Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling performs the inspection and signs the report; Kaminskiy Care and Repair does the repairs. Apartments under SB 721, condominium associations under SB 326.
BBBAccredited BusinessMore than half of Glendale's homes sit in buildings of five or more units and three quarters of its housing went up before 1980, and California's balcony law (SB 721, Health and Safety Code 17973) reaches every wood-framed balcony, stair and walkway on a building with three or more units. Kaminskiy inspects them and repairs them from an office on North Brand Boulevard: the inspection is performed by our sister company Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, a B general building contractor since 2008 (CSLB #922807), the stamped report with photos is in your hands within 45 days, and Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1106209) prices each finding in writing, pulls the permit through the Glendale Permits portal and finishes the work for the file. Condominium associations under SB 326 send us the engineer's report and we handle the repairs. One office, two licenses, one clock.
Walk-ups, podium buildings, condos, stairs and walkways.
For a Glendale apartment owner the balcony law comes down to three duties: every wood-framed balcony, deck, exterior stair and walkway more than six feet off the ground gets inspected by someone the statute qualifies; the stamped report stays in your records and follows the building to a buyer; and whatever the report finds is permitted and repaired inside the statute's clock. Kaminskiy carries all three. We count the element types on your building, sample at least 15 percent of each, hand you the photographed report inside 45 days, then price the findings line by line, file the permit with Building and Safety and close the repairs out for the re-inspection.
AFTERBEFOREThe SB 721 Inspection
The Stamped ReportDry Rot & Framing
Waterproofing & Coating
Railings & Guards
Stairs & Walkways
Emergency Shoring
Re-inspection & Close-outEach of these is a call our North Brand office takes most weeks. The inspection lands on the calendar in days, findings turn into a written scope with a permit date before the window closes, and anything tagged an immediate threat gets shored ahead of the rest.
Tell us the address and how many balconies, stairs and walkways the building has. The inspection is quoted on the call, in writing, as one price per building.
The sample is inspected from above and below, hidden framing is read with a moisture meter or opened at a soffit, and the stamped report with photos lands inside the 45 days.
Each finding priced in writing, the permit filed through the Glendale Permits portal inside 120 days, the work done, inspected and documented for your records.
Every job is backed in writing by our workmanship warranty and done by a Kaminskiy-certified, background checked technician.
At the joint where the balcony enters the wall, because that is where Glendale balconies fail. The ledger and the joist ends sit behind stucco on the warm side of the building, the coating above them splits in the summer sun, and the winter rain gets in through the split and stays. The inspector reads the framing with a moisture meter, a borescope through a soffit vent or an opened patch where the readings say so, and checks the guardrail anchors, the flashing and the drains on the way.
An apartment building with three or more units is under SB 721, Health and Safety Code 17973: inspected by January 1, 2026 and every six years after. A condominium project is under SB 326, Civil Code 5551: inspected by January 1, 2025, every nine years after, by a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect. A Glendale owner with a walk-up on Maryland Avenue and a condo on Central follows both, with two inspectors and one repair contractor.
An immediate threat is closed off the day it is found, shored if it has to be, and reported to the City's Building and Safety Division within 15 days. Every other finding runs on 120 days to apply for the permit and 120 days from the permit to finish. At 180 days without repairs the inspector notifies the City, and 30 days after that notice the daily penalty starts to accrue.
Rot confined to a joist end or a post base is cut out and sistered or replaced. Rot that runs the length of the ledger or across most of the joists means the balcony comes off and goes back on new framing. Either way the waterproofing is replaced edge to edge, because a patched membrane on a south-facing Glendale balcony is next summer's leak.
Three quarters of Glendale's housing went up before 1980 and more than half of it is in buildings of five or more units, which puts more of this city under SB 721 than most of Los Angeles County. The 1960s to 1980s stucco walk-ups south of the 134, the podium buildings downtown and the hillside condos each fail in their own way.
Two- and three-story stucco boxes from the 1960s to the 1980s, many with tuck-under parking and cantilevered balconies hanging off the street face. The south and west exposures take the full valley sun, so the deck coating splits first, the Santa Ana dust packs the crack, and the winter rain follows it into the ledger behind the stucco. The usual findings are rotted joist ends, a corroded ledger connection and rust at the guardrail post bases; the usual repair is new joist ends and ledger hardware, a new membrane with flashing and the rails re-anchored. The garden complexes along Pacific and Glenoaks add open stairs and corridor walkways to the count.
