Remodeling Older LA Homes: Plaster, Pipes, Lead Paint

What should you expect when remodeling older homes in Los Angeles?

Bungalows from the 1910s and 1920s, Spanish revival homes from the 1920s and 1930s, and postwar ranch houses each have their own patterns. The table lists what owners commonly find once demolition starts.

How do lead paint rules affect a kitchen or floor project?

Federal lead rules are strict here. A contractor disturbing over six square feet of interior paint in a house built before 1978 needs EPA firm certification and must work lead-safe: containment, no open-flame burning or high-speed sanding without controls, and careful cleanup. Pulling original cabinets, removing baseboard to install new flooring and cutting into painted walls for a range hood all count.

• Ask each contractor for their EPA lead-safe firm certification before work begins.
• Keep children and pregnant family members out of the work area.
• Plan for plastic containment and HEPA cleanup in the schedule.

Why test old floor tile before pulling it up?

Vinyl floor tiles, sheet vinyl backing and the black adhesive beneath them were often made with asbestos for decades. Intact, they are relatively stable; broken, sanded or scraped, they can release fibers. In the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which covers Los Angeles County’s urban areas, Rule 1403 requires an asbestos survey before renovation that disturbs suspect material.

Sometimes the simplest route is to leave sound old tile in place and install a new floor over it, if the height works at doorways and appliances. Otherwise, abatement comes first and the flooring installation follows on a clean subfloor.

What do galvanized pipe and old wiring mean for a new kitchen?

Galvanized steel supply lines corrode from the inside, which shows up as low pressure, rusty water and pinhole leaks. If the kitchen walls are open anyway, replacing the supply lines to the sink and dishwasher is far cheaper now than after new cabinets and tile go in. Old cast-iron or clay drain lines deserve a camera inspection for the same reason.

Modern kitchens also need dedicated circuits for appliances and countertop outlets that older wiring cannot supply. Both upgrades need licensed trades and a permit; City of Los Angeles addresses file with LADBS, while South Pasadena and Huntington Park each issue their own.

Which inspections should come before design in an older house?

The cheapest time to learn about an old house is before anyone draws a cabinet. Owners who test first rarely face a mid-project stop; those who skip it often pay for the same discovery twice. A sensible order:

1. 1

   Lead inspection

   A lead inspector or risk assessor certified by the California Department of Public Health can test painted trim, cabinets and windows, often with an XRF analyzer, so you know which surfaces need lead-safe handling.

2. 2

   Asbestos survey

   A Cal/OSHA-certified asbestos consultant samples suspect floor tile, mastic, plaster texture and duct wrap in the areas you plan to disturb, which also satisfies the survey step under the air district’s rule.

3. 3

   Sewer and drain camera

   A plumber runs a camera through the main line and kitchen drain to look for root intrusion, cracked clay or sagging cast iron.

4. 4

   Electrical evaluation

   An electrician checks the panel’s capacity and condition and whether the existing wiring can be extended or must be replaced for new kitchen circuits.

5. 5

   Foundation and crawlspace

   On a raised foundation, check whether the house is bolted to its foundation and the short cripple walls are braced. If a retrofit is needed, it belongs before new floors, since the work happens directly below them.

For the last item, the California Earthquake Authority’s Earthquake Brace + Bolt program has offered grants of up to $3,000 toward a retrofit on qualifying older houses in eligible ZIP codes, which is worth checking before you budget the work yourself.

Fitting new finishes to an old house: showroom lessons

Older homes reward choosing finishes with the house in mind, and seeing them together under one roof makes that easier. A few patterns hold up:

• Plan for walls that are not square. Fillers and scribe molding hide gaps on stock cabinets; custom kitchen cabinets can be built to an out-of-plumb wall.
• Choose period-friendly profiles. Shaker doors, subway or hex tile and simple stone counters sit comfortably in a 1920s kitchen.
• Check under the carpet. Many older Los Angeles houses have original oak strip floors that can be refinished, which changes what you need to buy.
• Mind the floor height. New tile over an old floor can leave a lip at the doorway to an original hardwood hall; plan thresholds in advance.

Restore, replicate or replace? Weighing original details

An older house usually has something worth keeping, and the hard part is deciding how much new work should imitate it. There is no single right answer, but the trade-offs are predictable.

Original oak strip floors

Many pre-war and postwar Los Angeles houses have narrow red or white oak strip flooring, commonly around 2-1/4 inches wide. Where a wall comes out or a floor register moves, new strips can be woven into the old floor and the whole area sanded and finished together so the patch disappears. It costs more than laying a new floor over the top, but it keeps one continuous floor through the house.

Vintage bathroom and kitchen tile

Colored glazed tile from the 1920s to the 1950s is hard to match exactly. Keeping a sound original wall and replacing only the floor is often the best compromise; if tile must be patched, salvaged pieces from a closet or behind a fixture match better than new production.

Built-ins and cabinets

Original cabinets are often solid wood with painted finishes that test positive for lead. Restoring them means lead-safe stripping; replacing them with new Shaker or slab doors in a period-friendly color is usually faster, at the cost of the original character.

Inside a City of Los Angeles Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, review generally focuses on exterior changes visible from the street, so most interior kitchen and floor decisions remain yours. South Pasadena runs its own historic review, so confirm what it covers for your address.

Older homes in South Pasadena, Huntington Park and the City of LA

South Pasadena, about 30 minutes (21 miles) from the North Hollywood showroom, is known for Craftsman and period revival houses, and its own city reviews permits and historic changes. Huntington Park, about 35 minutes (22 miles) away, has many older bungalows and small multi-unit buildings and also issues its own permits. Neighborhoods across the City of Los Angeles go through LADBS.

Where to start on an older-home remodel

Test first, then design. Once lead, asbestos, plumbing and wiring are understood, the whole-house remodel page covers choosing cabinets, counters, tile and floors for the rebuild, and the flooring installation page explains subfloor prep on settled raised foundations. Verify every contractor’s license on the CSLB lookup before signing.