Home Remodeling in Los Gatos, CA
Home Remodeling in Los Gatos, CA
Avis Builders and Design is a licensed general contractor working across Los Gatos and the rest of Santa Clara County.
- Licensed & Bonded, CSLB #1142220
- TREX PRO & TimberTech PRO Certified
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Los Gatos is a town rather than a city, and that distinction shows up on a remodel application before it shows up anywhere else. The Town of Los Gatos runs its own building division and its own historic review, and the Town uses age as a trigger: any primary structure built before 1941 is treated as a historic resource unless the Town has already determined it has no historic significance or architectural merit. A good deal of the housing around the Almond Grove and the streets feeding Santa Cruz Avenue falls on that side of the line.
A kitchen gut that would be a routine over-the-counter permit elsewhere in Santa Clara County can land in a different queue here, and finding that out after demolition starts is expensive. Avis Builders and Design is a licensed general building contractor working across Los Gatos and the rest of Santa Clara County. We take kitchens, bathrooms, whole-house remodels, room additions and ADUs, decks, flooring, siding and paint from the first sketch through final inspection, with one project manager carrying the job the whole way. Call (408) 208-0551 or send the form. The in-home consultation is free, and somebody stands in the actual room before anyone talks about scope.
Remodeling & general contracting in Los Gatos
Building a deck or outdoor space in Los Gatos instead? See deck building in Los Gatos.
What we build in Los Gatos
Kitchens are the most common Los Gatos project we get called about, and in the older housing the constraint is almost never the cabinets. It is the wall. In a pre-war house with a stick-framed roof and no ridge beam, the interior wall people want removed is frequently carrying the roof, so opening the kitchen to the dining room means a flush beam sized by an engineer, point loads carried down through the floor framing, and new footings poured under the posts.
That work sits behind the drywall and produces nothing photogenic, which is exactly why it needs to be priced honestly at the start instead of appearing as a change order in week three. Bathrooms in the same houses come apart to reveal cast iron waste that has scaled down to a fraction of its inside diameter, galvanized supply behind the tile, and a fixture group that was never properly vented. Once the floor is open we would rather repipe the branch and pull a real vent than reconnect to something that will fail under a new tile floor.
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In a historic district we also pay attention to any window in that wall, because sash replacement is often the single item that turns a simple job into a design review. Additions and ADUs in Los Gatos live or die on three checks done before drawings: what the setbacks actually allow on your lot, whether the existing electrical service can carry a second dwelling without a panel and service upgrade, and where the sewer lateral runs and what condition it is in.
On a sloping lot the foundation type gets decided early too, because a stepped footing or a drilled pier system prices very differently from a flat slab and there is no point designing something that cannot be built for the budget. Decks are a hillside item here more often than a backyard item. Framing raised well above grade brings guard heights and post connections that get inspected closely, footings taken to the bearing depth the soils condition calls for, and lateral load connectors at the ledger.
We build in composite as a TREX PRO installer as well as in wood, and on an exposed slope the composite argument is usually about how the surface behaves after a decade of sun and winter runoff rather than about the first invoice. Exterior work on older Los Gatos houses starts with a repair-or-replace decision on the siding. Original redwood, where it has been kept painted, is often better material than anything you could buy to replace it, and the right answer is selective board replacement, epoxy repair at the joints and a proper prime coat rather than wrapping the house in something new.
Where the siding is gone we say so. On a historic street that decision is not only cosmetic, so we make it in front of you with the boards in hand. Across all of it, the sequence is the same: measure and document what is actually there, agree an itemised written scope before pricing, then run design, permitting and construction under one project manager so nobody is left calling three companies to find out why the inspector did not sign off.
Los Gatos homes, and what that means for a remodel
Los Gatos incorporated in 1887 and has stayed a town ever since. It sits in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains at roughly 344 feet, with Los Gatos Creek coming down out of the mountains south of town and running north roughly parallel to Highway 17. That geography is the reason the housing stock splits so cleanly. West and south of the freeway you get the old town: Victorian-era houses and commercial buildings that were retained and restored rather than replaced, on tight lots, on streets laid out before anybody planned for two cars.
East of Highway 17, along Los Gatos Boulevard, the pattern turns conventionally suburban. Suburban expansion started in the 1950s and the town was mostly built out by the 1980s, so the middle of the inventory is postwar ranch and split-level, and the edges climb into the hills. Five historic districts sit inside the town limits: Almond Grove, Broadway, Downtown, Fairview Plaza and University-Edelen. Buying in one of those does not mean you cannot remodel. It means the design conversation starts earlier and the street-facing elevation carries weight it would not carry two towns over.
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The Historic Preservation Committee advises the Planning Commission, the Development Review Committee and the Community Development Director on residential and commercial work, and its interest runs past additions to things owners rarely expect to be reviewable, including exterior repainting, roofing, fencing, glazing and light fixtures. If your project touches the front of a pre-1941 house, budget design time for it. The construction realities follow from the dates. A pre-1941 Los Gatos house is typically light wood framing sitting on an unreinforced or brick perimeter, with no shear panels, no hold-downs and often no anchor bolts tying the mudsill down at all.
