Home Renovation in Los Angeles, CA

Dick Minium Construction handles home renovation in Los Angeles, CA for owners of architecturally significant homes on the Westside. We renovate whole houses and single rooms, built to the architect's drawings, with the owner and architect involved from the first walk-through to the final fixture. For more than thirty years we have worked for clients who require uncompromising invention, engineering, and aesthetic perspective. The result is a house that carries the architect's intent through every detail.

What Our Home Renovation Covers

Renovation here means the house itself: structure, systems, surfaces, and the spaces between them. The work falls into these categories.

• Whole house renovation. Full renovation of house interiors and envelope, down to the studs where the drawings call for it. Structure, framing, waterproofing, and finish work are one scope under one contractor.
• Room-by-room renovation. A single wing, a floor, or one room at a time while you stay in the house. The sequence is set with you and your architect before demolition starts.
• Custom kitchen and bathroom work. We build custom kitchens and baths as part of a larger renovation or on their own, to the millimeter the drawings specify. Each is a page of its own: custom kitchen remodeling and custom bathroom work sit alongside renovation in the same workshop.
• Renovation of architecturally significant and historic homes. Period detail, original windows, and dry rot repair handled by people with patience for them. Window restoration keeps original sash where it can be kept.
• Electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. Systems renewed inside the walls while they are open, so the finished house works as well as it looks.
• Leak detection and elimination. Water problems found and ended before new finishes go in, not after.
• Renovation design coordination. We build to the architect's drawings. Where interior design and construction meet, we work out the details with your architect so intent survives contact with the job site.

Residential additions, hardscape and landscape construction, and custom art installation are separate scopes we also carry. Ask about them during the first walk-through if your project includes them.

How the Work Runs

1. The walk-through

We meet you at the house, with your architect if you have one. We look at the structure, the systems, the drawings, and the condition of what exists. You tell us what the house should become. We tell you what the building will and will not allow.

2. The drawings and the scope

The architect's drawings define the work. We review them line by line, flag engineering questions early, and return a written scope that matches the drawings. Nothing is assumed. If a detail is unresolved, we say so before it becomes a problem in framing.

3. The build

Demolition, structure, waterproofing, systems, and finishes proceed in a planned sequence. One contractor carries the whole scope, so electrical, plumbing, and HVAC decisions happen inside the same conversation as the cabinetry and stone. You and your architect see the house at every stage, and open questions get answered on site, not by email after the fact.

4. The finish and the handoff

Punch lists are walked with you and the architect. Hardware is adjusted, finishes corrected, systems commissioned. When the house is done, it can stay in our care through estate management: ongoing upkeep, readiness, and scheduling of other trades, so the house is watched after the renovation ends. One call covers it.

A finished example of this process is the Steven Ehrlich house renovation in Brentwood, a whole-house project built to the architect's drawings.

What Shapes the Investment

No two architecturally significant homes cost the same to renovate. The honest variables are these.

Scope. A whole house renovation with new systems costs more than a single room. The drawings define how deep the work goes: surface finishes only, or structure, waterproofing, and mechanical systems behind them.

Condition of the existing house. Dry rot, hidden leaks, outdated wiring, and undocumented past work all change the scope once walls open. Older Westside houses often carry all four. We look for them during the walk-through so fewer surprises reach the invoice.

Materials and detail. Book-matched stone, custom millwork, restored original windows, and specified fixtures carry their own costs. Fine work takes skilled hands and time, and the drawings set the standard.

Access and logistics. Hillside sites, narrow streets, and occupied houses change how material moves and how crews sequence the work.

Engineering. Removed walls, new openings, and suspended or cantilevered elements need structural engineering, and the drawings must be built as engineered.

The useful number is the one attached to your house and your drawings. Call 310.392.6622 and we will walk the house with you and put a concrete figure on the actual scope.

Why Owners and Architects Call Us

Dick Minium Construction is a Westside Los Angeles general contractor for architecturally significant homes and the art inside them. We work with owners, their architects, and collectors, and have for more than thirty years. The practice is three doors into one workshop: Build, Install, and Keep. Build covers renovations, additions, custom kitchens and baths, and hardscape and landscape, built to the architect's drawings. Install covers large sculpture, suspended work, private galleries, and art lighting, engineered, hung, and lit. Keep is estate management, so the house is watched after the work ends.

This is in-depth, highly personal custom work, and we have the patience for it. We explain the job in terms of the drawings and the house: what the scope includes, what the materials are, where the engineering questions sit, and what each piece costs. The owner and architect hear the same answers at the same time.

We serve the Westside, including Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, and West Hollywood.

Home Renovation Questions, Answered

What is the average timeline for a home renovation project?

Each project runs on its own schedule, set by scope, engineering, permitting, and the sequence of trades. A whole house renovation takes longer than a single room, and occupied houses add sequencing steps. We lay out the sequence with you and your architect before demolition starts, so you know what happens when.

Do you handle historic home renovation?

Yes. We renovate older and architecturally significant Westside homes, including window restoration and dry rot repair, with original detail kept where the drawings and the building allow. Patience for period construction is part of the work, not an exception to it.

Do I need an architect before I call?

No. Many clients come to us with an architect and drawings in hand, and we build to them. If you are earlier in the process, we can walk the house with you, discuss what the building allows, and work alongside the architect you choose.

Can we stay in the house during the renovation?

Often, yes. Room-by-room and wing-by-wing sequencing lets many owners stay in the house while the work moves through it, with the occupied rooms protected and contained. Whole-house renovations that open the structure or the systems usually ask for a move-out, and we tell you which kind of project yours is before demolition starts.

What happens to the house after the renovation is finished?

It can stay in our care through estate management. That means ongoing upkeep, readiness, and scheduling of other trades for the homes we built or renovated. One call, and the house is watched.

Get Started

If you are planning a home renovation in Los Angeles, CA, the first step is a walk-through of your house with us and your architect. Call 310.392.6622 and tell us about the house, the drawings, and what you want it to become. We will look at the building, review the scope, and give you a concrete answer on what the work involves.

Related guide: home renovation — Complete Guide

Prefer to talk it through? Call (310) 392-6622 — a quick call is usually the fastest way to get a straight answer for your situation.