A fire feature is the most requested thing in a Southern California backyard and the one with the widest gap between what people picture and what is allowed on their lot. The confusion comes from a single distinction that almost nobody makes out loud: a permanently installed gas fire feature and a wood-burning fire are two different things under two different sets of rules. Start here: which one are you building? A built-in gas fire pit or fireplace is an appliance. It is con

An accessory dwelling unit is the largest thing most people will ever build in a backyard, and the rules around it are the most favorable they have ever been in California. They are also widely misunderstood, in both directions. People assume their city can say no when it cannot, and assume their lot can take one when it may not. Those are two different questions and they get answered by two different sets of facts. What the state guarantees, and your city cannot take away Th

The most expensive backyard mistake in this county is not choosing the wrong material or hiring the wrong crew. It is building things in the wrong order. Concrete poured before the gas line is trenched. A patio built before anyone worked out where the water goes. A pool deck finished, then a kitchen added, then the deck opened back up to feed it. Every one of those is a real job we have been called to fix, and every one was avoidable on paper. Here is the order that works, an

There is no California fence height. There is a Temecula fence height, a Murrieta fence height, and a different answer again if your address turns out to be in unincorporated county. People move here from Los Angeles or San Diego, apply what they knew, and build something that has to come down. Here is what actually applies in southwest Riverside County. Temecula: three feet in front, six everywhere else The front setback is the strict one. Solid fences, hedges and walls in t

Everyone plans an outdoor kitchen by picking the grill and the countertop. Those are the two decisions that matter least. The island is masonry and finish work, and it is the straightforward part. What decides whether the project goes smoothly, passes inspection and is safe to stand next to is gas, electrical and how the island itself is built to handle a leak. The rule that surprises people, and it is a safety rule A BBQ island is usually built as a sealed masonry box with a

Three things decide how a concrete driveway or patio performs in southwest Riverside County, and none of them is the finish you picked from a photo. They are the soil under it, the temperature the day it was placed, and a permit most homeowners here do not know exists until the inspector mentions it. One: the soil moves, and your slab moves with it Much of the Temecula and Murrieta area sits on expansive clay. Clay takes on water and swells, then dries out and shrinks. Over a

In southwest Riverside County the hard part of a backyard project is almost never the design. It is finding out which set of rules your particular lot falls under, because two houses on the same street can answer that question differently. Here is what actually governs a patio cover or a deck in Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar and Lake Elsinore, and the layer that most homeowners here do not find out about until plan check. First: when you need a permit at all The thresholds are

A driveway gate looks like a product you buy. In Los Angeles it is closer to a small permitted structure that happens to move, and it sits at the boundary between three different sets of rules: zoning, the public right of way, and gate safety. Most of the gates that get into trouble here did not fail because of the steel. They failed because of where they were put. The first question: where does your property actually end? Almost every homeowner assumes the property line is a

This is the most common backyard question in Los Angeles, and the short answer is three numbers. The long answer is why those numbers are not the whole story on most lots. The three numbers The rule lives in Section 12.22 C.20 (f) of the Zoning Code. In most residential areas: In the required front yard, a fence or wall may be up to 3 feet 6 inches In the required side and rear yards, up to 6 feet Depending on lot size and location, the side and rear limit may be increased to

If you manage or sit on the board of an older wood-frame building in Los Angeles with parking or open space at the ground floor, there is a good chance the city has already written to you about it, possibly years ago. This is the ordinance that letter came from, what the timeline actually was, and what your position is now. The ordinance Ordinance 183893 took effect on 22 November 2015 and was amended by Ordinance 184081 in February 2016. It sits in the Los Angeles Municipal

Video of Balcony collapse in Malibu, CA. This could be 100% prevented with preventive maintenance and an annual structural assessment.

Learn How Building Permits Made Easy Solving The Real Problems Renovations without permits can become a real headache. That is why we...

HPOZ for those who accidentally fell upon this page, means Historical Preservation Overlay Zone. For those who purposely searched and found us here, this acronym is the theme of many nightmares of homeowners in certain areas in Los Angeles, especially if you seek to get HPOZ approval, and get permits to accomplish any construction or renovations on you property. Historical Preservation Overlay Zones are not only found in Los Angeles, in fact these areas are also found all ove