Serving Palo Alto · Santa Clara County
Your remodeling contractor in Palo Alto
Careful remodeling for a city that documents everything: thirty-one Eichler tracts, two of them on the National Register, historic districts, protected trees, and an all-digital permit system we know our way around.
Remodeling in Palo Alto
Palo Alto remodeling that respects what this city protects.
Palo Alto's housing reads like a history of California residential architecture: Professorville's turn-of-the-century homes, thirty-one Eichler tracts by the city's own design guidelines, Greenmeadow and Green Gables standing on the National Register, and everything from twenties craftsman to nineties infill in between. Remodeling here is as much about respecting what exists as improving it.
It is also a city where preparation is everything, because review is real: homes over forty-five years old can need a historic evaluation before an addition, the historic districts have their own board, and the urban forest is protected down to specific trunk sizes. None of that should scare you. It should just decide who you hire.
City hall, handled
Permits in Palo Alto, handled for you.
Palo Alto's Development Services runs an all-digital system: no paper plans, everything through the city's online portal, with the Development Center seeing visitors by appointment. Instant online permits exist for solar and heat-pump replacements. We prepare, file and shepherd everything else, plan check, corrections and inspections included.
Historic review is the piece that catches people out. Work on inventoried properties and anything in Professorville or the Ramona Street district goes to the Historic Resources Board, and per the city's 2024 bulletin, an unevaluated home more than forty-five years old can need a historic resource evaluation before an addition or substantial exterior change. We flag this on day one, not after you have paid for drawings twice.
Trees carry rules of their own: native oaks and certain species are protected at specific trunk diameters, coast redwoods at larger, and any mature tree over fifteen inches. Additions here get designed with an arborist's map on the table.
The housing stock
What Palo Alto homes ask for.
Eichler work in Palo Alto is the deepest bench in our playbook: flat roofs, radiant slabs, glass walls, and city design guidelines written specifically for those tracts, with voluntary single-story overlays across eleven of them. The right remodel keeps the architecture and quietly replaces everything that fails, insulation, glazing, roof membrane, radiant loops.
The older stock near downtown wants a different craft: foundations tuned up, knob-and-tube retired, plaster preserved where it matters and replaced where it does not. Those houses hide their surprises well, which is why anything we cannot verify before demolition is flagged up front as a potential change order with an estimated range, never discovered at invoice time.
What we build in Palo Alto
Every service, one contract, one fixed price.
Kitchen Remodeling
Custom cabinetry, stone counters, and a layout built around how you actually cook.
$60k to $180kBathroom Remodeling
Curbless showers, custom tile, proper waterproofing behind every wall.
$30k to $90kWhole Home Renovation
Every room at once, under one contract and one schedule that holds.
$200k to $600kHome Additions
More square footage, tied in so cleanly it looks like it was always there.
$400 to $650 / sq ftADU Construction
A second dwelling on your lot. State law is on your side, and we know the process.
$190k to $500kGarage Conversion
The cheapest square footage you own. Foundation and roof are already there.
$100k to $250kNew Home Construction
Ground up custom homes, from lot review to the final walkthrough.
$550 to $900 / sq ftDecks & Outdoor Living
Decks, patios, outdoor kitchens and covers, engineered and permitted properly.
$30k to $120kPalo Alto questions
What Palo Alto homeowners ask us.
My Palo Alto house is over 45 years old. What does that mean for my remodel?
Per the city's current bulletin, an addition or substantial exterior change on an unevaluated home that age can require a historic resource evaluation first, and inventoried or district properties go to the Historic Resources Board. We identify which lane your house is in before design starts.
Do you know the Eichler guidelines here?
Yes. Palo Alto publishes design guidelines for its thirty-one Eichler tracts, and eleven of them carry single-story overlays. We design to the guidelines so the house stays a Palo Alto Eichler, which is exactly what protects its value.
How do permits work in Palo Alto?
All digital, no paper sets, filed through the city's portal with appointments at the Development Center. We run the whole process under your contract.
Can I build an ADU in Palo Alto?
Yes. State law guarantees ministerial review on a 60-day clock with four-foot side and rear setbacks, and the countywide ADU collaborative Palo Alto belongs to publishes guides and plan galleries. Trees and historic status are the two local wrinkles we check first.
Free consultation
Planning a remodel in Palo Alto?
Tell us what you are imagining. We will walk the space, explain what your city requires, and put a fixed price in writing.