Knob-and-tube remnants and ungrounded two-wire circuits are common, and the plaster is lath rather than board. A number of brick buildings downtown were destroyed or seriously damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the district was rebuilt, so on an older building near the center we check what was repaired or replaced after 1989 rather than assuming the whole structure is original. On a deep remodel of a house that age we plan for foundation bolting and cripple wall bracing as part of the scope rather than as a surprise, because once the interior finishes are off, that work is cheap compared to doing it later.
The 1950s through 1970s ranch inventory has a different failure list: post-and-pier or thin slab, almost no wall insulation, single-pane aluminum windows, galvanized supply lines that are pinholing by now, and undersized electrical service that will not carry an induction range, a heat pump and an EV charger at the same time. Hillside properties are their own category. The Town adopted Hillside Development Standards and Guidelines in January 2004, and they apply not only to new hillside homes but to major additions and remodels of existing ones.
Maximum floor area is set by a floor area ratio adjusted for slope, so the buildable square footage on a steep parcel is not the same as the buildable square footage on a flat one of equal size. Grading is expected to be minimal and shaped to the existing contours, with buildings sited to preserve knolls, ridgelines, ravines and natural drainage. Practically, that shifts the design toward stepping a floor plan down the slope instead of cutting a pad, and it puts real money into access and spoil haul-off that a flatland bid never carries.
One more thing worth knowing whatever your street. Permit applications submitted on or after January 1, 2026 fall under the 2025 edition of the California Building Standards Code, which changes the energy and efficiency targets your plans have to meet. Drawings prepared against the older cycle are not automatically wrong, but they do need checking before submittal.
Official permit information for Los Gatos: Town of Los Gatos Building Division.
Serving the Los Gatos community
Licensed & Bonded
CSLB #1142220
Santa Clara County
Los Gatos sits inside our core service area, not at the edge of it.
Real Reviews
What our customers say
Wonderful company that helped build a railing on our deck. Shay, from Avis Builders and Design, was prompt, answered all my many, many questions, and helped to create a wonderful final product. Everything was explained well and the price was very reasonable. I cannot recommend them enough!
We recently hired Avis Builders and Design to make long needed repairs and restore the finish on our redwood deck. Everything went smoothly from start to finish. Project manager Shay assessed the job and made sure all our questions were answered and needs met for a fair price. Oscar and crew mate were on time, courteous, and efficient and completed the work as outlined in our contract. Very happy we chose Avis to do the job. Definitely recommend Avis Builders.
We contacted Avis Builders and Design because we wanted to remodel several areas of our home, including the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, painting, and a few other updates throughout the house.
Shay was great to work with from the beginning. He explained everything clearly, helped us understand our options, and made the whole process feel much more organized. There were a lot of details to figure out, but Shay helped coordinate everything, including the design side and communication with the engineer when needed.
The team did a great job, paid attention to the details, and we're very happy with how everything turned out. We would definitely recommend Avis Builders and Design to anyone looking for a reliable remodeling contractor.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions: Los Gatos remodeling
Who issues building permits for a home remodel in Los Gatos, CA?
The Town of Los Gatos Building Division reviews plans and issues permits for residential work in town. Avis Builders and Design is a licensed general building contractor, CSLB #1142220, classification B General Building, which is the license status a Los Gatos permit application needs on file. We prepare and submit the package, and we carry it through plan check corrections rather than handing you a redline to sort out.
My house in Los Gatos was built before 1941. Does that change how the remodel gets reviewed?
It can. The Town of Los Gatos treats any primary structure built before 1941 as a historic resource unless it has specifically determined the building has no historic significance or architectural merit. That does not block a remodel, but it puts the street-facing elevation, window changes, roofing and exterior finishes into a conversation with the Historic Preservation Committee that has to happen during design. We check the Town record for your address before we draw anything.
Do you work on hillside properties in Los Gatos, and what is different about them?
Yes. Hillside parcels in Los Gatos fall under the Town's Hillside Development Standards and Guidelines, adopted in January 2004, which cover major additions and remodels as well as new homes. Maximum floor area is calculated with a floor area ratio adjusted for slope, grading is expected to be minimal and shaped to the natural contours, and siting has to respect ridgelines and drainage. The build cost also carries access, staging and spoil removal that a flat lot does not.
Can you build an ADU or a room addition in Los Gatos?
Yes. Accessory dwelling units and room additions are core work for us, permitted and built to Santa Clara County and Town of Los Gatos requirements. Before drawings we check three things on your specific lot: what the setbacks allow, whether your electrical service can carry a second dwelling without a service upgrade, and the route and condition of the sewer lateral. Those three answers shape the design more than anything else.
What usually goes wrong on an older Los Gatos remodel?
Structure and services, in that order. Interior walls in pre-war houses are often carrying the roof because there is no ridge beam, so an open-plan kitchen needs an engineered flush beam and new footings under the posts. Behind the finishes you tend to find ungrounded circuits, galvanized supply and cast iron waste that has scaled shut. We open exploratory areas during the estimate where we can, so those items are in the written scope instead of arriving as change orders.
How do I get a quote for a remodel in Los Gatos, and what does it cost to start?
Ring (408) 208-0551 or send the form to set up the free in-home consultation. Somebody comes out, measures, looks at the framing, the panel and the plumbing, and talks through what you want. You get an itemised written scope before any number is attached to the work, so the job is described before it is priced. The labor on what we build carries a warranty. Financing is available through a third party, and seniors and veterans get a discount.
Where We Work
Serving Santa Clara County and the greater Bay Area
Where We Work