Remodeling a house in Council Crest
Kitchens, baths, decks and additions for houses around Council Crest, where the slope and the trees shape every permit.
Talk to Don about your projectHe comes out and prices it himself
- Oregon CCB
- #208048
- Washington L&I
- #DWVCOCL7540W
- Coverage
- Bonded and insured
- Established
- 2008
The top of the West Hills, 1,073 feet up.
Council Crest was first known as Talbot's Mountain, then Glass Hill and Fairmount. An amusement park ran on the summit from 1907 to 1929, reached by streetcar, and the park that replaced it was finished in the late 1930s.
A city plan says building in the Southwest Hills was slowed by steep slopes and frequent landslides until terracing and grading came into use in the 1920s, and that it has continued at a steady pace since. Northwest Style architect Van Evera Bailey built a house here in 1951.
What is behind the walls of your house.
The age of the house moves the price more than anything you can see. This is what is typical for a Portland house of that age. The site walk confirms what yours has.
6 of 8 are likely on a 1950 house.
Knob and tube or early cloth wrapped wiring is common in houses of this age, and it is live in more rooms than the panel suggests.
Electrical service and panel: $2,000 to $12,000
What DWV does: Full electrical replacement with a service upgrade, as on the Foster-Powell bungalow.
Ask Don about thisGalvanized steel supply lines narrow with age. On the Foster-Powell bungalow they were replaced from the meter through every fixture.
Part of the electrical, plumbing and heating line
What DWV does: New plumbing from the meter through every fixture.
Ask Don about thisThe waste lines in these houses are often the original cast iron, out of sight under the floors.
Part of the electrical, plumbing and heating line
What DWV does: Replaced with the plumbing where they have failed.
Ask Don about thisBrick chimneys of this age are unreinforced masonry, which matters as soon as the structure around them changes.
Priced on the estimate after the site walk
What DWV does: Looked at with the structure before any wall around it moves.
Ask Don about thisThe walls are usually uninsulated and the windows are single pane wood. Insulation comes up to energy code once the walls are open.
Part of the structure and envelope line
What DWV does: Insulation to current energy code while the walls are open.
Ask Don about thisMany of these houses were first heated with oil, and the tank can still be under the yard. A tank taken out of use is decommissioned by a DEQ licensed service provider.
What is behind the walls: $8,000 to $60,000
What DWV does: Decommissioned by a DEQ licensed service provider.
Ask Don about thisPaint applied before 1978 is treated as lead paint under the renovation rule, and work that disturbs it follows lead safe practices.
A line item, priced before demolition
What DWV does: Lead safe practices, priced before demolition.
Ask Don about thisOregon DEQ requires a survey by an accredited inspector before a house built before 2004 is renovated. Older duct wrap and sheet flooring get tested before anything is disturbed.
A line item, priced before demolition
What DWV does: Surveyed first, then handled the way the survey says.
Ask Don about this
Same spot, before and after.
Before
AfterA leaking tile deck over the garage, rebuilt watertight with pavers and new cedar siding.
See the project
The damage was bigger than expected. The estimate was right.
“We recently discovered that we had a water leak in the tiles of our front deck which overlies our garage that was resulting in damage to the underlying structures as well as the siding. We needed to replace some of the underlying support as well as the waterproof membrane, the tile and the siding as well as paint the new siding. We got several bids but the approach proposed by Don Vedaa and Mark Stumpf made the most sense and their price was competitive. We were very impressed and pleased with the attention to detail and genuine concern that things be done right. They really went the extra mile, as if it were their own house they were working on. Communication was good throughout the project and the people who did the work were very thoughtful of our neighbors and very pleasant to have around. The damage turned out to be more extensive than originally thought so the project took a bit longer than anticipated but the cost estimate was accurate. The overall cost turned out to be over the original estimate also but that was because we added new windows, new lights, and requested a change in the paint, all things that were not included in the original proposal. We are very pleased with the end result and are happy we chose to go with DWV Construction. We recommend them highly.”
Jeff WeeksGoogle reviewThe work Council Crest houses ask for.
The photographs are from our own jobs, among them a hillside house in Southwest Portland.
Kitchens
The kitchen is designed and approved before demolition. On the five week kitchen on this site, what was built matches the rendering.
Bathrooms
The pan and the membrane decide how long a bathroom lasts. Both are photographed before the tile goes on.
Primary suites inside the footprint
Interior work that does not enlarge the footprint can be excepted from Portland's slope hazard evaluation, unless it alters the foundation.
Decks on a hillside
A deck more than 30 inches above the ground needs a building permit in Portland. In an environmental zone, whether a deck can grow depends on how much of the lot is in the zone and how much is already developed.
City of Portland permits on steep, wet ground.
Council Crest sits in the city's Southwest Hills neighborhood, and permits come from Portland Permitting & Development. The city describes the lower east slope of Council Crest as steep and unstable, and one of its plans notes that slopes of only 15 percent have failed in the West Hills in saturated winter conditions.
A landslide closed SW Fairmount Boulevard in March 2026 after heavy rain. The city repaired it with a rock buttress and drainage work and reopened the road in October.
For an addition or a new foundation, Portland requires a slope hazard evaluation where its slope conditions apply. It is done by or under a professional engineer or a certified engineering geologist, and a site walk alone is generally not enough.
Check which permits your job needsOur jobs near Council Crest.
Our closest job is the deck over a garage in Southwest Portland. Tap a pin to see the job.
SW Portland
A leaking deck over the garage, rebuilt with new cedar siding.
See this jobNext door: Portland Heights, Hillsdale, Arlington Heights
Questions from Council Crest homeowners.
That is checked by address. The city describes the lower east slope of Council Crest as steep and unstable, and the state has counted at least 1,700 landslides in Portland between 1928 and 2016, concentrated in the hills southwest of the Willamette. We look up your lot before the design starts.
Repair and replacement of an existing deck that does not change its footprint is exempt from Portland's tree preservation standards when no trees are removed.
It depends on how much of the lot is in the zone and how much is already developed. If the work is not exempt and cannot meet the standards, it needs an Environmental Review. Work that stays completely outside the mapped zone is not affected.
Yes. We coordinate the structural engineering and file the permit drawings ourselves, and the slope evaluation is arranged before the design is set.
Talk directly to Don about your project.
Or pick a time for Don's site walk
“Don provided clear and transparent pricing that remained constant throughout the entire remodel.”
Steven Smith · Google review