Kitchen remodeling · Hills & Valley
Kitchen remodeling in Encino.
Master Kitchen serves Encino, where many ranch homes were built with closed kitchens and low ceilings. Opening and rebuilding one is a full kitchen remodel: typically $35,000 to $75,000, with 2–3 weeks of work in the home on average.
Kitchens in Encino.
South of Ventura Boulevard, Encino climbs into the hills in streets of ranch homes from the 1950s and 1960s, many on large lots with a pool. North of the boulevard the land is flat and the houses are a little more modest.
A ranch kitchen from that era is a galley or a U closed off from the dining and family rooms, under an eight-foot ceiling with a dropped soffit or a fluorescent light box. The house around it usually has plenty of room. The kitchen just was not given any.
Encino also has many newer and much larger homes built in place of the originals. Their kitchens are already open, and a remodel there is about replacing builder-grade cabinetry and stone with something better.
A client story from EncinoModern Kitchen Renovation with Two Waterfall Islands in Encino, CARead their storyWhat a remodel in Encino has to allow for.
- The wall to the family room
- Opening a ranch kitchen usually involves a wall that carries the ceiling or the roof. It is replaced with a beam sized by an engineer.
- Soffits and light boxes
- Removing them recovers height and exposes whatever was run through them: ducts, wiring and sometimes vent pipes.
- Electrical capacity
- An electrical service from the 1950s was not sized for induction, double ovens and layered lighting. A panel upgrade is often part of the job.
- Slab floors
- Many Valley ranch homes sit on a concrete slab, so moving a sink or adding one to an island means cutting the floor.
Permits in Encino.
Encino has its own name and ZIP codes, but it is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. Permits are issued by LADBS, whose Valley counter is the Van Nuys Development Services Center at 6262 Van Nuys Boulevard. A kitchen remodel with no structural changes gets an express permit, with no plan check. Removing a bearing wall to open the kitchen is structural, so that part of the project goes through plan check with an engineer's calculations before the permit is issued.
Official source: Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Checked October 2026.
The scope that usually fits.
For a closed ranch kitchen, the remodel that changes the house is the one that takes out the wall. That is a full kitchen remodel with layout changes, typically $35,000 to $75,000. In the larger new homes, full-custom cabinetry and premium stone bring it to $75,000 to $100,000 or more, and a kitchen that only needs new cabinets and countertops costs $20,000 to $35,000.
What each scope includesQuestions from Encino homeowners.
Who issues kitchen remodel permits in Encino?
LADBS, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. Encino is part of the City of Los Angeles, and the department's Valley office is the Van Nuys Development Services Center at 6262 Van Nuys Boulevard. Master Kitchen pulls the permit and manages the inspections.
Can you remove the wall between my kitchen and family room?
In most ranch homes, yes. If the wall carries load it is replaced with a beam sized by an engineer, and the work is permitted through LADBS plan check. In our Woodland Hills project a closed galley was taken down to the studs, the walls were opened and the room was rebuilt as an open kitchen.
What does it cost to open up a ranch kitchen in Encino?
Opening the kitchen to the family room is a full kitchen remodel with layout changes, which typically costs $35,000 to $75,000. That covers demolition, plumbing, electrical, paint, materials and installation. Adding full-custom cabinetry and premium stone brings it to $75,000 to $100,000 or more.
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