General building
Custom homes and
structural additions in
Ventura and Los Angeles County
New houses on private lots, additions that change what carries the house, and building on land that is difficult to build on.
What this covers
Building a house from the ground up, and the additions and remodels that change how an existing one stands. Built to the architect and engineer's drawings, under permit, and inspected stage by stage as it goes up.
EMAE & Sons Inc works across Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange County. Class B General Building covers the house; Class A General Engineering covers the ground it stands on. On a flat lot that distinction barely matters. On a cut, a slope or fill it is most of the job, and holding both means it is one contractor's problem rather than a boundary between two.
- CSLB license
- #1107216 — Class A, B, C-36
- Office
- Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
- Local service area
- Thousand Oaks · Newbury Park · Westlake Village · Agoura Hills
- Recent work
- Newbury Park · Pomona · Simi Valley
What we build
A new house on a private lot
From the excavation and the foundation through to a weathertight structure, built to the architect's drawings and inspected at every stage.
Additions that change the structure
Adding floor area, taking out a load-bearing wall, opening a house up. Anything that changes how the house carries itself needs an engineer, a permit and inspections.
Hillside and difficult lots
Land that has to be cut, shored or reached before a house can sit on it — where the ground work and the building are one job rather than two.
Structural repair and strengthening
Framing, beams and posts replaced or reinforced where a house has moved, been altered badly, or was never built to carry what is on it now.
Commercial buildings and tenant work
The same license covers commercial property. A demolition and rebuild in Pomona was carried out under it.
Accessory dwelling units
ADUs sit inside Class B scope and have a page of their own.
What happens once the drawings are done
A house is built in an order that cannot be rearranged. Each stage has to be inspected before the next one covers it up, which is why the sequence matters more than the schedule.
Foundations
Footings and the floor slab are formed and reinforced across the whole footprint, and the steel is inspected in the form before any concrete goes in.
Structure up
Walls go up and are braced and tied together, with door and window openings formed as the structure is built rather than cut into it afterwards.
Roof on
The roof structure spans the walls and the building is closed in. Until that point nothing inside can start.
EMAE & Sons holds the permit, books the inspections and carries the site from the first excavation through to a weathertight structure. Where a specialist trade is required, it is subcontracted to a licensed firm working under this license and supervision.
Photographs from our President's prior practice, 1996–2011. About the people →
Building projects
Each of these is EMAE & Sons's own work, photographed on site while it ran, and each carries a record of its own. They include a detached dwelling finished in the Conejo Valley and a property in Pomona taken from demolition through to structure.
Who this is for
Work we are the right contractor for
- Owners and architects building a house on a private lot
- Additions and remodels that change structure and need an engineer's drawings
- Sloping, cut or rocky lots where the ground work and the building belong together
- Owners who want the excavation, the foundation and the structure under one contract
What we do not take on
- Kitchen and bathroom remodeling, and cosmetic renovation generally
- Architectural design — we build to drawings, we do not produce them
- Work on an existing structure without drawings where structure is being changed
EMAE & Sons Inc works on residential and commercial property under the same license. A custom home in Brentwood and a commercial rebuild in Pomona are both within this scope.
Questions about building and additions
Does EMAE & Sons build custom homes?
Yes. EMAE & Sons Inc holds Class B General Building alongside Class A General Engineering on California license #1107216, and builds custom houses on private lots in Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange County. A custom home on a hillside lot in Brentwood is under construction now, where the firm demolished the house on the lot, cut the site into rock and built the structure below ground.
What counts as a structural addition?
A structural addition changes what carries the building rather than what it looks like — adding floor area, removing or replacing a load-bearing wall, or altering the framing and foundation. EMAE & Sons Inc takes on that work, which needs an engineer's drawings and a permit, and does not take on cosmetic remodeling.
Who is responsible for the permit and the inspections?
EMAE & Sons Inc is. The firm pulls the building permit as the licensed contractor, books each inspection as the work reaches it, and does not cover up a stage until it has been signed off. The owner is not left arranging inspections or standing between the city and the trades on site.
Does a remodel need a structural engineer?
It does once the work changes how the building carries load. EMAE & Sons Inc builds from an engineer's drawings on any addition or remodel that removes, replaces or adds structure, and will say when a drawing is needed before the work can be priced or permitted.
Related services
Send us the drawings
The architect's drawings if they exist, the address, and what stands on the lot now. That is enough for EMAE & Sons to tell you what the build involves on that site and what has to be established before it can be priced.