Author: Ben Marciano

Converting a Garage to Living Space: An Overview

Many Los Angeles homeowners dream of a house with more floor space, but some don’t need a new address, or even a new addition to their home, to get it. The space has been there all along. It’s just been disguised as a garage! If you would like to renovate your home for some extra breathing room, and your garage is up for grabs, let’s look at what the process could involve.

Garage Door: Leave It or Let it Stay?

Visually, leaving the garage door in place is like letting an elephant stand in the corner. It won’t take a whiff of motor oil to remind you that the space was once a domain for cars and lawn equipment. Replacing the door with a wall can also make the space more energy efficient.

A-List Builders can remove your garage door and handle the entire renovation, keeping everything on schedule. We need you to do just one thing before we convert your garage to living space: find an alternate location for objects that may be stored in the space. With spring around the corner, now is a good time to put the task at the top of your spring cleaning list.       

Built-in Benches: Remove or Reuse?

In addition to the garage door, a permanently installed tool bench is one of the most common things we remove when we renovate a garage to living space. However, if your garage has a bench that is a simple tabletop workspace, you may be able to repurpose it for a wet bar, an area where shelves and pedestals showcase plants, or an area for a computer station that is great for gaming or working from home. It’s something to consider before plans are finalized.

Infrastructure for Residential Utilities

Let’s take a look at what will make the renovated space livable on the most basic level: utilities. Whether the renovation will be a single car garage conversion to a studio apartment, a garage to loft conversion for a bedroom, or something else, utilities will define the comfort of the space.    

Heating and Cooling Considerations

A renovation such as a single car garage conversion to a studio apartment, or a garage to loft conversion, will redefine the look of the space, but it won’t necessarily change the temperature. If the garage adjoins the home, extending the home’s air duct system to the garage may be the easiest way to provide temperature control. Here are three other options:     

• Double AC Unit – You can install a permanent AC unit that both heats and cools. The unit will sit in a wall and provide cool air in the summer and warm air in the winter.

• Air Handler Unit – You can also use an air handler similar to the one in your home. As with the system in your home, it requires installing heating and cooling equipment.  

• Heat Pump Unit – Despite its name that suggests otherwise, a heat pump can provide both warm air and cool air, and it is just as effective as traditional HVAC equipment.        

Electrical Outlets and Ceiling Lights

Close your eyes, and try to envision how you’ll arrange plugin electronics in the finished space. Where should electrical outlets ideally go? Consider lamps, entertainment hardware, electronics that are native to unique areas (such as a wet bar), computer hardware, etc.

Replacing garage lighting is likely to be on the renovation to-do list, too. If your garage has bright, fluorescent lighting, the radiant intensity of the tubes will likely seem to be brighter within a softer, renovated living space, and may rob the ambience of subtle shadowplay.

A Restroom and a Kitchen, or Not

Putting a restroom in a renovated garage space is often a good logistical move, and cohabitation can make the availability of another restroom a plus, too. Whether to include a kitchen when converting a garage to living space is often more of a question mark.

If you aren’t sure about including a kitchen in your new space, consider how close a new kitchen would be to the kitchen already in your home. If they would be in close proximity, would the new kitchen receive regular use, or would it likely receive almost none at all?  

When determining whether to include a bathroom and/or a kitchen, consider how much square footage they would consume. If the renovation space is relatively small, consider whether either one would eat up space that you would ultimately rather use in other ways.

Finished Walls, Ceilings, and Floors

If you have a well-appointed garage, new window treatments and wall paint may be all that are required to make the walls look great. If not, consider what type of construction should comprise interior walls that form the perimeter of the open space. Here are three options:  

• Drywall – Cost-effective, quick to install, and easy to paint, the overall versatility of drywall makes it the most popular interior wall surface in homes across the nation.     

• Wood Panels – Looks range from classic to modern and come in various finishes, with a wide array of millwork and inlay available. Nothing else has the look of natural wood.  

• Plaster and Lathe – Wood slats are nailed in place, and then covered with plaster. The malleable plaster can be applied in distinctive ways to create unique surface textures.

Options for Dividing an Open Space

If you plan to create two or more formal rooms instead of using an open floor plan, factor in closets, bathrooms, floor cabinets, etc. These elements consume square footage, so be sure that the rooms will be as large as you envision. Here are three non-permanent wall options:

• Textile Panels – Styles range from the no-frills look of panels that form office cubicles to panels that feature the artistic treatment of various natural and synthetic materials.     

• Draperies – Available in many materials that feature various accents and contouring effects, room-dividing drapes can be hung from the ceiling or from a support frame.  

