Full Home Remodeling in Valley Village
Valley Village whole-house remodels that check the attic for hidden roof braces before walls come out, with beams planned in and room for a JADU.
Up in the attic of a Valley Village house, a diagonal brace can run from the rafters down to the top of an interior wall that looks like an ordinary partition from below. That brace means the wall is helping carry the roof. Finding one changes the plan for an open kitchen: the wall can still come out, but a beam sized by an engineer, with posts down to footings, has to pick up that load first.
When a partition turns out to carry weight
A wall under a roof brace is treated as bearing, whatever it looked like on the walk through. Ceiling joists resting on its top plate may depend on it as well. Once it is removed, a beam carries both, either dropped below the ceiling or set flush with the joists hung from it in metal hangers. The ends of that beam deliver concentrated weight, so each post needs a footing sized for it, and the engineer's sheet shows where they land. Temporary shoring holds the ceiling while the swap happens.
Designing the open room around the beam
A flush beam keeps the ceiling flat, but it may need to be deeper or made of steel or engineered lumber to span the opening. A dropped beam is simpler to install and can line up with a kitchen island or a change in flooring, so it reads as intentional. Recessed lights, ducts and sprinkler or plumbing lines have to route around whichever beam is chosen, so their paths are drawn on the same sheet. Wall switches that lived on the removed wall get new homes.
Full Home Remodeling in Valley Village: common questions
Yes. Space inside the existing house, up to 500 square feet, can become a junior unit with its own outside entrance and an efficiency kitchen. If it shares the main bathroom, an interior door must connect the two. Laying out that wall while the rest of the house is open means its framing, wiring and sink line go in once.
Often you can stay through much of it. The day a bearing wall comes out, the area is shored and closed off, and dust spreads more than usual. Longer stretches without a kitchen or water, and floor finishing days, are the times most worth spending elsewhere. Those dates are set on the schedule before work begins.
We survey the house, including the attic and underfloor, and draw both the current layout and the proposed one. An engineer details any beam, post and footing. Valley Village is part of the City of Los Angeles, which permits through LADBS after plan check. Inspectors see the footings, the framing and each trade before walls close, then return for final.
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