Orinda Remodeling Contractor and Design-Build Firm
Taragano Design and Build is an Orinda remodeling contractor working throughout Lamorinda. We build home additions, whole-house remodels, ADUs, and custom homes, plus kitchens and bathrooms. One team handles design, permits, and construction, under one contract.
Orinda is hillsides, mature oaks, and winding roads, and the city protects all three. Slope, trees, and fire zone all shape what you can build and how long approval takes. We work those questions out during feasibility, before a design exists to be attached to.
Call or Text (925) 388-6353
Proudly serving homeowners throughout Orinda and Lamorinda.
Hiring a General Contractor in Orinda
A general contractor is the licensed party who signs the building contract and carries legal responsibility for the work: holding the permit, sequencing the trades, calling inspections at the right stage, and answering for anything that fails one.
Where homeowners get caught out is the gap between design and construction. In the traditional setup you hire an architect, get drawings, then take those drawings to general contractors. If a soils condition or a protected tree turns up that the drawings did not anticipate, you are the one standing between two companies who each point at the other. On an Orinda hillside that is not a rare event.
We work as a design-build general contractor. One company and one contract cover the design, the engineering, the permit, and the build, so constructability gets checked while the design is still on paper.
On hillside sites we coordinate the soils and geotechnical reports, build the engineered foundations those reports call for, including pier and caisson systems, and handle retaining walls and site drainage. That work is the difference between a design that pencils and one that stalls at plan check.
Taragano Design and Build holds California contractor license #1143420 and is bonded and insured.
Already have an architect and permitted drawings? Bring them. We are glad to work as your general contractor and build from your plans. If you want us to design it, we handle that too.
Planning a Home Renovation in Orinda
Three questions decide most Orinda projects, and all three are cheaper to answer before design than after. What follows is an overview, not legal advice, and these rules change. We confirm the current requirements for your specific address as part of every project.
Slope and Soils
Orinda regulates hillside development through its zoning code, tying lot size and density to terrain and requiring that trees and vegetation stabilizing steep slopes be retained. In practice a sloped site usually means a soils report first, then a foundation engineered to what that report finds, which can mean piers or caissons rather than a conventional footing. Retaining walls and drainage get designed alongside the house rather than added later. Knowing the soil before the floor plan is the single biggest schedule saver on an Orinda hillside.
Protected Trees
Tree removal is regulated citywide under Orinda Municipal Code Chapter 17.21, and removing a protected tree requires a permit in one of two categories. The part homeowners miss: you can be affected without removing anything. When grading or construction happens near a protected tree, the city can require an arborist report or a written arborist recommendation as part of the building permit. That is why we survey trees during feasibility, not after the footprint is drawn.
Fire Zone and the Wildland-Urban Interface
Much of Orinda sits in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone, which brings ember-resistant construction requirements for roofing, siding, decking, windows, and vents into play on new work. Orinda is served by the Moraga-Orinda Fire District, which has adopted local fire and wildland-urban interface ordinances that go beyond the state minimum. That is a real distinction: Lafayette, one town over, is served by Contra Costa County Fire and is not subject to them. Statewide, the provisions long known as Chapter 7A moved into a standalone California Wildland-Urban Interface Code as of January 2026, and Zone 0, the first five feet around a structure, is heading toward a compliance deadline. In Orinda your project is measured against the stricter of the two layers, so we bring MOFD into the conversation early.
Design, Permits, and Construction
Once feasibility is settled, floor plans come first, then elevations, then structural engineering, then permit submittal through the City of Orinda. Construction runs demolition, structural, rough mechanical and electrical and plumbing, inspection, insulation and drywall, finishes. The schedule is built backward from inspection dates rather than forward from the start date.
Home Additions in Orinda
On an Orinda lot the constraint is rarely the property line. Slope, trees, and views decide the footprint. See our home additions page.
Master Suites & Primary Suites
A private retreat with a spa bath and walk-in closet. Our most requested addition, and the one that pays back most at resale.
Second-Story Additions
When slope or protected trees rule out spreading sideways, we build up and keep the yard. Going up needs structural work, and we handle it.
Kitchen & Great-Room Expansions
Push out the back wall and open the kitchen to a great room, with glass placed to take the view the hillside gives you.
Complete Home Renovations and Makeovers in Orinda
Great bones but a dated feel? A whole-house renovation rebuilds an Orinda home from the studs while respecting the hills and the light. See our whole-house remodeling page.
Down-to-the-Studs Remodels
We rebuild the whole home: new layout, new systems, new finishes, one clear vision.
New Systems & Layout
Old wiring and plumbing out, modern and safe in. The home lives better and lasts longer.
Complete Home Makeovers
A full interior renovation without moving walls or structure. New kitchen, baths, flooring, millwork, and lighting throughout.
ADU Construction in Orinda
Orinda allows an ADU on any property zoned for residential use, with no minimum lot size, and a single-family lot can carry one ADU plus one JADU. See our ADU page, or read the City’s own ADU guidance.
Detached ADUs & Backyard Cottages
A self-contained backyard home with its own kitchen, bath, and entrance. An ADU meeting the city’s standards is processed as a ministerial building permit, without discretionary review.
