Free planning tools
Tools for planning a Los Angeles addition
Plenty of what homeowners ask us early on can be answered before anyone visits. Whether an ADU beats an addition. What a permit will cost. How much of your lot you are allowed to build on. These tools answer those questions using the same figures we use internally, and each one shows its working.
Why we built these
Homeowners planning an addition are usually working from national averages that do not apply in Los Angeles, or from one number on somebody's page with no explanation behind it. That is not much to base a six figure decision on.
So each tool does two things. It gives you a usable answer in about a minute, and it tells you where every figure came from on a methodology page you can go and check. Where a number is uncertain we say so instead of inventing precision. Where your city changes the answer, the tool asks which city you are in.
None of them are a quote. That needs someone in your house looking at the panel, the foundation and the roof line. What these do is get you to that conversation already knowing what you are talking about.
Available now
Planning tools
ADU vs. Room Addition
Answer five questions and find out which one fits your goal, your lot and your budget, with cost ranges, realistic rental income if you let it, and the resale picture for both.
Permit Cost & Timeline Estimator
What a permit actually costs once plan check, school fees and sewer charges are counted, and how long each stage takes. Covers the City of Los Angeles and the seven cities we serve that run their own building departments.
Setback & Buildable Area Checker
Lot size, zone and existing footprint in, an estimate of how much you are allowed to build out. Includes the prevailing setback rule, which catches most people off guard.
Before you rely on any of this
What a tool can and cannot tell you
A tool works from what you type into it. It does not know that your electrical panel is a 60 amp relic from 1948, that the addition you are picturing needs a drain line trenched forty feet across a slab, or that your lot steps down a hillside and needs caissons. Those are the things that move a number by six figures, and none of them show up in a form.
What they do reliably is rule options out, put a sensible range around the decision, and tell you what to ask next. Treat the output as a starting position, not a price. When you want a real number we will come and look at the house, then put it in writing.
Ready to talk about your project?
Tell us what you are picturing and we will tell you what it takes to build it, what your city will allow, and where the money actually goes.
Get your real number
A calculator narrows the decision. A visit prices it. Send us the details and we will come and look, then put a written estimate in front of you that spells out what is included and what is not.
Would rather just talk? Call (626) 726-3989.