• Glass Panels – Glass panels can create a sleek, modern interior. Panels of “privacy glass” that change from transparent to opaque with the flip of a switch are available.

Ceiling Options

When you convert a garage to living space, it’s often necessary to install a new ceiling. As with the type of material you choose for the walls, the type of ceiling you install will largely depend on your aesthetic vision for the renovated space. Here are three ceiling options:

• Drywall – Drywall is the most popular material for creating ceilings. It is cost-effective, easy to paint, and easy to replace, should you ever happen to require a new ceiling.  

• Hanging Panels – Hanging panel systems contain lightweight panels made from fibrous materials. They are highly cost-effective and sit within a grid of metal frames.

• Wood Boards – Available in many types of wood with different finishes, wood boards provide a unique look that may be perfect for the aesthetics of your new living space.    

Flooring Options

Like the ceiling and walls, the floor you install also depends on the aesthetic you wish to create in the renovated space. The difference is that the floor will receive far more wear than the ceiling and walls. In addition to the option of carpeting, here are three flooring options:

Concrete – Many garages have concrete floors, but the surface often has oil stains, cracks, and other imperfections. If you want a concrete floor, and the space already has one, we may be able to refinish and seal the floor instead of pouring a new one.

Wood – If your home has wood flooring, you may want to extend the aesthetic when you convert a garage to living space. If you choose a wood ceiling, a wood floor that has the same finish can help pull the space together to create a coherent aesthetic.  

Ceramic Tile – Available in many sizes and styles, ceramic tile is a diverse flooring option. If there is a downside, it is that the tiles and grout between them can crack. Creating a totally flat subfloor will help prevent this, but it can still occur from wear.

Final Touch: Interior Design

When they convert a garage to living space, some homeowners have a clear vision of how the finished area should look, while others have a basic vision that needs refinement. If you need assistance with finalizing the elements of your space, the home remodeling specialists at A-List Builders can help. Once you approve the plan, we will handle the entire renovation process. Contact us to schedule a consultation for how to convert a garage to living space.

DIY Home Remodeling vs. Hiring a Contractor

With so much information about how to perform home improvement projects available on the Internet, more homeowners are doing DIY home remodeling than ever before. Whether you need to remodel an attic, a basement, or any space in-between, you can find plans for doing it yourself. But do they come from a professional remodeler? Could you do a professional job?

Flying Solo Compared to Hiring a Pro             

Doing your own remodeling can be personally satisfying and potentially cost less than hiring a home remodeling contractor. But when the work goes wrong, satisfaction flies out the window, and making things right can cost more than if you had hired a contractor in the beginning.

Before you embark on DIY home remodeling, consider whether doing the work yourself is a good option based on everything that’s involved. Here are six important things to consider:

1. Credibility of the Work Plan

When people decide to perform DIY home remodeling, they usually do so because they have professional remodeling experience, or because they believe that they are using information provided by someone who does.

However, the website of a professional home remodeling contractor rarely tells people how to perform work that the contractor is paid to do. This is why many homeowners perform DIY home remodeling using questionable information that comes from home improvement web forums and websites that publish DIY home improvement articles.

Because credentials of forum members and authors are often unverified, it’s frequently hard to tell if the information comes from a licensed contractor with professional remodeling experience. Unless you know the source is legit, using the information is a gamble that may not turn out in your favor.   

2. Proficiency at Skilled Trades

Let’s assume the information for your DIY home remodeling plan comes from a legitimate source. Even if that’s the case, it doesn’t mean you’re prepared for the work.

For example, if your remodeling plan involves replacing light fixtures, it also involves working with elements of your home’s electrical system. If it entails replacing plumbing fixtures, it also entails working with elements of the plumbing system.

Homeowners who plan to perform DIY projects often view the work from a superficial perspective. They envision the changes they plan to make independent of the systems and technology that are essential to understand before changes are made.

If you aren’t proficient at tasks that a skilled tradesman would perform if you hired a home remodeling contractor instead, you could do more than botch the job. You could put yourself in danger.

3. Proficiency at Specific Tasks

Proficiency at a trade doesn’t equate to proficiency at all tasks of the trade. For example, flooring installation is a trade, but it is not uncommon to find an installer of wood flooring in all types of wood and finishes that does not install concrete flooring of all consistencies and patinas of color, or vice versa.

Consider your proficiency at how a general trade is specifically rendered within the context of your project. Wood joinery techniques for cabinet construction, weatherizing newly installed windows for energy efficiency, and creating unique surface finishes in plaster and lathe construction are examples of tasks that are best performed by specialists of the trade.   

