Usually yes, but it depends on whether it carries load. If it does, you need a structural engineer to design a beam and posts, and you need an LADBS permit and inspection. Anyone who offers to do it without engineering and a permit is offering to create a problem you will pay for later.

Yes for anything past finish work. Moving plumbing, adding circuits, altering framing and changing ventilation all require a permit. Painting and flooring generally do not.

Not always all at once, but if you are opening walls anyway, that is when it is cheapest to do. Galvanized supply lines corrode from the inside and lose flow. Replacing them after the tile is on costs several times what it costs while the wall is open.

In Tarzana, reconfiguring usually wins. You get the function of a larger house without foundation, roofing and exterior work, and without the floor area and setback analysis that an addition requires. We will tell you honestly which one your house needs.

If you are south of Ventura, possibly. It is a mapped designation and it changes how much floor area you are allowed and how much grading you can do. We check the parcel record before quoting.

Yes, and it is a permitted alteration involving foundation, insulation, egress and often electrical work. Done without a permit it reliably surfaces at resale.

A kitchen or bathroom is measured in weeks once permits are issued. Getting the permit is the part people underestimate, especially when structural work is involved. We give you both halves of the timeline.

Finish level drives part of it. The rest is what your house needs underneath, and in postwar Tarzana that is often plumbing, electrical or insulation. We estimate line by line after a site visit.