MALIBU, CA · KITCHEN REMODELING
Your Malibu Kitchen Remodel Starts in Weeks, Not Months
Keep the work inside your home's existing footprint and Malibu's Coastal Development Permit doesn't apply. What's left is a standard city building permit (typically four to six weeks) and a licensed family crew that still takes normal-size kitchens.
Got it — we’ll call you shortly.
A member of the Mayer’s team will reach out personally. If it’s urgent, call (888) 394-4041.
Verified where it counts
Licensed California general contractor, CA #1063024 (verify with the state). Family-owned since 2009.
Appliances & surfaces we build with
The Malibu permit fact nobody puts on their website
Malibu sits entirely inside California's coastal zone, so most remodeling companies open with the same warning: expect the Coastal Development Permit to take months. Here is what they leave out. Under Malibu's own Local Coastal Program, an interior remodel that stays inside your home's existing footprint (no added square footage, no added height) is exempt from the Coastal Development Permit.
A kitchen taken down to the studs and built back inside the same walls is interior work. It needs a standard City of Malibu building permit, reviewed by the city's Planning and Building Safety desks, and that review typically runs four to six weeks when the plan package arrives complete and clean. That is the whole story: weeks of city review, not months of coastal process.
The timeline belongs to the city, not to us. No contractor can promise a date. What we control is the package: our in-house design team draws plans built to pass the first review, and we handle any corrections the plan checkers request.
One more plain fact: much of the area's construction capacity is committed to very large projects right now. If your project is one kitchen, not a whole estate, you should not have to wait for a callback that never comes. We built Mayer's Construction on normal-size family jobs, and a real person calls you back within five minutes during business hours.
- No coastal permit for interior remodels*
- City permit: typically 4–6 weeks
- We file it, drawings included
- *Interior remodels only: no added square footage, inside the existing footprint.
What still triggers coastal review — the honest line
We would rather lose a project than blur this line. The exemption covers interior work in your existing footprint. The five changes below put a project on the Coastal Development Permit path instead — commonly measured in months, often a year or more in appeal and resource-protection zones.
If your kitchen plan includes an addition, we take that path too, with a straight timeline conversation before you commit to anything. Plenty of Malibu owners phase it: redo the kitchen inside the footprint now, plan the addition on the coastal clock later. We will tell you which side of the line your project sits on in the first conversation.
Added square footage
Adding square footage in any direction — a pushed-out wall, a bump-out, a second story.
Added height
Raising the roof line or adding height.
Work near a bluff edge
Any work within 50 feet of a bluff edge.
Exterior walls
Removing or replacing more than half of the exterior walls.
Structures outside the walls
New decks, pools, or structures outside the existing walls.
Kitchen remodeling in Malibu, neighborhood by neighborhood
From Point Dume to Big Rock, Malibu's homes were built in different decades for different lives. And their kitchens show it.
Point Dume
The wide, flat lots off Dume Drive and Fernhill still carry ranch homes from the 1950s through the '70s, and many still cook in their original kitchens: closed rooms, low light, cabinets from another era. Removing the wall between kitchen and dining stays on the interior path: our design team handles the engineering, the city building permit covers it, and there is no coastal trigger. One thing we tell every Point Dume owner up front: if any work sits within 50 feet of the bluff edge, the exemption analysis changes, and we will say so plainly in the first conversation.
Malibu Park & Malibu West
North of Zuma, the streets around Busch Drive run to bigger parcels and family households (longtime ranch houses alongside newer construction), and the Malibu West cul-de-sacs toward Trancas hold some of the busiest family kitchens in the city. These are working rooms: school mornings, weekend cooking, everyone in one place. We plan around family life, keep a path to the refrigerator open during the build wherever the layout allows, and sequence the work so the house stays livable.
Eastern Malibu — Big Rock, Las Flores, La Costa, Carbon Beach
Along the city's eastern stretch, beach houses sit on narrow lots with galley kitchens that made sense in 1965. Inside the existing footprint there is usually more room than owners expect: a reworked layout, full-height storage, an island where a wall used to be. Salt air is hardest here, so hinges, pulls, fixtures, and finishes get specified for the coast, not the catalog default.
Central Malibu — Malibu Knolls, Serra Retreat, Malibu Country Estates
The family neighborhoods around the civic center and Pepperdine mix '80s and '90s builds with remodels in progress. Most of these kitchens are one good decision away from working: a better layout, better light, better storage. All of it interior, all of it on the weeks-not-months path.
Sourced for salt air, specified to the code
Materials come through our own sourcing, specified for the coast: corrosion-resistant hardware, moisture-tolerant finishes, fixtures rated for salt air. And one more piece of Malibu fluency that saves review time: Chapter 7A of the building code sets ignition-resistant standards for exterior elements (vents, windows, exterior doors). Most interior kitchen remodels never touch them. When yours does (a new window over the sink, a relocated exterior vent), we spec materials that already meet the standard the city's plan checkers look for, so approval doesn't stall.
From first call to final walkthrough
- 01
Call or send the form
A real person calls you back within five minutes during business hours.
- 02
Free on-site estimate
We walk the kitchen and tell you which permit path your project is on.
- 03
Design & plans
Our in-house team draws the kitchen and files the City of Malibu Building Safety package.
- 04
Build
One licensed crew, no subcontractors, from demolition to final walkthrough.
Questions Malibu homeowners ask
Do I need a Coastal Development Permit for a kitchen remodel in Malibu?
How fast can a kitchen remodel in Malibu actually start?
What if I want to expand the kitchen or push out a wall?
Do you take single-kitchen projects, or only large remodels?
Who handles the Malibu permit paperwork?
My home is near the bluff on Point Dume. Does the exemption still apply?
What materials hold up in Malibu's salt air?
In our clients’ words
Rated 5.0 on Google
High-quality materials, outstanding craftsmanship, and a very professional team. The entire project was well organized and completed on time, with great attention to detail.
They worked hard to capture our vision, and if we ever ran into any issues, they worked with us to figure them out. We would happily use them again for another project.
Impeccable workmanship. Mike was a stickler for quality — insisting the tiles have mitred corners, even if I didn’t ask for it. Great communications, every step of the way.
Los Angeles County
Kitchen Remodeling nearby
Let's plan your Malibu kitchen.
One conversation, a straight answer on your permit path, and a written scope. That's the start.