Brentwood Kitchen Remodel And Bath Co has spent 18 years on the kind of homes that define the Westside: a Cape Cod estate up Mandeville Canyon overdue for a kitchen reset, a gated Bel-Air property behind the West Gate ready for a primary-bath rebuild, a Pacific Palisades house mid-rebuild after the January 2025 fire. Tal and Ari founded the firm together in 2008, and they built it around this specific corner of Los Angeles — Brentwood, Bel-Air, Westwood and Pacific Palisades, the concentrated high-value stretch locals shorthand as the Three Bs — because the terrain, the housing stock and the layered permitting here reward a firm that already knows the ground. Both are hands-on owners running a design-build model: one team, one contract, from the free in-home consultation and 3D design through the written scope and the finished build. What follows is the plain account of how they started, why the two of them stayed on this exact stretch of the Westside, and what that means for whoever calls next.
How Tal and Ari Started, and Why Brentwood
Tal and Ari opened the company together in 2008, working the canyon-adjacent blocks of Brentwood first before expanding out to the neighboring hillsides. Brentwood itself runs from the coral-tree median along San Vicente Boulevard, past the Brentwood Country Mart and the Getty Center perched near the I-405, up into Mandeville, Sullivan and Kenter Canyons — the same canyons that hold Crestwood Hills, a protected cluster of mid-century-modern homes locals still point to as some of the finest of that era in the city. Rather than take every job across Los Angeles from day one, the two of them made an early call to know one stretch of the Westside properly: its canyon foothills, its fire-zone rules, its housing stock. Eighteen years on, that decision is still the whole business — Tal runs the design side of most consultations, Ari tends to run point on the build schedule, and both show up on the calls that matter.
The Estate and Hillside Stock Is the Actual Demand
Nothing about this site's focus on high-end remodeling is accidental — it follows directly from what's on the ground. Brentwood's 2008 median household income of roughly $112,927 already sat well above the county figure, and next door in Bel-Air the 2008 figure was $207,938, the highest in Los Angeles County, with about 85.5% of homes owner-occupied. That kind of wealth sits on canyon and hillside lots — large-lot Cape Cod, Tudor and Spanish Revival estates in Brentwood, and in Bel-Air the gated parcels reached through the East Gate at Beverly Glen and Sunset or the West Gate at Bellagio and Sunset, all set entirely within the Santa Monica Mountains since developer Alphonzo Bell and landscape architect Mark Daniels master-planned the neighborhood in 1923. Homes at that scale and value don't get replaced; they get remodeled to a standard that matches what they're worth, which is why full kitchen renovations, primary-bath rebuilds and whole-home projects sit at the center of the company's work instead of being occasional extras.
The ADU Boom Reshaped What "Remodel" Means Here
One shift has genuinely changed the business over the past decade: California's 2016 ADU laws, A.B. 2299 and S.B. 1069, which preempted most of the local zoning that used to keep backyard units off the table. Across the SCAG Southern California region, ADUs climbed from 11% to 26% of all housing permits between 2018 and 2022, and the City of Los Angeles alone went from under 100 ADU permits in 2016 to over 7,000 in 2022. On Brentwood, Bel-Air and Westwood lots carrying an underused garage or a strip of backyard, that turned into real, buildable square footage rather than a theory, and it's why Tal and Ari now run ADU feasibility, design and construction as a standing part of the home additions service rather than a special request. Next remodel season, a fair share of new calls will open with "ADU" before they get to anything else.
One Design-Build Team, Whether the Lot Is an Estate or a Condo
Westwood shows how differently the same design-build process has to run depending on the property. The neighborhood was laid out starting in 1919 by Harold Janss of the Janss Investment Company, with UCLA opening its Westwood campus in 1929, and today it holds the estate-scale homes of Holmby Hills right alongside the Wilshire-corridor condominiums and high-rises near Westwood Village. A Holmby Hills kitchen remodel runs like any other estate job in Bel-Air or Brentwood; a condo remodel two blocks away adds HOA approval, building-management sign-off and elevator logistics that a single-family lot never touches. Design-build still means one contract and one team either way — free consultation, 3D design, written scope, build — but the two of them scope those two projects on completely different terms before a number ever goes in writing.
