Walnut Creek Remodeling Contractor and Design-Build Firm
Taragano Design and Build is a Walnut Creek remodeling contractor working across the city and the surrounding county areas. 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.
Walnut Creek is one of our busiest markets, and one of the more complicated ones on paper. Some of the best-known neighborhoods carry a Walnut Creek address but sit outside city limits, which changes who reviews your project. Sorting that out first is part of how we start.
Call or Text (925) 388-6353
Proudly serving homeowners throughout Walnut Creek and the surrounding area.
Hiring a General Contractor in Walnut Creek
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 condition turns up that the drawings did not anticipate, or the design turns out not to be buildable as drawn, you are the one standing between two companies who each point at the other.
We work as a design-build general contractor. One company and one contract cover the design, the engineering, the permit, and the build. Constructability gets checked while the design is still on paper instead of after the walls are open.
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 Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek has a wrinkle most nearby cities do not, and it decides your permit path before anything else does. 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.
City Limits or County: Check This First
A Walnut Creek mailing address does not mean a Walnut Creek permit. Several of the best-known neighborhoods, including Saranap and much of Northgate, sit outside city limits in unincorporated Contra Costa County. Parkmead is split between the two. Homes there are reviewed by the County rather than the City, with different standards, different fees, and a different counter to stand at. We confirm jurisdiction from the parcel before design starts, because getting it wrong costs weeks.
ADUs and What Is Actually Local
Compliant ADUs are approved ministerially without a public hearing, which is statewide law rather than a local concession. Walnut Creek’s own ordinance goes further on parking: no additional spaces are required for a new ADU or JADU, and no replacement parking is required for parking converted into one. On a single-family parcel you can generally have one conversion or attached ADU, one detached ADU, and one JADU, with exceptions. The City has also developed pre-reviewed detached ADU plans, though those are currently offline while being updated for the 2025 building code, so we do not plan around them until they return. Size, setbacks, and height still come from local standards, and we check the current rule against your parcel.
Design, Permits, and Construction
Once jurisdiction and feasibility are settled, floor plans come first, then elevations, then structural engineering, then permit submittal. 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 Walnut Creek
We add master suites, second stories, and great rooms to Walnut Creek homes. 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 the lot is full, we build up and save 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 full of light.
Complete Home Renovations and Makeovers in Walnut Creek
Great bones but a dated feel? A whole-house renovation rebuilds a Walnut Creek home from the studs. 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 Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek asks for no additional parking for a new ADU or JADU, and no replacement parking when you convert existing parking into one. See our ADU page, or read the City’s own ADU and JADU guidance.
Detached ADUs & Backyard Cottages
A self-contained backyard home with its own kitchen, bath, and entrance. A compliant ADU is approved by staff without a public hearing.
Garage Conversions
Converting an existing garage is often the fastest path. Walnut Creek does not require replacement parking for parking converted into an ADU or JADU, so giving up the garage does not cost you a new space elsewhere on the lot.
City or County Review
If your address is in unincorporated Saranap, Northgate, or part of Parkmead, your ADU is permitted through Contra Costa County rather than the City. We confirm which before design.
Custom Homes in Walnut Creek
Building new in Walnut Creek? As home builders working across Contra Costa County we handle custom homes and tear-down rebuilds. See our custom homes page.
New Home Builders in Walnut Creek
Built from the ground up on your lot, to your vision, by one accountable team.
Tear-Down & Rebuild
Replace a home past saving while keeping the location you love.
Kitchen Remodeling in Walnut Creek
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. In a Lakewood or Larkey Park tract home this usually means removing a wall, which makes it structural.
Cabinets, Counters & Light
Custom cabinets, stone counters, and a lighting plan that covers task, ambient, and accent rather than one fixture in the middle of the ceiling.
Bathroom Remodeling in Walnut Creek
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 Walnut Creek 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 a major addition and full remodel, and a kitchen remodel with an addition, in Walnut Creek, part of more than 100 projects across the East Bay since 2014.
Neighborhoods We Serve In and Around Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek runs from walkable blocks near downtown out to hillside parcels on the ridges. Housing stock, lot size, and jurisdiction all shift as you move across the city, and each of those changes what a project involves.
Inside City Limits
Downtown & Walnut Knolls
The most compact lots in the city, walkable to Broadway Plaza and BART. Setbacks and neighboring structures usually push work toward interior renovation or a second story.
Lakewood & South Walnut Creek
Post-war and mid-century tract homes on flat, regular lots with repeating floor plans. Opening up compartmentalized layouts and adding a primary suite are the usual projects.
Larkey Park & Walnut Heights
Established streets north and east of downtown with mature landscaping. Flat ground, so an addition here is usually a design question rather than a site question.
Ygnacio Valley & Walden
Newer subdivisions on the east side toward the open space ridges. Consistent construction eras make structural work more predictable than in older parts of the city.
Tice Valley
South of downtown toward Rossmoor, a mix of flat and gently sloped parcels with larger yards. Room for detached ADUs on many lots.
Rudgear
Hillside living with views and winding access. Slope brings grading, drainage, and access logistics into the design earlier than on the valley floor.
Walnut Creek Addresses Outside City Limits
These neighborhoods use Walnut Creek mailing addresses but sit in unincorporated Contra Costa County. Permits go through the County rather than the City. We work in all of them.
Saranap
Between Walnut Creek and Lafayette, with character homes on larger, tree-lined lots. County jurisdiction, and roughly a quarter of the housing stock is attached rather than single-family.
Northgate
Toward the Mount Diablo foothills, with larger homes and larger lots. County review, and terrain that varies enough to be worth checking before design.
Parkmead
Largely 1950s single-family homes near Parkmead Elementary. Split between city and county, so jurisdiction here is genuinely address by address.
Common Questions for a Walnut Creek Remodeling Contractor
Is my Walnut Creek address actually in the city?
Not always. Saranap, much of Northgate, and part of Parkmead carry Walnut Creek addresses but sit in unincorporated Contra Costa County, so the County reviews the permit instead of the City. We confirm jurisdiction from the parcel before any design work begins.
Do I need to add parking for an ADU?
No. Walnut Creek requires no additional parking for a new ADU or JADU, and no replacement parking when existing parking is converted into one. That is the City’s own stated rule, backed by state law that bars a city from requiring replacement spaces for a converted garage.
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 Walnut Creek 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.
