Fix Brothers is a licensed and insured general contractor working in Silver Lake. Most projects here are kitchen and bathroom remodels in hillside homes from the 1920s through the 1960s, decks and stairs that have reached the end of their life, and whole-home renovations where the owner wants to keep the character and fix everything behind it.
Smaller work goes to our in-house handyman crew, usually within a couple of days: repairs, installs, drywall, and the list left over from the last contractor.
Silver Lake is hillside living, and that sets the agenda. Homes sit on slopes with steep driveways, long stairs and retaining walls that were built decades ago and now show cracks and bulges. Mid-century houses on posts or caissons need their supports, decks and railings looked at honestly, because that is where deferred maintenance hides. Drainage matters more than anywhere flat: water that comes off the hill in winter finds the garage slab, the lower wall and the crawl space first.
The housing mix runs from 1920s Spanish and Craftsman to 1950s and 1960s modern homes, some of them by well known architects. On the older ones we find the usual age-related work: original wiring, galvanized plumbing, single pane windows and bathrooms with no waterproofing membrane. On the modern ones the priority is usually keeping the lines of the house intact while bringing systems up to date. Access is the other constant: narrow streets, no parking and long carries mean material handling is a real part of the schedule, and we plan deliveries around the neighbours rather than blocking the street all day.
The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. Hillside properties get extra attention: added floor area is measured against the hillside rules, and work that touches grading, retaining walls, decks or structural supports needs engineering and inspections. We pull the permits under our own license, bring in the engineer when the job needs one, and meet the inspectors on site.
It depends on what the crack is doing. Hairline shrinkage cracks in an otherwise straight wall are cosmetic. A wall that leans, steps out of line or shows horizontal cracking is moving, and patching it is wasted money. We look at the drainage behind the wall first, because blocked weep holes and water pressure cause most failures, then tell you whether this is a repair, a rebuild with proper drainage, or a job that needs an engineer.
That is most of what we do here. Keeping original doors, steel windows, plaster texture and trim profiles costs more in labour and less in material, and it is usually worth it in this neighborhood. We note during the estimate what we plan to save and what is genuinely past saving, so there are no surprises when the dust sheets come off.
We stage small, deliver in smaller loads, and keep the dumpster time short rather than parking one on the street for three weeks. Materials are carried in rather than dropped in bulk, which is slower but keeps the neighbours and the city off your back. We agree the staging plan with you before day one.
Planning a bigger project here? See our pages on kitchen remodeling in Silver Lake and bathroom remodeling in Silver Lake.
Thinking about an ADU? See our local page on ADUs and garage conversions in Silver Lake.
Most-requested jobs in Silver Lake: kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, whole-home renovation, deck and stair repair, retaining wall and drainage work, room additions, ADU and garage conversion, electrical upgrades, plumbing replacement, interior and exterior painting, stucco repair, and flooring installation.