Permits, Fire Zones and the Coastal Zone Are Handled, Not Assumed
Here's the part most homeowners don't realize going in: Brentwood, Bel-Air, Westwood and Pacific Palisades are all neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles, not four separate cities, so every permit runs through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) under the California Building Standards Code (Title 24) and CALGreen. What changes by address is the overlay on top: Brentwood's canyons and all of Bel-Air sit under LA's hillside and grading rules and inside a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone requiring Chapter 7A wildland-urban-interface fire-hardening, while Pacific Palisades parcels near the coast fall in the Coastal Zone and can require a Coastal Development Permit. The Palisades carries one more layer entirely: after the January 7, 2025 fire destroyed 6,831 structures — the third-most-destructive wildfire in California history — the city opened an expedited rebuild pathway allowing faster approval for like-for-like rebuilds up to 10% larger than the original footprint, and a meaningful share of current Palisades work runs through that pathway. Tal and Ari check every overlay against the specific parcel before design starts, so the rules shape the plan instead of stalling it at inspection.
Whichever part of the Westside your home sits in, the starting point is the same. Browse the full list of remodeling services for the five core project lines, check the Bel-Air, Westwood or Pacific Palisades page for what's specific to that address, or get in touch directly to book a free consultation. Either way, it's still Tal and Ari running the design-build, 18 years in.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long have Tal and Ari actually been remodeling in Brentwood?
Since 2008, which puts the firm at 18 years working the Westside this year. Tal and Ari started together rather than one founding and the other joining later, and that co-ownership is still how the company runs — both are hands-on in scoping and running jobs, not one owner out front while a silent partner sits behind the paperwork. Eighteen years reading Brentwood's canyon lots, Bel-Air's hillside estates and the Palisades' post-fire rebuilds means they can usually tell what a house will hide behind its walls before a single stud is exposed, which is exactly why the company stayed on this one stretch of the Westside instead of chasing work across the whole county.
Why did Tal and Ari build the company around Brentwood specifically?
Because Brentwood sits at the center of what locals call the Three Bs — Brentwood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills — an unusually concentrated stretch of high-value, older housing stock that rewards a remodeler who already knows the ground rather than one learning it on the client's dime. Brentwood itself runs from the coral-tree median along San Vicente Boulevard up into Mandeville, Sullivan and Kenter Canyons, past the protected mid-century-modern homes of Crestwood Hills, with the Brentwood Country Mart and the Getty Center at the I-405 as neighborhood anchors. Tal and Ari opened here in 2008 on the bet that one firm knowing this terrain — the canyon lots, the fire-zone rules, the era of the housing stock — would out-perform a generalist working every ZIP code in Los Angeles, and 18 years later that bet is the whole business model.
What does 'design-build' mean when two owners run it together?
It means the design and the construction sit inside one contract with Tal and Ari, instead of splitting the job between an architect you hire and a separate contractor you hire again. The process starts with a free in-home consultation, moves to a 3D design and a written scope, then builds exactly what was drawn — so the two people who priced your kitchen are the same two people accountable for the kitchen that actually gets built. On a Brentwood hillside lot or a Bel-Air estate, where surprises behind a wall are the rule rather than the exception, that single line of accountability is the difference between a fixed number and a number that quietly grows once demolition starts.
Why does estate and hillside housing stock dominate this site's copy?
Because it's the actual demand driving the business, not a marketing angle. Brentwood's 2008 median household income of roughly $112,927 already put it well above the county average, and next door Bel-Air's 2008 figure of $207,938 was the highest in Los Angeles County, with about 85.5% of Bel-Air homes owner-occupied. That kind of value sitting on canyon and hillside lots — large-lot Cape Cod, Tudor and Spanish Revival estates in Brentwood, gated estate parcels reached through Bel-Air's East Gate and West Gate off Sunset Boulevard — is exactly the housing stock that justifies a full kitchen, bath or whole-home remodel instead of a patch job, and it's what Tal and Ari have specialized in since 2008.
How is Bel-Air's housing different from the rest of the service area?
Bel-Air was master-planned in 1923 by developer Alphonzo Bell with landscape architect Mark Daniels, laid out entirely inside the Santa Monica Mountains, and it stayed that way — very low density, huge lots, winding canyon roads like Bellagio and Stone Canyon in place of a street grid. The November 1961 Bel Air Fire destroyed 484 homes there, and the December 2017 Skirball Fire destroyed six more, so brush clearance, defensible space and Chapter 7A wildland-urban-interface fire-hardening are standing constraints on every hillside remodel Tal and Ari take on in Bel-Air. The dominant project type is a large kitchen or primary-bath renovation, or a full-house rework, on a multimillion-dollar estate lot — different in scale and terrain from the flatter blocks of Brentwood proper.
What is different about remodeling in Westwood compared with Brentwood?
