Backyard & Outdoor Living in La Mirada

City of La Mirada Building & Safety (services contracted to the County of Los Angeles). La Mirada contracts with the County of Los Angeles for Building & Safety, so completed applications go to the permit counter at City Hall, 13700 La Mirada Boulevard, while building and structural plan checks are performed at the County's South Whittier District office in Norwalk or its Central office in Alhambra. Permanent pools and their equipment are filed on the city's Combination Pool Permit application. The General Plan requires geotechnical engineering studies for development proposals on properties it maps as subject to liquefaction and landslides. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Low-density single-family neighborhoods cover just over half of the city's land, in R-1 districts with minimum lot sizes from 6,000 to 15,000 square feet, on ground the General Plan describes as relatively flat outside the northeast. Nearly half of La Mirada's housing units were built between 1950 and 1959, so many projects begin with a mid-century house and yard. One local condition that shapes the work: Most of the city is relatively flat, but the General Plan identifies steep terrain in the northeast portion where earthquake-induced landslides are possible, so parcels there start with geotechnical review.

All of it, including Foster Park, Creek Park and Granada Heights. 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.