A rebuild after the Eaton Fire is two projects at once. One is getting a house back on the lot. The other is deciding how that house should meet the next fire. The builder you pick shapes both, so it helps to know how an Altadena rebuild is put together before you compare anyone.
We are based in Pasadena, a short drive from the burn area, and our work is repairing, rebuilding and hardening houses in fire country. What follows is the path as we see it for an Altadena lot, and the questions we think every owner should put to a rebuild builder, including us.
Altadena is unincorporated: who issues the permit
Altadena is not a city. It is an unincorporated community of Los Angeles County, so there is no Altadena building department. Plans for a rebuild go to the county, and the county's Public Works building and safety staff review them and inspect the work. Planning questions, such as setbacks, an added ADU or a change to the footprint, go to the county's planning department.
After the fire, the county opened a one-stop permit center for Altadena rebuilds and put the application online through its permitting portal, EPIC-LA. Owners can submit plans before debris removal is finished, although construction cannot start until the lot is cleared and released.
The biggest choice early on is whether to rebuild like for like. A house that goes back in roughly the same footprint and size can move through review on a faster track than a redesign. A redesign, a larger house or a new ADU on the same lot takes a fuller review. Neither is wrong. The point is to decide with the builder and designer before drawings start, because the decision sets the permit path.
The county has changed its rebuild procedures more than once since January 2025. Before you rely on any timeline, check the current guidance from Los Angeles County Public Works or ask at the permit center.
From cleared lot to framing: the steps
Every rebuild is its own job, but the order is close to the same on most lots:
- Lot release. Debris removal, any soil work the county requires, and confirmation that the lot is ready for construction.
- Survey and site review. Property lines, the old foundation, utilities and access. On a sloped lot, this is when the engineer looks at grading and drainage.
- Design and engineering. Floor plan, structural design, energy compliance and the wildfire requirements for the exterior. If the old foundation might be reused, an engineer has to evaluate it, and often it cannot be.
- Plan check and permit. The county reviews the drawings, comments come back, the drawings are corrected and the permit is issued.
- Foundation. Forms, steel, inspection, then concrete.
- Framing. Walls, floors and roof structure, with the structural inspection before anything is covered.
The price of a rebuild is mostly decided in steps 2 and 3. The lot conditions, the foundation, the size and shape of the house and the exterior assemblies you choose drive the cost far more than finishes do. That is why we write the scope from the drawings and the site, assembly by assembly, before we put a number on it.
Hardening the rebuild beyond the minimum
A rebuilt house in a fire hazard area has to meet Chapter 7A of the California Building Code. That chapter sets the rules for vents, roofs, exterior walls, eaves, decks and windows. Meeting it is not optional, and any builder working in Altadena should know it well.
The code is a minimum, though, and a rebuild is the cheapest moment to go past it. While the walls are open and the drawings are still on the table, these upgrades cost far less than they would as a retrofit later:
- Enclosed eaves with a noncombustible soffit instead of open rafter tails, so there is no pocket for embers to collect.
- Fewer vents, better placed. An unvented attic design, where the building science allows it, removes the attic vents entirely.
- Noncombustible cladding all the way down, with the bottom of the wall detailed so there is no gap at the foundation line.
- Tempered dual-pane glazing on every opening, including the ones the code might allow you to skip.
- A hard five-foot strip around the house: no wood fence attached to the walls, no mulch, no wood deck surface against the siding.
We list these in the scope as separate lines, so you can see what the code requires and what is an extra, and choose. You can read more about how we approach this on our fire rebuild service page and our page on stucco and exterior walls.
Questions to ask a rebuild builder
You will likely talk to several builders. These questions tend to show who has done the thinking:
Do you build in unincorporated LA County? County plan check is different from a city's. Ask how they handle corrections and inspections with county staff.
Will you review my insurance scope? A builder who reads the adjuster's estimate against the house and the site, and shows you where they differ, helps you make your case with the insurer.
How do you write the scope? Ask for a scope that names the assemblies: what the wall is made of, layer by layer, which vents, which glass. A single line that says "exterior per code" tells you nothing.
Which Chapter 7A items are in the price, and which are upgrades? You want to see the two separately.
Who is on the design team? Architect or designer, structural engineer, energy consultant. Ask who coordinates them.
Can the old foundation be reused? The honest answer is usually that it depends on an engineer's evaluation. Be careful with any builder who promises reuse before anyone has looked.
What happens if the county changes the rules mid-project? Procedures have changed during the recovery. A builder should explain how a change would be handled and priced.
Where to go from here
If you own a lot in Altadena or anywhere around Pasadena and are weighing a rebuild, send us the address and a few lines about the house that stood there. We will look at the lot, talk through the permit path, and write a scope you can compare against any other builder's. If you are not yet sure whether to rebuild, our page on new construction covers the ground-up side of the work.