Fixing Los Altos houses after damage, and rebuilding them

What our log says

Three Los Altos jobs, February 2024 to November 2025

The first of our 3 jobs in Los Altos was in February 2024 and the most recent in November 2025. Between them, our crews took 229 photos, because every job we do is photographed before anything is moved and again as the work goes.

Three is a small number, and we would rather say so than dress it up. Our log also does not note what kind of work each of those jobs was, so this page makes no claim about it. The work we take on is the same in every town: water mitigation, mold remediation, fire and smoke cleanup, air duct cleaning, the reconstruction once the damage is handled, and construction and remodeling on their own.

No Los Altos owner has cleared photos for the website yet. When one does, those photos appear here with a true caption and no address. Meanwhile, the hardwood floor job on our work page shows each stage of a real job, from the first reading to the finished floor.

The housing

One Los Altos home in three dates from the 1950s

The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts 11,781 homes in Los Altos and puts their median year built at 1964, give or take two years. The 1950s alone account for 3,900 of them, and 8,594, close to three in four, went up before 1980 (Census table B25034).

Old next to new

Why a brand-new house often stands next to a 1950s one

The same Census table shows 2,092 Los Altos homes built in 2000 or later, roughly one in six. On many streets that means a house built since 2000 sits beside one from the Eisenhower years.

For damage work the two behave differently. In the older house we plan for layers: original plaster or early drywall, later patches, wiring and plumbing from more than one decade. In the newer one the walls are more uniform, but the finishes are often custom and harder to match in part, so a repair may mean redoing a whole run of flooring or cabinetry so it reads as one surface. Either way, our record of the damage, with photos, moisture readings and measurements, is made the same way, and everything mold has touched is replaced with new material rather than cleaned and put back.

Water from outside

Four creeks, and a bypass by Blach School

The City of Los Altos names four creeks that run through town: Adobe, Hale, Permanente and Stevens. A bypass near Blach School carries overflow from Permanente Creek across to Stevens Creek.

• Not only the creek-side lots

  The city's floodplain page says flooding is likely to stay with properties closer to the creeks, but that shallow flooding could happen anywhere in the city, streets included. A low driveway or a garage below the street can take in water a long way from any creek bank.

• The FEMA flood zone and the code

  FEMA's special flood hazard areas, the 1-percent-annual-chance zones, are where floodplain rules are enforced and where the mandatory purchase of flood insurance applies. Los Altos keeps its rules for those areas in Municipal Code Chapter 12.60. Check your address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center.

• Elevation Certificates on file

  The city keeps a record of properties it holds an Elevation Certificate for, the form that gives a building's lowest elevation and flood zone. If you plan to rebuild near a creek, ask for yours through a public information request before the design starts.

• A separate policy, a 30-day wait

  The city reminds owners that a standard homeowner's policy generally does not cover flood damage and that flood cover starts 30 days after purchase. Which policy pays is between you and your insurers; our photos and readings show where the water came from.

The weather

About 37 rainy days a year, almost all in winter

NOAA's 1991–2020 climate normals for the nearest long-running station, in Palo Alto just north of town, give about 15 inches of rain a year, falling on roughly 37 days with a tenth of an inch or more and on about 3 days with a full inch or more (NOAA NCEI normals).

November through March brings close to 13 of those inches, about 85 % of the year, with February the wettest month at a little over 3 inches. July averages none. That pattern is what catches houses out: a roof valley, a gutter or a window flashing that has been bone dry since spring meets its first real rain in autumn, and the stain shows up on the ceiling days later. If storm water got in through the roof, siding or gutters, our storm damage repair covers the drying and the repair, documented for the claim.

City hall

Plans by email, Planning first, no work on Sundays

The Los Altos Building Division checks plans, inspects the work and sets the rules that shape how a rebuild runs in this town.

1. Everything goes in electronically

   The city takes plans, structural calculations, Title 24 forms and geotechnical reports by email and no longer accepts paper sets. Once the plan check fee is paid, the plans are routed to every department that needs to see them.

2. Additions see Planning first

   The division says additions and new single-family houses need Planning Department approval before the building permit. A repair that becomes a bigger house adds that step.

3. Simple permits online

   Some simple residential permits, re-roofs among them, can be applied for through the city's eTRAKiT system.

4. The working week

   Residential construction runs 7 am to 5:30 pm on weekdays and 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, with none on Sundays or city holidays. We schedule each stage of the job inside those hours.

Before a rebuild that reaches the foundation, it is also worth checking the ground. The California Geological Survey's EQ Zapp map shows whether a lot falls in a state liquefaction or landslide zone, and the city lists geotechnical reports among the documents it can ask for. On remodels we handle the permits and the plans, and design is included; whether a small repair needs a permit at all is the Building Division's call, and we ask.

After the damage

Put it back as it was, or build what you wanted all along?

In a town of older houses, damage often arrives just as the owners were already thinking about a remodel. Because we do the restoration and the rebuild as one company, that decision can wait until the house is dry and the damage is measured.

Pages that explain each part of the work

• Water damage restorationFrom water on the floor to the room rebuilt.
• Mold remediationWhy mold-touched material is never reused.
• Fire and smoke cleanupSoot, smoke and the contents of the house.
• Rebuild after damageFraming, drywall, floors and finish work.
• Whole-home remodelingWhen the repair becomes the remodel.

Questions

Asked by Los Altos homeowners