Why doing it all at once changes the rules
Replace the lighting throughout and it stops being an alteration. Ordinarily only the lighting equipment that is altered has to comply and existing fittings are left alone, but a renovation that puts in an entirely new indoor lighting system is treated as what a newly constructed building requires. An entirely new heating and cooling system is judged the same way, and it is entirely new only when the air handler, all the heating and cooling equipment and the duct system are new, as the compliance manual defines it.
One permit covering the whole house reaches every fixture in it. Civil Code 1101.4 makes the replacement of all noncompliant plumbing fixtures on a single-family property a condition of final permit approval, so a renovation that touches four rooms cannot leave a fifth on an old toilet and expect to close. The schedule of fittings is therefore drawn up for the house, not room by room.
A whole-house strip-out is where the lead and asbestos duties are heaviest. The firm doing the work provides the owner with the pamphlet no more than 60 days before renovation activities begin and obtains a written acknowledgment, or a certificate of mailing at least seven days beforehand, and a non-owner adult occupant receives it too. Work areas are contained so no dust or debris leaves them, ducts opening into them are closed and covered, and objects are removed or covered first, under 40 CFR part 745. The owner's asbestos determination is made before any of it starts.
A long contract is paid against work done, never against the calendar. Beyond the down payment, section 7159.5 allows neither a request for nor acceptance of a payment exceeding the value of the work performed or the material delivered, a full and unconditional lien release is furnished on request with each payment, and a change order counts only where it is in writing and signed before that work starts.
What whole-home renovation includes
The whole house is measured and recorded room by room, with the services, the ceiling and floor build-ups and the year it went up. Painted surfaces and floor coverings are logged at the same time, because they set the sequence the strip-out has to follow.
Each room and each system is written as its own set of line items, so the contract shows what is being done where and the payment schedule can follow the work.
Plans and the energy documents are prepared for the systems being replaced, with field verification arranged where the heating and cooling work calls for it.
The contractor assigned to the request pulls the permit and the signed contract is in place, with approximate start and completion dates and a change-order rule that applies for the whole job.
Containment goes up, the strip-out runs room by room, and the plumbing, electrical and mechanical work is installed and inspected before anything is closed in. Opened walls and ceilings end the battery-only smoke alarm allowance: with the structure exposed, alarms are wired to the building with battery backup (R310.6).
Finishes follow the inspected rough work, and the house is handed over with the permit card, the energy documents, the manuals and the photographs together.
A whole-house job is not several small jobs on one invoice. Replacing every light or the entire heating system moves the work into what new construction has to meet, and the drawings have to say so before the permit is applied for.
Where whole-home renovations happen
Houses bought to be reworked
Every room is open at once, which is the point at which the fixture rule, the lighting rule and the asbestos determination all land together.
Pre-1978 houses
With the whole house in the work area, the pamphlet, the acknowledgment and the containment rules run across the job rather than over one room.
Homes being opened up
Removing walls between the older, smaller rooms is structural work, and it carries its own line items, its own trades and its own inspections.
Houses on original systems
Where the air handler, the equipment and the ducts all go, the system counts as entirely new and is held to the full requirements rather than the alteration ones.
Duplexes between tenancies
Both halves can be taken in one contract while they are empty, with the fixture rule applied to the rooms each permit covers.
Houses with rot behind the finishes
Once the finishes are off, damaged framing found in floors, walls or a deck is dry rot repair and is priced as its own scope.
Questions about whole-home renovation
They do not have to, but the answer changes if they do. Only altered lighting equipment must comply, and existing equipment is not required to be replaced, while an entirely new indoor lighting system is treated as a newly built house would be.
When the air handler and all the heating and cooling equipment are new and the duct system is entirely new. At that point it meets the full list rather than the requirements for an altered system.
Every noncompliant one will, as a condition of final permit approval on a single-family property. The fittings are scheduled for the whole house at the start so nothing holds up the final.
Against work done. No payment beyond the down payment may exceed the value of the work performed or the material delivered, and a lien release is furnished on request with each one.
Where an occupant who does not own the home is present, the pamphlet goes to them as well, and the work areas are contained so no dust or debris leaves them.
Whole-home renovation by city
This work is requested through the residential remodeling page for your city, which sets out the housing stock and the department taking the application.
