Backyard & Outdoor Living in Cheviot Hills

Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Private pools in the City of Los Angeles are permitted through a Combined Building-Mechanical permit, while pools serving more than two dwelling units need separate building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits. Using a City of Los Angeles standard plan on file with LADBS reduces plan check time. Cheviot Hills lies entirely within the city's Hillside Grading Area, so a pool excavation here needs its own LADBS grading permit, although the neighborhood is outside the Hillside Area governed by the Baseline Hillside Ordinance. Ordinance No. 185,475, effective May 2, 2018, changed the Cheviot Hills single-family zoning from R1-1 to R1V2, an R1 Variation Zone with its own residential floor area ratio, encroachment plane, height of mass, lot coverage and massing limits. The northern blocks are also mapped as a Methane Zone or Methane Buffer Zone, where the city's ventilation and methane gas detection regulations apply according to designation category. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Mid-size single-family lots: across roughly 2,300 single-family parcels in LA County Assessor data, the median lot is about 7,500 square feet, the middle half falls between roughly 6,400 and 9,000 square feet, and the median house has about 2,700 square feet of living area. Most of these lots are zoned R1V2. One local condition that shapes the work: The whole neighborhood lies within the city's Hillside Grading Area, so a pool excavation needs its own LADBS grading permit, although it sits outside the Hillside Area covered by the Baseline Hillside Ordinance.

All of it, including Monte Mar Vista, California Country Club Estates and Old Cheviot. Our crews run every job out of our Cahuenga Pass base in Los Angeles, with our own people on site.

Full backyard transformation: generally $50,000 to $250,000+ across Southern California. What moves it is how much hardscape is involved, whether a pool or outdoor kitchen is included, grading and retaining, and the level of lighting and planting. We give line-item pricing after seeing the site rather than quoting a number over the phone.

A patio and turf refresh often finishes in three to five weeks. A full transformation with hardscape, an outdoor kitchen, structures and lighting typically runs ten to sixteen weeks, and longer if a pool is part of the same phase.

Pavers cost more up front but flex with ground movement instead of cracking, and individual units can be lifted and replaced. Poured concrete is cheaper initially, but a crack means cutting out and repouring a section that rarely matches. On most Southern California soil we recommend pavers for anything you will look at every day.

Yes, and on most projects we insist on it. Correcting grade and adding proper drainage while the yard is already open is far cheaper than retrofitting it after new hardscape is down.

Yes. Design, permits, hardscape, structures, kitchen, lighting and planting run through one team and one project manager, so nothing gets lost between trades.