Luxury Remodeling in Cerritos
Design-build pools, patio covers and ADUs for Cerritos homes, planned around the City's own setback and coverage rules.
Building in Cerritos
Pools, patio covers and additions planned to Cerritos standards.
Cerritos was incorporated in 1956 as the City of Dairy Valley and took its present name in 1967, and most of its neighborhoods were built in the 1960s and 1970s as cow pastures and other agricultural land gave way to subdivisions. Today the city is almost entirely developed, with lawns and tree-lined streets throughout, and some older houses are being bought, torn down and replaced with new, contemporary homes. The City sets its residential standards in specific detail, from how far pool water and equipment must sit from neighboring homes to how much of a side or rear yard a patio roof may cover, and a City planner reviews each home improvement project before work begins. On a typical lot here, those numbers settle where the pool, the equipment and any shade structure can go before a single finish is chosen.
Most Cerritos neighborhoods were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, and single-family lots outside the planned communities are zoned RS-5000 or RS-6500. Building coverage, counting the first floor, the garage and overhangs deeper than 30 inches, is capped at 45 percent of the lot in RS-5000 and 40 percent in RS-6500, floor area ratio at 0.70, and at least 20 percent of the property area must stay open within the rear 30 feet. Planned communities such as Shadow Park and Granada Park were laid out around shared landscaped open space, and where an HOA exists its written approval precedes the City's.
One team designs, permits and builds every project, and our own crews self-perform the work, so the people who plan your Cerritos project are the people on site building it.
Part of our service area in Los Angeles County.
Local Conditions
What building in Cerritos involves
Permits in Cerritos
City of Cerritos Department of Community Development, Building and Safety Division (building and safety services contracted to Los Angeles County Public Works)
Planning Division approval is required before any home improvement project or construction activity begins, and the City keeps separate Planning applications for pools, spas and equipment, patio structures, block walls and fences, and major and minor room additions. Homes inside a homeowners association need written HOA approval, recorded on the City's HOA Approval Form, before the City grants plan approval or building permits. Building and safety services are contracted to Los Angeles County, so plan check follows the Los Angeles County Building Code and the County's plan check and permit fees are passed on to applicants by the City. Additions over 900 square feet or 70 percent of the existing floor area, and additions or exterior remodels that significantly change a home's appearance from the street, go to the Planning Commission as a Precise Plan, and a pool that encroaches more than 25 percent into the side yard or into any portion of the front yard also needs Planning Commission approval. The City also accepts ADU plans for pre-approval under AB 1332.
Permit details checked September 2026 against City of Cerritos. Rules change, so we confirm them again for your parcel.
What we plan for here
- Pool and equipment setback planning on tract lots
- Planning Division and HOA approval packages
- Patio cover coverage calculations for RS-5000 and RS-6500 lots
- Liquefaction-aware soils and foundation design
- Precise Plan packages for large additions
The entire city lies in a state-mapped liquefaction hazard zone over roughly 1,000 feet of alluvial sand and silt, and the General Plan notes perched water within several feet of the surface in many areas, conditions that bear on pool excavation and addition footings.
Cerritos sits on the coastal plain, where the state's seismic hazard evaluation found no landslide potential, no Alquist-Priolo fault zone lies within city limits, and CAL FIRE's March 2025 hazard map classes the whole city as non-wildland, so soil and groundwater, not slope or wildfire, are the conditions that shape a build.
Pool water must sit at least 15 feet from every neighboring home (10 feet when the pool is in the rear yard and the rear lot line meets a neighbor's side lot line), and pool equipment must stay 15 feet from neighboring homes, 40 feet back from the front property line and at least a foot below the surrounding block wall or solid fence, which often fixes a pool's position before its shape.
Street-facing perimeter block walls cannot be demolished for excavation access, a wall between two lots may come down only with an access agreement from the neighbor submitted with the plans, and during construction materials may extend no more than eight feet from the curb line, with the street occupied for no more than seven days unless a separate permit is granted.
Neighborhoods we work in
- Shadow Park
- Granada Park
- The Courts
- Encore
- Center Stone
Cerritos Services
Everything we build in Cerritos
Each page covers permits, costs and the build process for that work in Cerritos.
Pool & Spa Remodeling in Cerritos
We design and build pools and spas with our own crews, start to finish.
Backyard & Outdoor Living in Cerritos
Outdoor living, hardscape, and curb appeal, designed and built to outlast the SoCal sun.
ADUs & Additions in Cerritos
We design, permit, and build ADUs and additions that actually add value.
Also available in Cerritos
Cerritos Guides
Remodeling guides for Cerritos
Local planning notes, costs and design direction for Cerritos homeowners.
Whole-Home Remodel Sequencing: What to Do First
A whole-home remodel done in the wrong order costs 15 to 25 percent more. Here is the correct sequence, from structural and roof through to paint, and why each stage has to precede the next.
Read guideIndoor-Outdoor Living Conversions in Southern California
A 16-foot multi-slide door runs $18,000 to $45,000 installed. Here is how the full indoor-outdoor conversion works, from structural header to flush threshold to covered patio tie-in.
Read guideTarzana Outdoor Living: A Builder's Guide to South of the Boulevard Lots
Tarzana backyards run hot and deep. A working outdoor living build here (shade, hardscape, kitchen, lighting) typically lands between $85,000 and $220,000, and the ground drives most of the number.
Read guidePorter Ranch Backyard Transformation: Wind, Slope and What It Costs
A full backyard transformation in Porter Ranch runs $95,000 to $280,000. Wind exposure, slope, HOA review and fire-zone material rules shape the design before anything about style enters the conversation.
Read guideNearby service areas
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