Second-Story Additions in Los Feliz

A second floor sends new weight down through every wall and footing below it. I evaluate before anyone designs. That means exposing the foundation where it counts to confirm its type and depth, checking the framing that will become the floor of the new level, and documenting the walls that will have to resist shear.

Older Los Angeles houses were often built in stages, and what holds them up is not always what the drawings on file say. The answer can be new interior shear walls and hold-downs, new footings or grade beams, or piers on a sloped lot. Sometimes it is a different plan. Either way you get the structural answer in writing before you invest in a full design set.

Los Feliz sits in the City's Hollywood Community Plan area, which City Planning updated in January 2025 and which takes in Los Feliz along with a number of hillside communities. A flat lot and a hillside lot in the same neighborhood can face different limits.

Los Angeles governs the size and bulk of homes in single-family zones through the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance and, in the mapped Hillside Area, the Baseline Hillside Ordinance. City Planning wrote them to address out-of-scale development and the construction impacts of building on hillsides. On a hillside lot the ordinance sums allowable floor area by slope band, so the steep part of a lot carries less house than the flat part. LADBS determines whether the hillside rules apply to your project, and on a narrow hillside street the access rules come into play before a permit issues.

I read every lot on ZIMAS, the City's zoning map, before design, and on a complicated lot I take the open questions to an LADBS preliminary plan check meeting with a plan check engineer.

Opening a roof is the highest-risk day of the project, so it is planned weeks out. A temporary weather structure goes up before demolition, the tear-off is sequenced so only the covered section is ever open, and each section is dried in the day it is framed. Ceilings below are protected, and I check for moisture rather than assume it stayed out.

Many owners stay in the house. A sealed dust barrier at the stair, a dedicated crew entry, and scheduled utility shutdowns make that workable. The loud weeks, demolition and framing, are named in advance.

1. Structural evaluation and lot reading. The two first questions, answered in writing.

2. Design. Your architect designs the new floor; your structural engineer designs the load path. I review for sequencing, weather exposure, and access.

3. Plan check. LADBS plan check through ePlanLA. I work the corrections with your team and keep the submittal complete. I never promise approval dates, because the City sets them.

4. Written scope and agreement. You approve both before work starts, with each payment stage tied to a milestone you can verify on site.

5. Build, inspect, hand over. Every stage passes its City inspection. At final we walk the new floor together, close the punch list, and I hand over the documents for everything we built.

A second story is priced by the structural work the existing house needs, the area added, the access to the lot, and the finishes. I put a written number on a defined scope after the evaluation and the plan review. Share the budget range you plan in the build request below.