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Exterior remodeling for older Whittier homes
Older Whittier, CA homes need exterior remodeling that keeps their character: wood siding repaired board by board, windows and sliding doors sized to the original openings, stucco cracks closed, fresh paint and a sound roof. Los Angeles Home Remodelers is the design-build exterior remodeling contractor in Whittier that plans those trades together.
One project manager handles the city’s Building & Safety permits and, inside a historic district, the Certificate of Appropriateness that visible changes may need. Most single-trade jobs take days to a few weeks on site. Your free in-home visit brings a written, itemized estimate.
Bonded & Insured | Written Workmanship Warranty
Tell us the house’s age and what’s failing. We’ll check your district and price each trade, free.
Thanks — we got your request. We'll call you to set up your free in-home visit.
Whittier exterior remodeling
Serving Hadley-Greenleaf, College Hills, Earlham and homes across Whittier, CA.
Exterior remodeling in Whittier is mostly work on older houses, since about two in three homes here predate 1960. We repair what’s original where it’s sound and replace what’s failed with materials that suit the house.
Hadley-Greenleaf is mostly Craftsman bungalows, and Earlham adds Dutch Colonial Revival. Central Park mixes Victorian and Mediterranean Revival, while College Hills runs from Spanish Revival to California Ranch. Each style asks for different siding, windows and trim.
The 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake shook the city hard, and some old stucco cracks date back to it. We check whether a crack is stable or still moving before we price the repair.
Services for older homes
Choose the trade your house needs most, or plan several together. Every card starts from the styles in Whittier’s older neighborhoods.
Craftsman bungalows in Hadley-Greenleaf and Earlham wear wood lap siding or shingles that rot first at sills and corners. We replace only the failed boards, at the original reveal and over new paper.
Tired of repainting wood? Fiber-cement lap can match the old profile.
Window replacement in Whittier often means wood divided-lite sash on a bungalow or slim steel-look frames on a Spanish Revival house. We size units to the old openings and repeat the grid pattern.
On a historic resource, visible window changes need a C of A first.
Painting is one exterior job the city exempts from the Certificate of Appropriateness, so it’s the simplest refresh inside a historic district.
Most coats on these houses predate 1978, so prep stays lead-safe on wood, trim and stucco. We help you pick colors that suit the era.
Spanish and Mediterranean Revival homes here wear smooth or lightly troweled stucco. We open each crack, check whether the wall behind it’s still moving, and hand-match the finish so the repair doesn’t read from the sidewalk.
Our stucco page covers re-coats too.
Clay tile on a Revival roof often outlasts the underlayment beneath it. We lift sound tiles, lay new underlayment and flashing, and reset them.
Bungalow and ranch shingle roofs get a full tear-off, with attic vents checked against the inland heat.
A paneled front door with glass lites is part of an older house’s face. We restore the original where the wood is sound, or hang a matching new door over a sill pan with fresh weatherstripping.
Ask about entry doors at your free visit.
How it works
On a historic home, the order includes a city review. You’ll see where it fits before you sign.
Send the form with your address. We check whether the house sits in one of the four historic districts before we visit.
We probe sills and siding for rot, map stucco cracks, test old paint and look at the roof from the attic.
You get each trade priced on its own. Where a C of A applies, we prepare the drawings and photos for the city.
With approvals and permits in hand, the roof goes first, then windows and doors, then walls and paint.
Whittier has four historic districts: Central Park, Hadley-Greenleaf, College Hills and Earlham. Exterior work on a historic resource needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, but the city doesn’t require one for maintenance, painting or interior work that leaves the exterior unchanged.
Building permits go through Building & Safety’s Online Permits and Inspections portal. We confirm which of your exterior jobs need one, file the applications, track any plan check and book each inspection.
Older and historic homes
Each era in Whittier left a different exterior, and each one fails in its own spot. Your scope starts from the style of your house.
What we usually find, by style:
Some older cracks have stayed put for years; others keep widening. A moving crack points to framing or foundation trouble, and we bring in an engineer before anyone patches it.
Rafter tails, window trim and porch columns stay whenever they’re sound. Replacement pieces get milled or ordered to match.
Exterior remodeling cost
Saving original material usually takes more labor than replacing a plain modern surface, and that shapes your estimate.
We price each trade separately after the visit, rot repair and approval paperwork included, so nothing turns up later as a surprise.
Siding, sills and rafter tails that crumble under a probe add carpentry before any finish.
Custom-sized windows, milled trim and hand-matched stucco cost more than stock parts.
A C of A adds drawings, photos and time before visible work can start.
Old paint needs testing, containment and a cleanup check on most of these houses.
Re-laying clay tile over new underlayment takes more labor than a shingle tear-off.
We’ll check your address against the historic districts, map the repairs and tell you what needs approval. The visit’s free.
Questions
Historic approvals, permits, earthquake cracks and timing for older Whittier homes.
It depends on how much original material we can save and how many trades you combine. Rot repair, custom windows and clay tile move the price most. Your written, itemized estimate follows a free visit.
If your house is a historic resource, yes. The city requires a C of A for exterior work on historic resources, and new windows change the exterior. Outside the districts, a building permit is the usual step, and we check your address first.
Yes. The city’s guidelines say a C of A isn’t required for maintenance, painting or interior work that leaves the exterior unchanged. We still keep prep lead-safe, since paint on these houses often predates 1978.
It starts with one extra check. We look at whether old cracks are stable or still moving; moving ones go to an engineer before any patch. Stable cracks get opened, filled and textured to match.
Keep it where the boards are sound. Rot usually sits at corners, sills and the bottom courses, so we replace those boards at the original reveal and repaint. Full replacement only makes sense when most of a wall has failed.
The city’s Building & Safety Division, part of Community Development, through its Online Permits and Inspections portal. We file the applications, answer plan check where needed and meet the inspectors.
Spring and fall suit stucco and paint best, since inland summer heat can dry coatings too fast. Roofing and window work can run through most of the year.
Keep reading
Six LA house styles, the building envelope and the order trades follow.
Divided-lite, steel-look and dual-pane options, plus the permit basics.
Matching old textures, closing cracks and knowing when to re-stucco.
From the blog
Now booking free in-home visits
Repaired siding, matched windows and a sound roof protect an older house without erasing its character. We handle the trades and the city approvals on one contract. Book your free in-home visit.
Mon–Sat, 8am–6pm
We check the house, the district and the permits, then send an itemized estimate. No charge.
Thanks — we got your request. We'll call you to set up your free in-home visit.
