Backyard & Outdoor Living in Fountain Valley

City of Fountain Valley Building Division. In-ground pools and spas go through plan review with the Building Division at 10200 Slater Avenue, and the submittal includes two sets of stamped, wet-signed structural plans and a steel schedule prepared by a California licensed engineer. The Planning Department verifies setback distances to property lines, Public Works staff review the plans for utility easements, site grading, site drainage and encroachment permit requirements, and the shotcrete requires deputy inspection. The city's single-family standards set pools and spas back five feet from the house and from the side and rear property lines. ADUs are governed by FVMC 21.08.055, and an attached or detached unit must match the main house in exterior color and material, roof material and color, and window and door types, with clerestory or frosted glass on any ADU window within five feet of a property line. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Level single-family lots where the city's development standards, rather than slope, set the limits: lot coverage tops out at 60 percent including accessory structures, or 50 percent on parcels of 10,000 square feet or more, and 1,000 square feet of open space must stay in the rear yard. Pool equipment and AC units need a three-foot setback in a side yard, or 18 inches behind the house in the rear yard. A detached ADU goes in the rear yard at least ten feet from the main house, and the city requires no more than four feet of side and rear setback for it. One local condition that shapes the work: The city's 2023 vulnerability assessment places groundwater less than ten feet below the surface, likely a legacy of the swampland that covered the area in the early 1900s, and shows all of Fountain Valley except an isolated area along Newland Street as susceptible to liquefaction, with especially high potential beside the Santa Ana River and south of the I-405.

All of it, including Mile Square Park area, North of the I-405, South of the I-405 and Santa Ana River edge. 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.