Whole Home Remodeling · Orange County and LA
Whole home remodeling in Orange County and LA by a licensed design-build team. Plans, permits and construction under one contract. Schedule a consultation.
Tell us about the house. A project manager will call to set up a walk-through.
Prefer to talk? Call (714) 449-9035
Most people who call us about whole home remodeling in Orange County aren’t unhappy with their house. They’re unhappy with how it works. The kitchen is closed off from everything else, the hall bath hasn’t been touched since the 1980s, and every time something breaks there’s a question about whether it’s worth fixing on its own. A whole home remodel answers all of that at once, with one plan, one permit set and one crew.
Horizon Construction & Remodeling has done this kind of work across Orange County and Los Angeles County for more than 18 years. We’re a licensed Class B general building contractor, and we run design, drawings, permits and construction in-house, so you’re never the one coordinating an architect, an engineer and three subcontractors who don’t talk to each other.
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There’s no legal definition, but in practice a whole home remodel means the house is being reworked as a system rather than room by room. That usually includes some combination of:
The difference from a string of smaller projects is sequencing. When the whole house is on one plan, the plumber reroutes lines once, the drywall goes up once, and the floors run continuously from room to room instead of stopping at a threshold where the last project ended.
Before committing to a full remodel, most of our clients have already looked at what it would take to sell and buy something newer. In coastal and central Orange County, that comparison often tips toward staying.
Part of it is property tax. Under Proposition 13, your assessed value is based on what you paid, with annual increases capped. Buy a different house and the new purchase price becomes your tax basis. A remodel can trigger reassessment of the new construction, but the existing house keeps its original basis. The California State Board of Equalization explains how new construction is assessed, and it’s worth a conversation with your tax advisor before you decide.
The other part is the lot itself. A good street, a school you like, a commute that works and neighbors you know are hard to buy again. Remodeling lets you keep all of that and fix the house.
Every project is different, but the order of operations is not. Here’s how ours go.
A lot of Orange County and Los Angeles housing went up between the 1950s and 1980s. Those houses were built well for their time, but some of what’s inside them is past its useful life, and a whole home remodel is the cheapest moment to deal with it because the walls are already open.
Galvanized supply lines. Steel water pipe corrodes from the inside. Low pressure at the shower and rust-tinged water are the usual signs. Repiping during a remodel avoids opening finished walls later.
Undersized electrical service. Many older homes have panels that were never meant to carry an induction range, a heat pump, an EV charger and a home office at the same time. A panel upgrade is often part of the plan.
Lead paint. Homes built before 1978 may have lead-based paint. Contractors who disturb it have to follow the EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, and Horizon is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm.
Old fixtures. California Civil Code Section 1101.4 requires older, high-flow plumbing fixtures to be replaced with water-conserving ones as a condition of final permit sign-off on many remodels of homes built before 1994. We plan for that from the start so it never holds up your final.
Popcorn ceilings. Textured ceilings from that era can contain asbestos. They get tested before anyone scrapes them, and if the test comes back positive, abatement is handled by a licensed abatement contractor.
Every whole home remodel we do is permitted. That protects you when you sell, keeps your insurance clean, and means a building inspector has looked at the framing, wiring and plumbing before it was covered up.
Who issues the permit depends on where you live. Each incorporated city in Orange County runs its own building department. Unincorporated areas such as Ladera Ranch, Coto de Caza and Rossmoor go through OC Public Works. In Los Angeles County, unincorporated areas use EPIC-LA, and the City of Los Angeles has its own department.
Two other approvals come up often. Homes in the coastal zone may need a coastal development permit, which the California Coastal Commission or the local city administers. And many Orange County neighborhoods have an HOA architectural committee that has to approve exterior changes before the city will. We build both into the schedule.
Some families stay home during a whole home remodel and some move out. It depends on the scope. If the kitchen and every bathroom are torn out at the same time, staying gets hard. If the work can be phased, with one bathroom kept working and a temporary kitchen set up in another room, many people manage it.
We’ll tell you honestly which camp your project falls into once the plan is drawn. Phasing adds some time, so it’s a trade-off worth talking through early.
We don’t publish price ranges, because two houses with the same square footage can land far apart. These are the factors that move a budget the most:
After the walk-through, you’ll get a written proposal that breaks the work out line by line. California law sets limits on how much a contractor can collect up front on a home improvement contract (Business and Professions Code 7159.5), and our payment schedule follows it. If financing would help, see our financing options.
We work throughout Orange County, with offices in Fullerton and Laguna Hills, and across Los Angeles County. Some of the cities we’re in most often include Irvine, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Mission Viejo, Long Beach, Torrance and Pasadena. See all Orange County service areas or all Los Angeles County service areas.
We work across four Southern California counties. Each county page links to the city pages, with local permit and housing details for every city we serve.
It depends on scope, permit timing and how quickly selections are made. Design and permitting often take as long as construction itself, so starting the drawings early is the biggest lever on your move-back-in date. We give you a project-specific schedule with the proposal.
Yes, and some clients do. The trade-off is that you pay for setup, demolition and inspections more than once, and later phases can disturb finished work. If phasing is the plan, we design the whole house up front so each phase fits the next.
Not separately. Our team prepares the drawings for most residential remodels and brings in a structural engineer when the work requires one. Projects that need a licensed architect by law, or that you’d like to design with your own architect, are fine too; we’ll build from their plans.
New construction can be reassessed, but your existing home generally keeps its original Prop 13 basis. Check the Board of Equalization guidance linked above and talk to your tax advisor for your situation.
Yes. We prepare and submit the plans, respond to plan check, and schedule and attend inspections through final sign-off.
Yes. We remodel homes across Los Angeles County and in parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Call (714) 449-9035 if you’re not sure we cover your area.
Ready to talk about your house? Tell us what isn’t working and we’ll walk the house with you. Schedule a consultation or call (714) 449-9035.
