grade or ride on a raised floor system, and the foundation engineering leads the design. Either way we tie rooflines and stucco so the addition reads original, which is where additions most visibly succeed or fail.
ADUs have real traction on these lots. Garage conversions, above-garage units and detached backyard cottages all pencil differently, and state ADU law has opened doors that local zoning once kept shut. On oak-studded lots the tree canopy often decides the ADU's location before any other factor. We design, permit and build ADUs end to end, including the utility connections that surprise owners who priced only the structure.
Fire-zone reality touches remodels too. Any significant exterior work in the WUI areas along the open-space edge is a chance to upgrade to ember-resistant vents, protected eaves and a Class A roof, and remodel time is the cheap moment for those assemblies. We raise it in design whether or not the owner asks, because in this town the question answers itself.
One Contract, One Schedule, One Accountable Builder
Whole-house remodels fail through fragmentation: a designer here, five contractors there, and an owner playing project manager at night. We run the opposite model. Design, engineering, permits and construction sit under one contract, with fixed scope pricing and the likely hidden conditions named and priced before demolition. Our crews cover framing through finish, so the schedule is ours to keep rather than a chain of other people's promises.
Permits run through the City of Agoura Hills building department, this being the Los Angeles County side of our service area, and additions or structural changes bring plan review appropriate to their scope. We prepare complete submittals and track corrections so review time overlaps design and ordering rather than delaying the start.
Investors, property managers and estate trustees remodel here too, and their projects run on different constraints: rental-grade finish standards with per-unit consistency, escrow deadlines on trust properties, and documentation for owners who live elsewhere. We give that work fixed pricing, weekly written updates with photos, and a single contact from scope to keys, with the finish schedule written down before the first hammer swings.
Home Remodeling Services in Agoura Hills
- Whole-house remodels of 70s-80s homes
- Open-plan conversions & wall removal
- Ground-floor & stepped hillside additions
- ADUs & garage conversions
- Sunken living room conversions
- Window & slider replacement
- Panel, repipe & systems upgrades
- Fire-zone assembly upgrades at remodel
- Design through final inspection
- Investor & trust property remodels
Agoura Hills Home Remodeling - FAQ
Where does remodel money go furthest in these houses?
Opening the kitchen-family room wall, replacing the aluminum sliders, and brightening the dark central core. Those three moves modernize a late-70s plan more than any finish upgrade, and they are exactly the changes this housing stock was built to accept with an engineered beam and a permit.
Can we stay in the house while you remodel it?
Often, with honest tradeoffs. We phase by zone, keep a working kitchen or set up a temporary one, and seal active areas. Full-gut projects with repipes and rewires are sometimes cheaper and faster with the house empty, and we tell you which side of the line your scope falls on.
What does an addition cost on a sloped lot?
More than the same room on a flat pad, driven by foundation engineering and access. Sometimes the smarter answer is reorganizing the existing square footage instead, and we price both paths honestly, side by side, before you commit to either one.
Is an ADU realistic on my property?
State law has made yes the common answer, via garage conversion, above-garage unit or detached cottage. On oak lots the canopy usually picks the location. Utility connections are the cost people miss, so our ADU budgets include them from the first number.
Should a remodel include fire-hardening upgrades?
In this town, yes where the scope touches the exterior. Ember-resistant vents, eave protection and roof upgrades cost least while walls and roofs are already open. Woolsey taught this area that lesson; we build it into remodel design as a default conversation.
How do permits work for a big remodel here?
Through the City of Agoura Hills building department, with structural additions drawing fuller review. Being in Los Angeles County changes the office and the code cycle, not the fundamentals. We submit complete packages and run corrections so review overlaps ordering instead of delaying demolition.
Do you remodel rentals and trust properties?
Regularly. Investors get rental-grade specs priced per unit and schedules built around vacancy windows. Trustees and out-of-area owners get escrow-aware timelines, weekly photo reports and one accountable contact. The house gets the same crews either way.
Related Services
Whole-home work connects to kitchen remodels in Agoura Hills, bathroom remodels, design-build, and the full Agoura Hills list.
Rethinking Your Agoura Hills House?
Call (805) 667-8800 for a walkthrough and a remodel plan with real numbers attached.