Home Remodeling & Additions, Placer County Renovate
Whole-home remodels, additions and outdoor living in the California foothills
The same budget-first process we bring to a custom home, applied to the house you already own
Remodels go over budget for a different reason than new homes do.
On a new home, the surprises are in the ground. On a remodel they are behind the drywall, and nobody can price what they cannot see. So most remodel bids are a guess with a contingency stapled to it, and the number you were given in March stops being the number by July.
We handle that the way we handle a custom home, by doing the expensive thinking before you commit. We open up what needs opening. We price what we find. You approve a real number, with the unknowns named as unknowns rather than buried inside a margin.
Two things follow from that. You know what you are spending before demolition starts. And when something genuinely unexpected does turn up behind a wall, it is a conversation rather than an invoice.
Whole-home remodels
A whole-home remodel is the closest thing to building a custom home inside walls that already exist, and it is the work we do best. Layout changes, structural work, new systems, every finish. The planning runs the same order as a new build: budget first, design to the budget, price every decision as you make it. Not sure whether the house is worth remodeling at all? We do both, so our remodel-or-rebuild framework is an honest one.
What makes a remodel interesting is the constraint you already own. What the existing framing will carry. Where the plumbing already runs. Which wall is holding the roof up. Those are Master Carpenter questions, and Mike and Ben answer them before a designer draws a line.
Additions, second stories and in-law suites
Room additions, second stories, primary suites brought down to the ground floor, and in-law suites for parents or adult children moving in. Multigenerational work is the fastest-growing part of this for us, and it is usually the most rewarding.
One at Winchester Country Club added a second story with a media room, a 100-inch screen, an exercise room and a golfcart garage below. Another put a 750 square foot in-law suite over a garage, looking down at the pool.
On an addition the structural question comes first. Whether the existing foundation and framing will take a second floor, and what it costs if the answer is no. You find that out before you are committed, not after.
Kitchens and baths
We take kitchen and bath work as part of a larger project: a whole-home remodel, an addition, or a significant reworking of the main living space. That is where the design-build model earns its keep, because a kitchen that moves is a plumbing, electrical, structural and finish job all at once, and one team holding all four is the difference between eleven weeks and five months.
If what you want is a single-room refresh, we are probably not your best call. We will tell you that on the phone rather than after a site visit.
Outdoor living and backyard structures
Post-and-beam covered patios, outdoor kitchens and BBQ islands, firepits and fireplaces, pools and spas, decks built for year-round use, and slopes tamed with retaining walls. Also the buildings people actually ask for out here: workshops, garages and RV barns. One of ours holds a 40-foot RV, an ATV and a full tool shop, built to the standard of the house it sits behind.
Foothill lots make this harder than it looks. Grade, drainage, defensible space and setbacks all decide where a structure can go before you decide where you want it.
An improvement project runs the same budget, design, bid, build order as a custom home, without the lot evaluation and usually without an architect.
- Step 01
A phone call to establish a rough range for what you are describing.
- Step 02
A site visit, because a remodel cannot be priced from a photograph.
- Step 03
A working budget, with what is known separated from what is not.
- Step 04
Design and selections, priced as you make them.
- Step 05
A formal bid and a contract built from documented costs.
- Step 06
Construction, on a schedule you can open on your phone.
The full ten-step version, and what each step protects, is on our process page.
Our improvement projects start at $150,000. That is not a statement about who we enjoy working with. It is about what the process is worth. The pre-construction planning that makes a number hold costs about the same on a $180,000 project as on a $600,000 one, and below that threshold you would be paying for a level of planning your project does not need.
If yours is smaller than that, say so on the call and we will point you toward someone who fits it better. That is a faster answer than a site visit that ends the same way.
Sherman Custom Homes has built more than 300 homes over thirty years, more than 80 of them here in the foothills, and improvement work runs through the same shop. Mike Sherman and Ben Brown set the standard, the same subcontractors do the work, and the same written quality control checklist gets walked before you see any of it.
We improve homes across Auburn, Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills, Loomis, Roseville and Folsom, and throughout Placer, Nevada, El Dorado and Sacramento Counties.
CA License #860172 · 5★ on Google and Houzz · 4× Best of Houzz, 2018–2021 · Tier 1 builder with Umpqua Bank and U.S. Bank · Placer, Nevada, El Dorado and Sacramento Counties
Remodel questions
How do you price a remodel when you cannot see behind the walls?
By doing the expensive thinking before you commit. We open up what needs opening, price what we find, and you approve a real number with the unknowns named as unknowns rather than buried inside a margin. When something genuinely unexpected turns up behind a wall, it is a conversation rather than an invoice.
Can we live in the house during the work?
Often, for contained scopes such as an addition, an outdoor living project, or a suite. A whole-home remodel that moves the kitchen and reworks the main living space usually goes faster and smoother with the house empty. We plan the logistics with you before the contract, not after.
How long does a remodel take?
It depends on scope. A kitchen that moves is a plumbing, electrical, structural and finish job all at once, and one team holding all four is the difference between eleven weeks and five months. The schedule is built during pre-construction and lives in JobTread, so you can open it on your phone any day.
Let's talk about your project.
Tell us about your land, your timeline, and what you're imagining. We'll come back to you within one business day with the right next step.
Or call (916) 626-6000
