New Construction on Your Los Angeles Lot
New house construction in Los Angeles that starts with the zoning math: floor area, yards and height worked out before design, then LADBS plan check.
How big a house will this lot allow? On a Los Angeles parcel, that answer comes from the zoning before it comes from any sketch. The zone caps total floor area against lot size, sets the yards the house must keep clear on each side, and draws a height envelope it has to fit under. We work those numbers out for your address at the start, so the design you approve is one that can be permitted.
Working out the envelope
We pull the zoning for the parcel and read it against the survey. Floor area counts more than the rooms you live in: a garage, a covered porch or a double-height ceiling can count against the cap, depending on how they are drawn. Front, side and rear yards fix where walls may stand, and some zones step the height limit down near the property line. A basement can be left out of the floor area in some cases. We draw the result as a simple massing diagram, the box the house can fill, before your designer places a single room.
LADBS plan check and the clearances
A house that fits the zoning goes to LADBS for plan check, where reviewers read the structural, energy and fire sheets. Clearances from City Planning or other city offices may be needed as well, depending on the parcel, and we track every clearance the plan check sheet calls for so none holds up the permit. Corrections come back in writing, and we answer them with revised sheets. Once the permit issues, LADBS inspectors visit from the foundation to the final. The schedule you get from us shows each review and each inspection in order.
About our New Construction serviceEverything we build in Los Angeles
New Construction in Los Angeles: questions
Three things lead the list: an accurate boundary and topographic survey, a soils report, and the zoning limits for the parcel. Utility locations matter too, since the sewer and power connections can steer where the house sits. With those in hand, design begins from real limits, which saves rounds of revision later.
In two parts. Design, engineering and permits are priced first, because the drawings settle what the build will cost. Once the permit set is approved, we price construction phase by phase, starting at grading and the foundation and ending with paint and trim, and every phase is on paper before its work begins.
We do. You can sign with each consultant or we can bring them under our contract, and either way we set the order: surveyor, then soils engineer, then the structural engineer once the design is firm. Their findings come to us, we pass them to your designer, and one schedule keeps every consultant in step.
New Construction in other cities
More we build in Los Angeles
Plan your project in Los Angeles
Tell us about the property and what you have in mind. We reply with a written next step.