Remodeling Contractor in Palo Alto, CA

Palo Alto is the most demanding place on the peninsula to remodel, and not because of the houses. It is the review process. Between Individual Review, historic districts, single-story overlays and the city’s own design standards, a Palo Alto project succeeds or fails on how well it is planned before anyone picks up a tool. We are a licensed general contractor in San Jose, CA, CSLB #887389, building across Santa Clara County since 2006.

Palo Alto Homes

Remodels Planned Around Palo Alto Review

In Palo Alto, a project succeeds or fails on how well it’s planned before construction. That’s why we:

Identify historic, Eichler and single-story overlay rules for your address first.
Treat planning review as a scheduled phase of the project, not a surprise.
Keep design and construction under one contract, so the plans that clear review are the plans we build.

Palo Alto Neighborhoods We Build In

Old Palo Alto and Professorville: where historic review is often in play.
Crescent Park and Duveneck / St. Francis: larger lots and substantial whole home renovations.
Greenmeadow, Fairmeadow, Green Gables and Royal Manor: the Eichler tracts, with their own set of constraints.
Midtown and Barron Park: post war ranch stock and the bulk of our kitchen and bathroom work.
College Terrace: near Stanford, compact lots and tight setbacks.
Nearby cities: we also work in Los Altos, Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.

Eichlers, Historic Homes, Planning Review

Why Palo Alto Homeowners Choose Brother and Brother

We plan around the permit phase instead of discovering it. On a Palo Alto job, planning review is a real phase with a real duration, and we schedule the work around it.
Design and build under one contract. That matters more here than anywhere, because the drawings are what clear review.
Licensed and accountable. CSLB #887389, licensed, bonded and insured, verifiable on the Contractors State License Board site.
Building in Santa Clara County since 2006, rated 4.8 stars across 73 Google reviews.
We contain the work. Dust barriers, floor protection and daily cleanup on every job.

Three Kinds of Palo Alto House, Three Different Projects

Almost every Palo Alto remodel we are asked about falls into one of three categories, and they have very little in common with each other.

Eichlers

Palo Alto has some of the densest concentrations of Joseph Eichler tract housing anywhere, including Greenmeadow, Fairmeadow, Green Gables and Royal Manor. An Eichler has post and beam framing with exposed beams, a flat or low slope roof, no attic, radiant heat in the concrete slab, floor to ceiling glass and an atrium. Each of those is a constraint:

No attic means there is nowhere to run new ductwork or wiring without either a furred ceiling or a slab route.
Radiant slab heat means you cannot cut the floor casually. The tubing is in there, and a lot of these systems are original.
Post and beam means the walls often are not carrying load, which is good news for opening things up, but the beams and posts that are carrying it cannot be moved without engineering.
Glass walls mean Title 24 energy compliance is genuinely hard, and single pane replacement is a specialist job if you want to keep the proportions right.

Several Palo Alto Eichler neighborhoods also sit under a single-story (S) combining district, an overlay applied on top of R-1 zoning. Where it applies, Palo Alto Municipal Code 18.12.100 caps building height at 17 feet to the peak of the roof and limits the property to one habitable floor. In practice that rules out a second story. We confirm your parcel’s zoning with the city before any design work starts.

Historic and Pre War Homes

Professorville is a designated historic district, and other parts of Old Palo Alto and Crescent Park contain individually significant properties. Work on these can trigger review by the Historic Resources Board, and exterior changes in particular are scrutinised. Interior work is generally more straightforward, but the envelope is not.

Post War Ranch and Mid Century Homes

Midtown, Barron Park, Duveneck and St. Francis, and Palo Alto Orchards contain a great deal of 1950s and 1960s ranch housing that is neither Eichler nor historic. These are the most flexible projects in the city: kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, primary suite additions, and whole home renovations where the constraint is budget and floor area rather than review.

For more on Palo Alto’s Eichler guidelines and single-story overlays, read our Eichler remodeling guide.

