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Pasadena interior remodeling contractor
Los Angeles Home Remodelers is a design-build interior remodeling contractor in Pasadena, CA, for Craftsman bungalows and later homes that need new floors, tile, paint, drywall, doors, closets or a fireplace without losing the original woodwork. We repair plaster and oak before replacing anything.
One project manager books every trade, from plasterers to floor finishers, and files permits with Pasadena’s Building & Safety Division where the scope calls for them. Most single-room jobs take a few days to a couple of weeks, with lead-safe prep in older rooms. After a free in-home visit, you’ll get a written, itemized estimate.
Bonded & Insured | Written Workmanship Warranty
We walk every room, note the original pieces worth keeping and set the order of work. Free.
Thanks — we got your request. We'll call you to set up your free in-home visit.
Inside older Pasadena homes
Serving Bungalow Heaven, Markham Place, Arroyo Terrace and homes across Pasadena, CA.
Interior remodeling in Pasadena often starts with a house that already has good bones: oak floors, plaster walls and stained fir trim. We renew the rooms around those pieces instead of tearing them out.
Bungalow Heaven alone holds about 1,100 properties, most of them Craftsman houses built between 1905 and 1920. Rooms that old hide brittle plaster, lead under the newer paint and floors patched by several past owners.
So we sort the house into keep, repair and replace before you pick a single color. Built-ins, doors and casings usually stay. Tired carpet, cracked patches and a dated fireplace face get redone.
Interior work for Pasadena homes
Pick one trade or combine several. Each card links to that service’s full page.
Plenty of Pasadena bungalows still have their first oak floor under carpet or a gray, worn finish. We measure how much wood sits above the tongue, because a floor that can take one more sanding usually beats a new one.
Missing boards get replaced with matched oak, woven in so the patch disappears.
Interior painting in Pasadena’s older rooms is two jobs at once: fresh color on walls and ceilings, and stained trim left untouched. We mask the fir and oak, fix the plaster, prime and then roll the finish coats.
Any scraping in a pre-1978 room follows EPA lead-safe practices.
A brick or clinker fireplace anchors most Craftsman living rooms, though some were painted or boxed in decades ago. We reface the surround, restore or rebuild the mantel and fit gas inserts.
Old masonry chimneys get the right inspection before work starts, and gas lines go through a permit.
Original five-panel fir doors are worth saving even when they stick or won’t latch. We plane, rehang and re-hardware them, and when one is missing, we match the panels and stain on a new door.
Old frames are rarely square, so every door is fitted to its own opening.
Walls in Pasadena’s early houses are mostly plaster on wood lath, with settling cracks fanning out from door corners. We re-anchor sound plaster and replace only the failed sections with drywall.
A skim coat over the seam makes old and new read as one smooth wall.
Craftsman bedrooms came with shallow closets built for a few coat hooks. We fit shelves, double rods and drawers into the space you already have, or build a wardrobe wall where no closet exists.
Painted or stained finishes are chosen to sit well beside the room’s original trim.
How it works
You’ll know what stays, what gets fixed and what’s new before we order a single board.
We walk each room with you and list the original pieces worth keeping: floors, trim, doors, built-ins and the fireplace.
Suspect paint and old flooring get sampled. Then you get a scope listing every room’s prep, finish and protection.
Paint and floors rarely need one. New circuits, a gas insert or a changed wall do, and we file those with the city.
Trades follow a set order: plaster, paint, floors, then doors and trim. We close the punch list with you at the end.
Pasadena’s Building & Safety Division says most construction projects need a building permit, and it lists remodeling among the projects that go through plan review. We file those on the Citizen Self-Service (CSS) portal. A new circuit or a gas line to a fireplace insert goes through the Express Permit Portal, which issues electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits within minutes.
Landmark review is a separate question. Pasadena has 23 landmark districts, and its Certificate of Appropriateness covers publicly visible exterior changes. The city’s materials describe exterior triggers only, so we confirm at the estimate whether anything in your scope needs a look.
Behind the plaster
About half of Pasadena’s homes predate 1960, and the oldest carry a century of repairs. Before we sand, scrape or lift anything, we check the layers underneath.
In an older Pasadena house, we look for:
Loose plaster gets screwed back to the lath with plaster washers before patching, so the crack doesn’t return through your new paint.
If a lab finds asbestos, a licensed abatement crew removes it first. Lead work follows the EPA’s renovation rules for pre-1978 homes, with containment and a HEPA cleanup.
Pricing a Pasadena interior
Saving original finishes often costs less than replacing them, but the repair work takes skilled hands.
After the visit, each room and each trade gets its own line, so you see exactly where the money goes.
Sanding the oak you have usually costs less than new flooring; missing boards add weaving time.
Re-anchoring and skimming plaster takes longer than patching a drywall hole.
Containment and wet scraping add hours to rooms with old paint on trim and doors.
Masking stained casings and built-ins adds a careful step before any paint goes on.
A gas insert or new circuits bring permit fees and an inspection visit.
One free visit sorts your floors, walls, doors and fireplace into keep, repair and replace. You’ll leave with the order of work and a written price, and nothing to sign.
Questions
Short answers on permits, landmark districts and refinishing older Pasadena rooms.
Your itemized estimate sets the number once we’ve seen the rooms. Plaster repair, lead-safe prep, how much original oak survives and any permit work move it most, and each gets its own line.
Usually not for paint or like-for-like flooring. New circuits, plumbing changes and gas fireplace inserts need permits from the Express Permit Portal, and wall changes go through plan review. We confirm your scope at the estimate.
The Certificate of Appropriateness covers publicly visible exterior changes in landmark districts. The city doesn’t spell out an interior exemption, so we check your address and scope with the city before work starts.
Usually, if the boards have enough wood above the tongue for another sanding. We check thickness at a floor vent or threshold, weave in matched boards where pieces are gone and pick a stain that sits well with the trim.
That’s your call, but test it first. Paint over old stained fir is hard to undo, and older finishes may contain lead. Many owners keep the trim stained and change the walls and ceilings instead.
Rarely. Floors, paint and closets don’t touch your electric service. If new circuits or a larger panel join the scope, we handle any coordination with PWP alongside the electrical permit.
Most single-room jobs take a few days to a couple of weeks. Plaster repair, lead-safe prep and floor refinishing add days in older houses, and you’ll get the room-by-room calendar in writing.
Keep planning
How we plan floors, walls, doors and finishes as one job, in the right order.
Flooring installation in Pasadena homes, from site-finished oak to vinyl plank, over a checked subfloor.
Walls and ceilings painted after the plaster’s fixed and the trim’s masked.
From the blog
Now booking free in-home visits
New floors, walls and doors look right when the original trim survives the job. Los Angeles Home Remodelers plans the work room by room. Book your free in-home visit.
Mon–Sat, 8am–6pm
Tell us which rooms need work. We’ll check floors, plaster and trim, then price each room on its own line.
Thanks — we got your request. We'll call you to set up your free in-home visit.
