More than half the housing in Los Feliz is Spanish or Mediterranean Revival built between the wars, which means hand-plastered walls, original tile, arched openings and clay tile roofs. Work on a house like that is a matching problem before it is a construction problem. Get the plaster texture or the casing profile wrong and the repair announces itself from across the room. Burbank Remodeling Contractor works throughout Los Feliz, California on exactly this housing, from Franklin Hills cottages on stair streets to the estates below Griffith Park.
Matching is a carpentry skill rather than a purchasing decision, and it is where five generations of it earns its keep. We patch plaster in three coats to match the surrounding texture, reproduce profiles that no longer exist in any catalog, and restore original windows rather than replacing them with something that reads wrong on the elevation. Matt, who runs the company, is an Air Force veteran and has spent more than 30 years on job sites.
We will also give you an honest answer about opening up the floor plan, which is the most common request here and not always right in a Revival house. Call (747) 330-0305 and we will walk it, tell you which walls can go without gutting the character you paid for, and put real numbers against the work.
Working on Spanish and Mediterranean Revival Homes
More than half the housing stock here is Spanish or Mediterranean Revival, built between the World Wars. These houses were built with hand-plastered walls, original decorative tile, arched openings and clay tile roofs, by craftsmen working to a standard that is expensive to reproduce and impossible to fake convincingly.
Everything about remodeling them follows from that. Plaster gets repaired and matched in three coats rather than replaced with drywall. Arch profiles get traced and rebuilt rather than squared off. Original tile at stairs, fireplaces and thresholds gets protected during construction, and where pieces are missing, matching reproduction tile is sourced rather than substituted with something close. This is where a carpentry-rooted company earns its fee.
Estate Work in Laughlin Park and the Los Feliz Oaks
Laughlin Park, the private gated enclave off Los Feliz Boulevard, layers 1920s and 1930s Spanish Colonial and Tudor estates with postwar post-and-beam mid-centuries. The Los Feliz Estates and Oaks areas below Griffith Park carry some of the city's most architecturally significant homes.
Owners in these areas typically hire for restoration-grade work rather than gut-and-flip renovation, and the expectations are correspondingly high on finish, on documentation and on how a job site is run. Gated access also changes logistics in ways that need planning: delivery scheduling, crew access and staging all have to be arranged rather than assumed.
Building on Franklin Hills Terraced Lots and Stair Streets
Franklin Hills offers terraced view lots with 1920s cottages, Spanish Revival, Craftsman and multi-level moderns. The defining logistical feature is the stair streets: some of these houses are reached on foot up a public staircase, with no vehicle access to the building itself.
That is a real construction constraint rather than a charming detail. Material handling on a stair-street property is done by hand or by lift, demolition debris comes out the same way, and a concrete pour is pumped from wherever the truck can get to. It affects the price of every phase, and any bid that has not accounted for it is going to be revised.
HPOZ Pockets and Hillside Rules in Los Feliz
Most of Los Feliz is not under district design review, with the Hollywood Grove pocket being the neighborhood's formal HPOZ area, where street-visible exterior work triggers review. Individual homes elsewhere may carry Historic-Cultural Monument status.
The hillside portions fall under the Los Angeles hillside ordinance, which brings grading limits, haul route requirements on larger soil exports, and height measured in a less generous way than on flat ground. Both of these are mapped, and we verify them against the parcel before design rather than during plan check.
Where We Work in Los Feliz
Talk to carpenters who can match a 1920s house
Tell us what the house is and what you want to change. We will give you a straight read on what can move and what should stay.
Call (747) 330-0305Frequently asked questions
Can you match original 1920s plaster and tile?
Yes. Plaster is matched by working the finish coat with the original technique rather than imitating it with joint compound, which takes a plasterer who has done period work. Original decorative tile is protected during construction, and where pieces are missing, reproduction tile matching the pattern and glaze can generally be sourced.
Is my Los Feliz house in an HPOZ?
Most of the neighborhood is not, with the Hollywood Grove pocket being the formal HPOZ area. Individual properties elsewhere can carry Historic-Cultural Monument status, which brings its own review. We check the designation against your address before design work starts.
How do you handle a house on a stair street?
By planning the logistics before pricing the work. Material comes in by hand or by lift, debris goes out the same way, concrete is pumped from the nearest truck access, and the schedule accounts for the slower handling. It is entirely workable and it is more expensive than the same project on a driveway, which we say up front.
Should I open up the floor plan in a Spanish Revival house?
Carefully, and usually less than people first want. Part of what makes these houses valuable is the sequence of defined rooms with arched openings between them. Widening an existing arch or opening the kitchen to a family room often gets most of the benefit while keeping the character. Gutting the main floor into one open space tends to remove exactly what buyers in this neighborhood are paying for.