What Palo Alto’s Review Process Involves

Permits run through the City of Palo Alto Development Services Department. What separates Palo Alto from neighboring cities is that a significant share of residential work also passes through planning review, not just building plan check.

Single Family Individual Review (PAMC 18.12.110) applies to R-1 work that does not meet the city’s objective standards for two story development: a new two story house, a new second story, or expanding an existing second story by more than 150 square feet, counted cumulatively since November 2001. It is a design compatibility review, not a prohibition.
Single-story (S) combining districts, which cap height at 17 feet and limit the site to one habitable floor.
Historic Resources Board review for designated properties and districts.
Floor area ratio and lot coverage limits, which cap how much house you can put on the lot.
Tree protection. Palo Alto regulates protected trees, and work near one can require an arborist report and protective measures. This catches people out on additions and ADUs.
Title 24 energy compliance, which on a glass walled Eichler is a real design problem rather than a form filling exercise.
EPA lead safe practices on pre 1978 homes, which is most of the city.

We prepare the submittal, carry it through plan check, respond to corrections and schedule inspections.

What We Build Here

Kitchen remodeling, including Eichler kitchens where the ceiling plane and beam lines constrain lighting and ventilation. Bathroom remodeling, including slab routed plumbing on radiant heated floors. Whole home renovation, room additions and second story additions where overlay and review allow, ADU construction, and architectural and design services, which on a Palo Alto project is where the money is saved.

Cost and Where the Time Goes

A kitchen remodel with us typically runs $50,000 to $80,000. An existing layout kitchen is usually 6 to 8 weeks on site, and structural changes push that to 10 to 14 weeks and toward the upper end of the range. On a Palo Alto job the largest single variable is often not materials. It is whether the project triggers planning review, and how many rounds of corrections it takes to clear it. We tell you which applies at the first visit.

Areas We Serve

We proudly serve homeowners throughout San Jose, from established neighborhoods like Willow Glen and Naglee Park to the foothill communities of Almaden Valley, Cambrian Park, and Evergreen, as well as Berryessa and Alum Rock. Our reach extends beyond San Jose to Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Milpitas, Cupertino, Campbell, Palo Alto, and Los Altos. Based on Stevens Creek Boulevard in San Jose, we’re centrally positioned to serve the entire South Bay with the same response time and craftsmanship on every project.

Brother & Brother Builders
3109 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, CA 95117

Phone: (888) 412-2632
Business Hours: Mon-Fri: 8AM – 5PM

Frequently Asked Questions

Palo Alto Remodeling Questions

Can I add a second story to my Palo Alto home?

It depends on your zoning. Several Palo Alto neighborhoods, particularly Eichler tracts, sit under a single-story (S) combining district, which caps height at 17 feet to the roof peak and limits the site to one habitable floor. Elsewhere a two story project is usually possible, and if it does not meet the city’s objective two story standards it goes through Single Family Individual Review. We check the overlay and the floor area before any design work begins.

What makes remodeling an Eichler different?

Post and beam framing with no attic, radiant heat in the slab, a flat or low slope roof and floor to ceiling glass. There is nowhere to hide ductwork, the floor cannot be cut casually because the radiant tubing is in it, and meeting Title 24 energy requirements with that much glazing takes real design work. Eichlers reward careful planning and punish improvisation.

Does my project need Individual Review?

It applies to R-1 work that does not meet the city’s objective standards for two story development: a new two story house, a new second story, or expanding an existing second story by more than 150 square feet, counted cumulatively from November 2001. It runs alongside building plan check and adds both drawings and time. We identify whether it applies at the consultation, before you commit to a scope.

My home is in Professorville. What can I change?

Interior work is generally more straightforward. Exterior changes to a designated historic property, or one inside a historic district, can require Historic Resources Board review, and the standards are about preserving character defining features. It is workable, but it is not a project to start without proper drawings.

Will a protected tree affect my addition?

It can. Palo Alto regulates protected trees, and building inside a protected root zone may require an arborist report and protective measures, or may move the footprint. On additions and ADUs this is one of the more common surprises, so we look at it early.