How Sawyer Remodel Woodland Hills Was Born in Woodland Hills
We didn’t start Sawyer Remodeling. The brand existed long before our Woodland Hills location opened its doors, built on a simple idea that remodels should come with a written price and real updates. But bringing that idea to this part of the San Fernando Valley, that’s a story worth telling.
Luca Romano had spent years watching homeowners in Woodland Hills get burned by the same tired playbook: a contractor shows up late, gives a vague estimate, then the price creeps up once the walls are open. Luca saw it happen to a family just off Ventura Boulevard who had saved for years to redo their kitchen. The crew walked off mid-job. The cabinets sat in the garage for months. Nobody would return their calls.
That moment stuck. Luca knew the trades had better people than that, and he knew the Valley deserved better than that. So when the opportunity came to open a Sawyer Remodeling branch here, serving Woodland Hills and the surrounding neighborhoods, he took it. The promise was never about reinventing construction. It was about bringing a standard to this city that homeowners could actually count on: the price in writing before the first cut, photos of the work as it happens, and a live arrival time instead of a four-hour window that may or may not happen.
Woodland Hills is full of mid-century homes with good bones and outdated layouts. It’s also full of homeowners who have been burned. We figured those two things deserved to meet under better circumstances.
Luca Romano’s Personal Connection to the Construction Trade
Luca found construction the way a lot of people do: accidentally. He was working a desk job that paid the bills and bored him senseless. A friend needed help on a framing job in Reseda, and Luca volunteered for a weekend. He showed up expecting to carry lumber. He left with splinters in his hands and something he hadn’t felt in years: the satisfaction of seeing a thing exist that didn’t exist that morning.
The smell of fresh-cut fir still gets him. There’s something about the moment when a wall goes from chalk line to studs to drywall that never gets old. He learned from tradespeople who didn’t have patience for shortcuts. One taught him to read a level not by the bubble but by the feel of the tool in his hands. Another showed him how to tell good lumber from bad by the ring count and the weight. Those lessons weren’t formal training. They were lived experience, the kind you only get by doing the work wrong once and never wanting to do it wrong again.
Over the years, that experience turned into something deeper than a job. Remodeling isn’t just swinging a hammer. It’s walking into someone’s home, understanding how they live, and changing the space to fit them better. Luca has seen a cramped Calabasas kitchen become the room where a family actually eats together. He’s watched a dated Encino bathroom turn into the space where a homeowner finally gets twenty quiet minutes to herself. That’s what pulls him out of bed at 7 a.m., not the paycheck.
If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be restoring old furniture or building things that don’t have deadlines. But the trades got their hooks in early, and they haven’t let go. Woodland Hills is home now, and the work he does here matters to him because he passes those houses on his way to get coffee. He wants the work to look good from the street, sure, but more than that, he wants the people inside to feel like it was worth every dollar they spent.
Meet Luca Romano – The Person Behind Every Job
Luca Romano is the Owner & Founder of the Woodland Hills branch of Sawyer Remodeling, part of the Relay Home Co. family of brands. He leads a local team that works to one standard: a written price before the work starts, photo updates as the job progresses, and no surprises at the end.
Luca isn’t a franchise technician following a script. He’s a hands-on builder who has spent years learning every part of a remodel, from framing to finish work, and he brings that understanding to every project the team takes on. Ask him about load-bearing walls and he’ll talk for an hour. Ask him about tile patterns and he’ll pull samples out of his truck.
Outside of work, he’s a cook. A serious one. He will absolutely tell you his homemade pasta is better than most restaurants on Ventura Boulevard, and he’s probably right. That same attention to getting details exactly right shows up in the way he runs a job site. Every cut matters, every corner matters, and every homeowner deserves to see exactly what they’re paying for.
When you hire our team, you’re getting Luca’s personal commitment that the work will be done right and that you’ll know what’s happening at every step.
Our Promise to Woodland Hills Homeowners
We work to a set of values called The Relay Standard. It’s not a slogan on a wall. It’s the five things every homeowner should expect and too often doesn’t get:
- Book in a tap, no phone tag. You schedule online. Nobody plays voicemail roulette with a contractor.
- A live arrival time, not a four-hour window. You’ll know when we’re coming, and you can track it.
- Photos of the work, before and after. If you can’t be home during the day, you’ll still see exactly what happened.
- The price in writing before we start. Not an estimate that shifts. A written number you approve before the first cut.
- A digital invoice you can pay from the link. No paper, no chase, no surprise line items.
That last one matters a lot. The homeowner across town who went through the kitchen nightmare, that’s not an abstract cautionary tale to us. It’s the reason we put the price on paper before anything starts and send photos as the work happens. Trust isn’t built with a handshake alone. It’s built with a paper trail.
Our Credentials
Every pro working under the Sawyer Remodel Woodland Hills name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. That’s not a perk. It’s the baseline for being allowed to work in your home.
- State-licensed: Each tradesperson carries the licensing required for their trade in California.
- Insured & bonded: Your home and the people working in it are protected.
- Local experience: This branch was built by people who know Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino, and the surrounding neighborhoods, and have worked in these homes for years.
- Strong local reputation: The work stands on the referrals of homeowners across the Valley.
Why does that matter to you? Because when someone works in your home, you’re trusting them with the place you sleep. A license means they’ve met the state’s bar. Insurance means if something goes wrong, you’re not left holding the cost. And a local reputation means the people down the street have already seen the work and will tell you the truth about it.
Rooted in Woodland Hills
We serve a real area, not a map. From Woodland Hills up to Porter Ranch, across to Encino and Tarzana, west through Calabasas and Topanga, and through the West Valley neighborhoods like Winnetka, Reseda, Canoga Park, and Chatsworth. These are communities with distinct personalities and different housing stock. A Topanga house on a hillside lot is a different animal than a Reseda ranch. Knowing the difference matters, and it comes from being here, not from a corporate HQ somewhere else.
The warranty on our work is The Relay Visibility Guarantee: a written price before anything starts, photo updates of the work, and no surprises at the end. That’s the standard every Sawyer Remodeling location works to, and it’s what we bring to every job in Woodland Hills. If you’re ready to see what a remodel looks like when you actually know what’s happening, call us at (341) 217-2776 for a free written estimate.
Written by Luca Romano, Owner at Sawyer Remodel Woodland Hills, serving Woodland Hills and the San Fernando Valley since 2005.