Sherman Oaks Fire Rebuild & Reconstruction
Sherman Oaks fire rebuild with drainage planned early: soft soil dug out, a graded pad, roof water piped to an approved outlet, and LADBS review.
Rain that reaches a cleared Sherman Oaks lot has nowhere planned to go. The roof and gutters that once collected it are gone, and soil around the old footings may still be loose from firefighting water. That is why drainage is drawn before the house: the pad is graded so water runs off it, downspouts are piped to an outlet LADBS accepts, and a vapor retarder goes under any slab so ground moisture stays out of the floors.
Soil, grade and the slab
Before any forms are set, we probe the ground along each old footing line and wherever water pooled after the fire. Loose or washed-out soil is removed and replaced with compacted base, tested where the soils engineer asks. The pad is shaped so water runs off the foundation toward a swale, an area drain or the street. Under a new slab, a layer of crushed rock breaks the capillary path and a heavy plastic retarder blocks vapor. Where a neighboring yard sits higher, a subdrain along that property line collects what seeps across.
LADBS review of the drainage
LADBS issues the permit for a Sherman Oaks rebuild and reviews its structural, energy and zoning sheets. When grading changes the way runoff leaves the lot, the set needs a drainage plan with slopes, pipe sizes and the discharge point, and the inspector checks those on the ground before final. Roof water is counted in that plan as well: the downspouts feed buried pipe running to the street, a curb outlet or a dry well, and none of it may be aimed at a neighbor's property. A dry well works only where the soils report shows the ground can absorb the flow.
About our fire rebuild & reconstruction workEverything we build in Sherman Oaks
Fire Rebuild & Reconstruction in Sherman Oaks: questions
It can be, once the concrete and the ground under it have been checked. Water used to fight the fire can wash soil from under a footing that looks fine from above, so we probe along the perimeter while the engineer checks the concrete and steel. Sound footings under unchanged wall lines can stay and receive new anchors. LADBS reads the engineer's letter with the plans.
Most of our price comes from the drawings. The open item is soft soil that firefighting water may have left around the footings: it is priced per cubic yard removed and replaced, with an estimated quantity shown, and settled on the measured amount. Set next to your insurance scope, that unit price and the drainage work are the items most likely to need explaining, and we explain each in writing.
Gutters show the difference most plainly. On a Sherman Oaks parcel the city's records place in a mapped hazard area, the state's wildfire chapter calls for guards that keep leaves out of the gutters, and for attic vents that block embers while still keeping wind-driven rain out. Without that mapping, LADBS applies the current California codes with the city's amendments, and the gutters need only meet the drainage plan.
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