From Old Town bungalows to McCormick Ranch lakeside homes and the design-review communities of DC Ranch, Silverleaf, and the Pinnacle Peak & Troon foothills — we build engineered, permitted work that clears the board the first time.
Scottsdale isn’t one housing market — it’s several, and each one asks a different question before the first wall comes down.
Old Town and the blocks around it hold the city’s older, walkable stock: smaller footprints, original systems, and remodels that tend to be about opening up a compressed floor plan, updating a kitchen or bath, and modernizing electrical and plumbing that has aged past its service life. McCormick Ranch, built out through the 1970s and 80s around its lakes and greenbelts, is prime renovation territory — solid bones under dated finishes, popcorn ceilings, tired envelopes, and single-pane glass that a desert-climate retrofit pays back in comfort.
Then there’s north Scottsdale — DC Ranch, Silverleaf, and the upscale master-planned communities where the house is newer but the rulebook is thicker. And the foothills, Pinnacle Peak and the Troon area, where the lot itself — slope, drainage, and protected native desert — drives the scope as much as the wish list does.
We work all four. The through-line is the same: we engineer it, we draw it to code, and we submit ready.
Phoenix-metro remodeling general contractor, serving Scottsdale within our roughly 30-mile service radius. One in-house crew — not a rotating cast of subs you’ve never met. Fixed-price bids. Work that’s engineered, permitted through the City of Scottsdale, and inspected.
AZ ROC #365093 — licensed & insured. Call 480.721.8886.
The most requested remodel in Old Town and McCormick Ranch alike. Opening a galley kitchen to a great room often means relocating plumbing in a post-tension slab — done wrong, that’s a structural problem, not a plumbing one. We locate cables and route accordingly.
Taking a solid 70s or 80s house down to studs: new systems, right-sized HVAC, insulation and a tightened envelope, and finishes chosen to fit the home’s style — desert-contemporary, Santa Barbara, or Tuscan — rather than fight it.
Detached casitas, primary-suite additions, and expanded living space. In HOA communities and on foothill lots, footprint and height matter early — we scope against setbacks, coverage, and design guidelines before we draw, not after.
Covered patios, ramadas, and outdoor kitchens built for the way Scottsdale actually lives outside. Shade structures get engineered for monsoon wind loads — a good-looking ramada that isn’t wind-rated is a liability the first microburst finds.
The desert is hard on exteriors. Cracked stucco, failed flashing, and sun-baked coatings let water in exactly when the summer monsoon arrives. We repair the envelope as a system — substrate, flashing, and finish — not just skin-deep patchwork.
Facade updates, re-stucco, window and door replacement, and color changes that have to clear architectural review in communities that take it seriously. We build the submittal to match — more on that below.
Two things shape a Scottsdale exterior remodel more than almost anywhere else in the metro: the design-review boards up north, and the land itself in the foothills.
Design review in the master-planned north. In communities like DC Ranch and Silverleaf, exterior work — even a color change, a new front door, added shade structures, or a re-stucco — typically routes through a design review committee before the City of Scottsdale ever sees a permit application. These aren’t rubber-stamp HOAs. They review materials, colors, massing, and how a change reads against the community’s architectural character, and they can send you back for revisions. The cost of getting it wrong is measured in months. We plan exterior scope around the guidelines from the start and prepare submittals that speak the board’s language, so approval doesn’t become the long pole in your project.
The foothills bring their own rules. On hillside lots around Pinnacle Peak and Troon, grading is regulated, drainage has to be engineered to move monsoon water off the slope without dumping it on a neighbor, and much of the native desert on the lot is often protected as Natural Area Open Space — ground you cannot simply clear and build on. An addition or a pool-adjacent outdoor-living build on a slope is a civil-engineering conversation as much as an architectural one. We scope those constraints before design, so the plan is buildable on the actual lot.
Everywhere in the city, the desert is the constant. Brutal summer heat makes attic and wall insulation, radiant barriers, right-sized HVAC, and low-E glazing worth real money in comfort and operating cost. Homes here are typically slab-on-grade, often post-tension — which governs how we move plumbing and drains. Hard water is common, so we plan for it in fixture and appliance selection. And the monsoon, roughly July through September, is why we treat the building envelope, roof flashing, grading, and drainage as first-class parts of the job, not afterthoughts.
In much of north Scottsdale an exterior remodel needs two green lights: your community’s design review committee and a City of Scottsdale building permit. They’re separate processes with separate standards.
We sequence them so they run in the right order and don’t collide — and we submit each one ready, so you’re not paying for a stalled project while a board waits on a drawing we should have included the first time.
For exterior work, almost certainly yes. Master-planned north Scottsdale communities like these commonly run their own design review committees that must approve exterior changes — colors, materials, added structures, re-stucco, even doors and windows — before the City of Scottsdale issues a permit. Interior-only remodels usually don't trigger design review, though they still need city permits. We scope your project against the community guidelines up front and prepare the submittal to match.
Foothill lots add constraints a flat lot doesn't have. Grading on slopes is regulated, drainage has to be engineered to carry monsoon runoff safely off the property, and much of the native desert on your lot may be protected as Natural Area Open Space that can't be disturbed. Additions and outdoor-living builds on a slope become part civil-engineering. We map those limits before design so the plan we draw is actually buildable on your lot.
Usually yes, but Scottsdale homes are typically slab-on-grade — and often post-tension slabs, where steel cables are tensioned inside the concrete. That changes how plumbing and drains get relocated; you can't just cut anywhere. We locate the cables and engineer the routing so the move is done safely and to code. It's very doable — it just has to be planned, not improvised.
The City of Scottsdale runs its own building and permitting department, separate from neighboring cities. Our work is engineered, permitted, and inspected — we prepare complete submittals so the plan review goes smoothly. In HOA communities, remember the city permit is a separate approval from your community's design review; both may be required for exterior work.
The monsoon, roughly July through September, brings wind, microbursts, and heavy rain — which is why we treat the building envelope as a system. Stucco, flashing, roof details, grading, and drainage all have to keep water out when the storms hit. Any patio cover or ramada we build is engineered for wind loads. Envelope integrity isn't a finishing touch here; it's core to the job.
We provide fixed-price bids after we understand the scope, the home, and any HOA or hillside constraints. That means the number you approve is the number we build to, not a moving estimate. We're a single in-house crew — AZ ROC #365093, licensed and insured — so the team that bids your job is the team that builds it. Call 480.721.8886 to start.
Ask us on the walk-through — you’ll get a straight answer and a fixed-price bid.
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