4. Guarantee of Workmanship  

Let’s take things a hypothetical step further, and assume that your remodeling plan is based on information from a credible source, and you have proficiency at skilled trades — as well as specific tasks within the trades — that the plan requires. Can you now offer what a home remodeling contractor would? Yes and no.

You can perform the work with a comparable level of expertise, but you can’t guarantee the work will be made right, at no cost to you, if something goes wrong and needs redoing.

When you hire a reputable contractor, you receive a guarantee of quality workmanship. If human error compromises the work — as occasionally happens with even the best contractors — it will be corrected for free, according to contract. If your own work is faulty, you repair it at your own expense, and the cost could be high.

5. Quality Grade of Materials

In addition to quality of workmanship, you also need to consider the quality of materials. In preparation for DIY home remodeling, homeowners generally acquire products from big box retailers that cater to DIY home improvement. In many cases, these are residential-grade products that lack the quality of commercial-grade or industrial-grade products that contractors use to ensure quality workmanship that lasts.  

Home remodeling contractors acquire these products from business-to-business (B2B) companies that supply contractors and not the general public. This is another important aspect of how using a professional home remodeling contractor can be necessary for achieving professional results.

6. Fallout from Improper Work

Some of the most unfortunate results of amateur workmanship are revealed weeks, months, or even years after a DIY home remodeling project is complete. For example, improper electrical work that causes a fire or poor plumbing work that causes a flood often does so somewhere down the line, not immediately following the shoddy work.

Improper workmanship that starts to look bad at the seams, so to speak, is not the worst that could happen. Worse are outcomes, such as fires and floods, that put your safety and the value of your home in jeopardy. Experienced contractors should always perform work that could have tragic results if performed improperly.

Need Help With Remodeling?

If any of these considerations apply to a remodeling job you plan to do yourself, it’s a sign that a contractor should do the work instead. As the customer, you’re always in control of the project. You decide what is done; the contractor simply ensures that it’s done to the highest standard.

If you have a DIY home remodeling project on tap that should be placed in professional hands, A-List builders is here to help. We can work with you closely, consulting you about anything you wish, whenever you wish, every step of the way. We handle home renovations of all sizes and scopes. To get started on your remodeling project, contact us today for a consultation.

The sunny, dry climate of Southern California is ideal for days out shopping and lazing on the beach. However, it means that water can be scarce—and this affects the home garden. In this blog, we’re going to show you drought-tolerant landscaping ideas that will allow your garden to survive—and even thrive—in the dry climate of Los Angeles.

1. Take Your Inspiration from California Natives

The most important choice you’ll make when designing your garden is which plants to include. While you may love the lush foliage of elephant ears, hydrangeas, and tree ferns, these plants take a lot of precious water to keep alive and are more suited to areas with high rainfall.

Fortunately, if you choose a diverse variety of California native and desert-loving plants for your Los Angeles home, you can have a drought-proof garden that requires very little water and will look fabulous into the future. Here are some drought-tolerant landscaping ideas to help with plant selection.

California Native Trees

Any garden that is self-sustaining will mimic the layers that are present in natural ecosystems. A tree layer provides shade, holds the soil together, and provides moisture for surrounding plants. These California natives are perfect for large Los Angeles home gardens:

• Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)
• Palo Verde (Cercidium floridum)
• Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis)
• Beach Pine (Pinus contorta contorta)

Drought-Tolerant Grasses

Grasses are an easy way to add texture, shades of green, and drama to a low-water garden and are great for small spaces. In our drought-tolerant landscaping ideas, we suggest the following grasses for your front or back garden:

• Sheep Fescue (Festuca ovina “Glauca”)
• Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens)
• Purple Needle Grass (Nassella pulchra)
• Giant Wild Rye (Elymus condensatus)

Succulents and Cacti

Succulents are one of the most well-known additions to a desert garden that cover the ground with diverse textures and need very little water. Plus, succulent gardens in Los Angeles front yards often become the envy of your neighbors! Many even have colorful flowers in the spring and summer seasons. Consider the following drought-tolerant landscaping succulent ideas for the driveway or along the edge of the house:

• Chalk Dudleya (Dudleya pulverulenta)
• Our Lord’s Candle (Yucca whipplei)
• Aloe Vera (Aloe barbadensis miller)
• Hen and Chickens (Sempervivum tectorum)

2. Work with Your Soil Type

When choosing the drought-tolerant plants that could be right for your garden, you will also need to take your soil type into consideration. To find out what type of soil you have, you can make some observations based on color and consistency, send your soil for testing, and locate your home on this map of soil types in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.