Westwood was laid out starting in 1919 by Harold Janss of the Janss Investment Company, with UCLA opening on its Westwood campus in 1929, and today it holds two very different housing markets side by side. The Holmby Hills estate enclave calls for the same estate-scale kitchen, bath and whole-home work Tal and Ari do across Bel-Air and Brentwood, while the Wilshire-corridor condominiums and high-rises near Westwood Village bring HOA approvals, building-management sign-off and elevator or stacked-unit logistics that a single-family hillside lot never has. Both fall under the same City of Los Angeles permitting, but the two remodels look nothing alike on site, and Tal and Ari price them differently for exactly that reason.
Why is the ADU boom such a big part of the company's story?
Because California's 2016 ADU laws — A.B. 2299 and S.B. 1069 — preempted local zoning that used to block backyard units almost everywhere, and the numbers moved fast: across the SCAG Southern California region, ADUs went from 11% to 26% of all housing permits between 2018 and 2022, and the City of Los Angeles alone jumped from under 100 ADU permits in 2016 to over 7,000 in 2022. On Brentwood, Bel-Air and Westwood lots with garages and unused backyard square footage, that turned into real, buildable projects rather than a talking point, and Tal and Ari run ADU feasibility, design and construction as part of their home-additions work today. It's one of the fastest-growing lines in the business, and by next remodel season a good share of new client calls open with the word 'ADU' rather than 'kitchen.'
Do Brentwood, Bel-Air, Westwood and Pacific Palisades each have their own city permitting?
No — all four are neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles, so every permit and inspection across the service area runs through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) under one municipal code, not four separate city halls. What does vary by address is the overlay on top of that base permit: hillside and grading rules in Brentwood's canyons and across Bel-Air, Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone status and Chapter 7A fire-hardening in the canyon and hillside areas, and a Coastal Zone Coastal Development Permit for the Pacific Palisades parcels nearest the coast. Tal and Ari confirm which overlays apply to a given parcel before any design work starts, because guessing wrong on a hillside or coastal address is how a permit gets kicked back at plan check.
How has the Pacific Palisades fire rebuild changed the work there?
The January 7, 2025 Palisades Fire destroyed 6,831 structures and damaged 973 more — the third-most-destructive wildfire in California history — and put a large share of the neighborhood into active rebuild almost overnight. Tal and Ari now handle everything from full new-home construction and ADUs to gut renovations of homes that survived, working under the City of Los Angeles's expedited post-fire pathway, which lets rebuilds proceed faster where the new structure is no more than 10% larger than what burned. That volume of concentrated rebuild work is genuinely new territory even for a firm that's covered the Westside since 2008, and it's reshaped how much of the current project list runs through Pacific Palisades specifically.
What should I actually judge Tal and Ari on before hiring them?
Judge them on process and on the standards the work is built to, not on a claim printed on a website. Every project Tal and Ari run is designed to the California Building Standards Code (Title 24) and CALGreen, permitted through LADBS, and, on hillside and fire-zone lots across Brentwood, Bel-Air and the Palisades, built to Chapter 7A wildland-urban-interface fire-hardening requirements. The scope, materials allowance and price are itemized in writing after the free consultation and 3D design, before demolition ever starts, so you're approving a drawing and a fixed number rather than taking anyone's word for it.
What should I read next if I'm comparing remodelers on the Westside?
Start with the [full list of remodeling services](/services) to see the five core project types Tal and Ari run — kitchen and bathroom remodeling, home additions and ADUs, flooring, and whole-home renovations. From there, look at the location page closest to your address: [Bel-Air](/bel-air) for hillside estate work, [Westwood](/westwood) for Holmby Hills and the Wilshire-corridor condo stock, or [Pacific Palisades](/pacific-palisades) for coastal-canyon homes and post-fire rebuilds. Each page covers the local permitting and terrain specific to that address rather than a generic Westside description, because a Bel-Air canyon lot and a Westwood high-rise unit genuinely don't remodel the same way, and the pricing and process differ accordingly.
What can I expect the first time I talk to Tal or Ari?
A direct conversation about your actual address and project, not a script. Whichever of the two of them takes the call will ask where the home sits, what you want out of the kitchen, bath, addition or flooring project, and what timeline you're working with, then set up a free in-home consultation rather than quoting a number sight-unseen. From there the sequence is fixed — consultation, 3D design, written estimate, build — and it's the same sequence whether the address is a Brentwood canyon lot, a Bel-Air estate behind the East Gate, or a Pacific Palisades home mid-rebuild. Call (424) 369-0310 to start it, or use the [contact page](/contact) for the full rundown of what to have ready before you do.