Garage Conversions
Converting existing space is usually the fastest ADU path, since conversions avoid the setback and height questions that new construction raises.
Preapproved Plans & Hillside Sites
Orinda takes part in a preapproved ADU plan program developed for cities in Senate District 7, which shortens plan review. On sloped ground a detached unit still needs a soils report and an engineered foundation, and detached units can take their own address, assigned through the Moraga-Orinda Fire District.
Custom Homes in Orinda
Building new in Orinda? As home builders working across Lamorinda we handle custom homes and tear-down rebuilds, including hillside and view lots. See our custom homes page.
New Home Builders in Orinda
Built from the ground up on your lot, engineered for the ground it sits on, by one accountable team.
Tear-Down & Rebuild
Replace a home past saving while keeping the location you love. On a sloped parcel the soils work starts before the design does.
Kitchen Remodeling in Orinda
The kitchen is the room you use most, and layout decides whether it works long before any finish does. We plan around workflow, zones, lighting, storage, and ergonomics. See our kitchen remodeling page.
Layout & Workflow
Where the sink, range, and refrigerator sit relative to each other, and whether an island helps or blocks. Opening a wall in a mid-century Orinda home is a structural question as much as a design one.
Cabinets, Counters & Light
Custom cabinets, stone counters, and a lighting plan covering task, ambient, and accent. On a hillside lot, glass placed to take the view does more than any fixture.
Bathroom Remodeling in Orinda
A bathroom is a waterproofing problem wearing tile. We design for ventilation, drainage, and natural light first, then finishes. See our bathroom remodeling page.
Primary Suites & Spa Baths
Curbless showers, correct slope to drain, bench seating, tempered glass, and soaking tubs where the space genuinely supports one.
Hall & Guest Baths
Smaller footprints where ventilation, outlet placement, and storage matter more than square footage.
Why Orinda Homeowners Choose Us
We are Diamond Certified, rated highest in quality. We hold 5.0 stars on Google, Houzz, and HomeAdvisor. We rank in the top 2% of more than 336,000 California contractors on BuildZoom. One team owns your whole project, so nothing falls through the cracks.
We have completed additions and whole-house remodels in Orinda, part of more than 100 projects across the East Bay since 2014.
Neighborhoods We Serve in Orinda
Orinda changes character quickly. Flat streets and wide lots on one side of town, winding roads and steep drives on the other. Where a home sits decides how much soils and tree work a project carries before anyone talks about finishes.
Sleepy Hollow
Winding roads through wooded hills off Camino Pablo and Miner, with a wide range of lot shapes and sizes. Access and staging need planning here, and protected oaks are common.
Orinda Downs
Mostly flat lots with some of the largest homes in the city, along Dalewood toward the Lafayette line. Flat ground means additions are usually a design question rather than a soils question.
Orinda Country Club
Hilly, winding streets wrapping the golf course and Lake Cascade, with smaller or terraced rear yards. Terracing and retaining work often decide what an addition can be.
Glorietta
East side, south of Highway 24, with wide walkable streets and a mix of mid-century homes and renovated ones. Terrain runs from flat to gently sloped, so scope varies block to block.
Orinda Village & Ivy Drive
Close to downtown and BART. Older, more compact housing stock where interior renovation and second-story work outnumber ground-floor additions.
Del Rey
The southern end along Moraga Way toward the Moraga border, near Orinda Intermediate and Miramonte. A mix of flat and hillside parcels with mature landscaping worth surveying early.
Charles Hill & Orinda Woods
View properties on rolling ground with easy freeway access. Orinda Woods runs slightly newer, much of it built from the late 1970s, often with wood shingle siding.
El Toyonal & Claremont
North of Highway 24 west of Camino Pablo, steep and picturesque with narrow winding access. Among the most demanding sites in the city for soils, drainage, and construction logistics.
Wagner Ranch
Flatter streets on the north side near the nature area and elementary school. Straightforward sites where the design question outweighs the site question.
Wilder
Orinda’s newest master-planned community, with modern floor plans, HOA governance, and preserved open space around it. HOA design review sits on top of the city process here.
Common Questions for an Orinda Remodeling Contractor
Can you build on a steep Orinda lot?
Yes. A sloped site usually starts with a soils report, and the foundation is engineered to what that report finds, which can mean piers or caissons instead of a conventional footing. Retaining walls and drainage get designed alongside the house. We coordinate that work rather than hand it off.
Do Orinda tree rules affect my project?
They can, even if you are not removing a tree. Removal of a protected tree needs a permit under Orinda Municipal Code Chapter 17.21, and when grading or construction happens near a protected tree the city can require an arborist report as part of the building permit. We survey trees during feasibility.
Do I need an architect before hiring a general contractor?
Not with a design-build contractor. We handle design, engineering, permits, and construction under one contract, so one company is accountable from first sketch to final inspection. If you already have an architect and drawings, we are glad to build from them.
Ready to Start Your Orinda Project?
Call or text (925) 388-6353 for a free site visit. We will walk your property, talk through your ideas, and give you a straight answer on scope and timing.