Wood-frame floors over a concrete podium, built from the 2000s on under the Downtown Specific Plan. The balconies are younger but not exempt: the membrane terminations at the door sill and the deck drain are where water gets into the framing, and a hung guardrail hides its anchors behind the fascia. A building that opened in 2019 or later runs on its own clock, an inspection within six years of the certificate of occupancy, which puts the newest buildings on Lexington and Central due now. The condominium towers on Brand and Central are under SB 326; the association's engineer inspects and we repair.
Most hillside homes are single-family and outside both laws, but the condominium complexes tucked into the canyons carry elevated walkways and stairs on posts, in shade that never fully dries. The findings there are post bases rotted at the footing, stair stringers soft at the bottom and moss on the walkway coating. The same crew covers the walk-ups of Burbank and Pasadena, the Altadena rentals under Los Angeles County's building department, and La Cañada Flintridge, each with its own permit counter and the same state clock.
Count the units. Three or more rental units in one building and SB 721 applies, with the first inspection due January 1, 2026 and the next every six years. A condominium project with three or more units follows SB 326 instead: due January 1, 2025, every nine years, inspected by a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect. A duplex or a single home with an ADU is outside both, though the rot does not read the statute. Send us the address and the unit count and we tell you which clock you are on.
The inspector lists each type of exterior elevated element on the building, balconies, decks, stairs, landings and walkways, and inspects at least 15 percent of each type, by eye where the framing is open and by moisture meter, borescope or an opened soffit where it is not. The report states each element's condition, its expected service life, whether further inspection is needed, and whether anything is an immediate threat to the people using it. That report is the document a Glendale lender, insurer or escrow now asks to see.
The statute, Health and Safety Code 17973, allows four: a licensed architect; a licensed civil or structural engineer; a general contractor whose A, B or C-5 license is at least five years old and who has built multistory wood-frame buildings under it; or a certified building inspector or building official. None of them may be on the City's staff while inspecting. In Glendale the inspection is performed by Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, our sister company, a B general building contractor since 2008 (CSLB #922807), and the repairs by Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1106209).
One figure for the inspection of the whole building, worked out on the call from the element count, the number of types and whether we reach the framing from a carport or from a lift. The repairs are a second conversation, after the report, with one written line per finding: a joist end with new flashing is a short line, a balcony rebuilt from the ledger out with a new guardrail is a long one, and nothing goes on the calendar until you have approved the lines you want. The scope you sign is the invoice you get.
Which law, how many element types, how we reach the framing: settled from the street view, the carport and any plans you have, with the inspection price in writing before the call ends.
Tenants have written notice, the sample gets looked at from the deck and from underneath, hidden framing is metered or opened at a soffit, and every element is photographed and numbered.
A stamped report with photos, condition and service life per element, and a repair list, plus the 15-day notice to Building and Safety if anything is an immediate threat.
A written scope per finding, the permit filed through the Glendale Permits portal inside the 120 days, shoring first where it is needed, the work inspected and a close-out report for your records.
Subdivision (a) of Health and Safety Code 17973 sets the inspector's qualifications: an architect's or engineer's license, or an A, B or C-5 contractor's license held at least five years with multistory wood-frame experience, or certification as a building inspector. Subdivision (g) governs the repairs: a qualified, licensed contractor, working to what the inspector recommended, to the state Building Standards Code and to Glendale's own rules. The section never says the inspecting company cannot be the repairing one. The owner contracts with the inspector directly, which is what the statute wants; here that is Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, with Kaminskiy Care and Repair on a separate repair contract, so the report stands on its own if you decide to bid the work.
Glendale's Community Development Department, Building and Safety Division, is the local enforcement agency, at the Permit Services Center on East Broadway. Repairs are filed online through the Glendale Permits portal as a multi-family alteration or repair; like-for-like framing, membrane and railing repair that leaves the exterior as it was goes in without plans, while a rebuilt cantilever, a new guardrail design or anything that changes the street face adds a design review exemption and plan check. Work filed from January 1, 2026 is under the 2026 Glendale Building and Safety Code, the 2025 state code with the City's amendments. The City publishes no separate SB 721 portal or form; the report stays in the owner's records, and an element tagged an immediate threat is reported to Building and Safety within 15 days.
January 1, 2026 was the first deadline (AB 2579 pushed it a year past the original 2025 date), and the cycle is six years. A report with findings opens two windows: 120 days to apply for the permit, then 120 days from the permit to finish the repairs. Let the repairs sit 180 days and the inspector has to notify the City; 30 days after that notice the owner owes a civil penalty of one hundred to five hundred dollars per day until the work is done, and the City can record a building safety lien to collect it. Keep each report through two cycles, and hand it to the buyer when the building sells.
