Backyard & Outdoor Living in Hollywood 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. Nearly all of the Hollywood Hills sits in the Hillside Grading Area under the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, and much of it is in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.

Grading needs its own LADBS grading permit, and import or export of more than 1,000 cubic yards also needs a haul route approved by the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners after a public hearing. Large parts of the area also fall inside a Hillside Construction Regulation district, which adds grading, hauling and construction-hour limits.

We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Steep, view-first parcels where structure and access drive both the schedule and the budget. This is the most engineering-heavy work we do, and it is on our doorstep. One local condition that shapes the work: Steep parcels usually require caissons and engineered retaining before a pool shell can be formed.

All of it, including Hollywood Heights, Nichols Canyon, Laurel Canyon and Outpost Estates. 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.