Mission Hills Windows & Doors for Older Houses
What LADBS reviews on window and door work in an older Mission Hills house: the energy form, each unit's ratings, and a door cut into an old wall.
An LADBS reviewer looking at a window job in Mission Hills starts with the energy compliance form, which lists each new unit with its U-factor and solar heat gain rating. Those figures have to meet the state energy code, and the labels on the delivered glass must match them. So the form is written from the same schedule the order is placed from, and a unit that arrives with a different rating goes back before it is installed.
Same size or a new size
A replacement that keeps the size of the existing opening is usually handled as an express permit, issued without plan review. Once an opening grows, shrinks or moves, the work goes to plan check with a drawing of the opening and the framing around it. Permits already on file for the house help here, since they show what the openings were. An earlier change that was never permitted may need to be shown and inspected too, and we point out any we find on the first visit so the scope covers it.
A window that becomes a door
A door cut in where a window used to be adds items to the review. The wall under the old sill comes out, so the opening runs to the floor, and the header may need to grow with the width. Glass in the new door must be tempered. Outside, a landing is needed at a height the code allows, and its surface is pitched away from the house. Inside, the casing is milled to match the windows, so the new door looks like part of the house from the day it is hung.
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Restoring a sound sash keeps the frame, the glass and the casing in place, and since no new unit is installed, there is no energy form for it. A sill that has rotted through, a frame that has racked, or a bedroom opening that has to be enlarged calls for replacement, permitted and matched to the original lines.
Older openings are measured for the glass line, the distance from the outside face of the casing to the glass, because a new unit set too far out or in changes the shadow line that gives the front of the house its depth. That setback is copied along with the sash proportions and grille, and the original casing stays where sound.
Inside the City of Los Angeles, which includes Mission Hills, window and door permits come through LADBS, and the inspections follow the kind of permit issued. A same-size swap is seen once, at final. A new or widened opening is also seen with the framing exposed, before the wall is closed. At final, the inspector compares each delivered label with the energy form.
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