Here are some drought-tolerant landscaping ideas for each of the main soil types found in the Los Angeles area:

Sandy or Silty Soil

These types of soil drain very quickly and can tend not to store as many nutrients as clay or loam soil. Choose plants that need a lot of drainage (those that don’t like “wet feet”), and add organic matter to help hold in the nutrients. Drip-irrigation is the most effective form of watering.

Clay Soil

Clay soil forms a ball if you roll it in your fingers and typically retains a high level of nutrients and water—making it ideal for agriculture. The downside is that clay soil can become dry and cracked with hot weather. For drought-tolerant landscaping ideas with clay, add some organic matter. Organic material can help to aerate clay soil and stop it from becoming waterlogged.

Loam

Loam soil is thought of as the “ideal” soil as it contains the perfect ratio of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. Most plants will do well in loam soil or a variation of it, provided that their moisture, light, and temperature requirements are also met.

3. Maximize Water Collection and Retention

Drought-tolerant landscaping ideas aside from plant choice focus on collecting and retaining water on your property for as long as possible.

To collect water in your garden, consider installing some rain barrels to collect runoff from the guttering. You can then use this for watering your garden. You can also build “check dams” and “dry creeks” in your garden out of rock to encourage the water to pool and be soaked up by your plants.

Reducing evaporation can help to retain water in the soil for a longer amount of time and keep your plants alive with minimal watering. For drought-tolerant landscaping ideas to reduce evaporation off the soil surface, cover the soil with mulch or pebbles. Pathways made out of decomposed granite can help water to drain into the water table below, decreasing urban runoff and keeping our waterways clean.

4. Hire an Ecologically-Minded Landscaping Firm

If you want to make your Los Angeles garden attractive and environmentally responsible, but you are not sure where to start, we are here to help.

Simply tell us what you’re thinking about in terms of front and back yard garden areas, and we’ll take care of the drought-tolerant landscaping ideas for you!

To learn more about our landscaping and hardscaping services, you can take a look at the photos on our website and contact us to schedule a free landscaping consultation.

Kitchen remodeling can come with its challenges including knowing exactly how to make your dollar stretch. In this blog A-List Builder’s will help you understand how to get the most out of your kitchen remodeling budget no matter how big or small your budget may be.

Tip #1: Keep it classic!

Everyone gets a bit excited knowing they are about to make their kitchen bold and flashy when they are embarking on a kitchen remodel so they go for eye catching colors throughout but that can be a huge mistake, especially for cabinets. It might look cool for a year or two but trends die so you’re better off keeping your look classic. If you’re really considering adding some flare to your kitchen consider using gold or chrome accents for things such as knobs and handles, it will add style that will stay in style for years to come.

Tip #2: Make Lighting a focal point.

A-List Builders Hanging Kitchen Lights

Lighting can make or break a room, too bright it will annoy people, too dim and it will put people asleep so lighting is important! The lighting in your kitchen isn’t only a means of illumination, it can also be a statement piece and focal point. When choosing lighting for your kitchen consider chandeliers, sconces and pendants. These types of kitchen lighting have high impact and are easy to install or swap out in the future.

Tip #3: Choose a cabinet style that will last.  

A-List Builders Kitchen Cabinets

Cabinets should not be overlooked, the right kind of cabinet should last you decades, so stick with a design that shares modern and classic design features. Most modern style cabinets are easy to update in the future with new knobs and handles making it simple to change your cabinet style up without breaking the bank.

Tip #4: Go Bold! But in one area not all.

A-List Builder Bold Backsplash

If you were waiting to find out how you were going to make your kitchen really stand out here’s the part you were waiting for. To make your kitchen eye catching and unique consider putting your “splurge budget” in the tiles of your backsplash. Your backsplash can be the statement piece of your kitchen with the right design. Also consider using your backsplash as the main color pallet for your kitchen and work in accent colors throughout to complete the look.

Tip #5: Every Kitchen Deserves Its Crown!

A-List Builders Crown Molding

Crown Molding that is. Now here’s something that might make you raise an eyebrow, most people don’t really know how inexpensive molding can be but what it adds in regards to looks is huge for its price. Molding and valence molding can be used in several different areas of the kitchen including under your wall cabinets. Other details such as adding bun feet, corbels, and furniture toe kicks can add even more style points without breaking the wallet as well.

These were just a few good tips from the construction and design professionals at A-List Builders come back soon for more great home renovation advice!

Written by Eddy Martinez