Our office is downtown, on Brand. The Glendale crew starts the day at 201 North Brand Boulevard, a few blocks from most of the buildings this law reaches, and covers Burbank, Pasadena, Altadena and La Cañada Flintridge from the same door. Call 747-298-8227 or text a photo of the letter, the balcony or the stain on the carport ceiling, and a person picks up. Since 2023 that has added up to 59 repair visits on 46 Glendale homes.
Can't find your answer? Call 747-298-8227 and ask us anything.
Call 747-298-8227SB 721 is the 2018 state law, now Health and Safety Code 17973, that makes the owner of an apartment building with three or more units have its wood-supported balconies, decks, porches, exterior stairs, landings and walkways checked by a qualified inspector when they sit more than six feet above grade. The inspector samples at least 15 percent of each element type, tests the hidden framing, and writes a stamped report with photos inside 45 days that states each element's condition and what has to be repaired. The first round was due by January 1, 2026; the next falls six years later, and the report follows the building to its next owner.
Four kinds of professional, under Health and Safety Code 17973: architects and civil or structural engineers with a California license; general contractors who hold an A, B or C-5 license and have at least five years as a license holder building multistory wood-frame structures; and certified building inspectors or building officials. Whoever inspects may not be on the City's payroll at the time. For Glendale buildings that inspector is Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, our sister company, which has held its B general building license since 2008 (CSLB #922807); the repairs are Kaminskiy Care and Repair's.
Yes. In our case it is two licensed companies under one roof: Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling signs the inspection report and Kaminskiy Care and Repair takes the repair contract. Nothing in the statute forbids that; what it asks is that a qualified, licensed contractor does the work the way the report, the state code and Glendale's Building and Safety Division say it should be done. Every finding in our report carries a photo and a description, so the report is just as useful if you hand it to another contractor for a bid.
It is a single figure for the whole building, and it depends on three things we ask on the call: how many elements there are, how many types, and whether the framing can be reached from a carport or needs a lift. A seven-unit walk-up on Vassar Street and a two-hundred-unit podium building on Central are different jobs and different numbers. Repairs come later, line by line from the report, and you see every line in writing before a date is set. Call 747-298-8227 with the address and the unit count and the inspection is quoted while you are on the phone.
Schedule it now and keep the booking confirmation with the building's records. The statute's daily penalty attaches to repairs that sit undone after a report, not to a late inspection date, and Glendale's Building and Safety Division would far rather see an owner moving than one waiting for a letter. Should the inspector find an immediate threat, that balcony or walkway is closed the same afternoon, shored if it needs it, and the City is notified inside 15 days; the rest of the findings start the 120-day permit window.
On a condominium project the association owns the SB 326 duty: it hires the licensed structural or civil engineer or the architect, and in most sets of governing documents it also carries the structural framing and the waterproofing, while an exclusive-use balcony is divided the way the CC&Rs divide it. The engineer writes the report; Kaminskiy Care and Repair does the carpentry, membrane and railing work it calls for on the Glendale towers and the canyon complexes, in phases that keep the walkways open, with the paperwork the board needs for its reserve study.
Days, not weeks, for the inspection: the office sits a few blocks from most of the buildings this law reaches, and the report lands well before the statute's 45 days are up. The repairs then keep to the clock the law sets, a written scope for each finding, the permit application inside 120 days of the report, and the work inside 120 days of the permit. Anything tagged an immediate threat is closed and shored the day it is found, ahead of the schedule.
Every Glendale neighborhood, from the North Brand office: Tropico, Adams Square, Citrus Grove, Pacific-Edison, Mariposa, downtown, Verdugo Viejo, Rossmoyne, Sparr Heights, Montrose, Chevy Chase Canyon and Glenoaks Canyon, and the foothill cities beside it, Burbank, Pasadena, Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge, Eagle Rock and Atwater Village. Call 747-298-8227 with the building's street address and you get a yes on the spot.
Give us the building's address, the unit count and whether an inspection report already exists, and you get a price and a date back. The phone is quicker: 747-298-8227.
A qualified inspection, a stamped report inside 45 days, and every repair on its list, all from one office on North Brand Boulevard.
We answer in under three rings, 24/7.No price games. You get a clear written quote before any work begins, backed by our workmanship warranty.
