About us
Five generations of carpenters, one licensed crew
Room Additions Los Angeles is a DBA of Bartona Builders, holder of California contractor license #886079. Behind that paperwork is a family that has been building things by hand for five generations, and a company now run by a veteran who thinks a schedule is a promise.
It started in a workshop
The business began as a small custom carpentry shop — handcrafted woodwork, built one piece at a time, by people whose reputation travelled by word of mouth because there wasn't any other way for it to travel. The skills and the standards got handed down through five generations of the same family.
That lineage isn't decoration on a website. It's why we still mill trim to match an original profile on a Pasadena Craftsman instead of using the closest stock item, and why the framing details that nobody will ever see get done properly anyway. When carpentry is the thing your family has done for a century, doing it badly is genuinely uncomfortable.
From carpentry to full-scale additions
Over the years the work grew from cabinetry and millwork into whole-house remodeling and then into what we specialize in now: room additions. It's a natural progression, because an addition is fundamentally a carpentry problem wrapped in a permitting problem. The framing has to tie into structure that's been settling for eighty years. The new roof has to meet the old one without leaking. The trim has to match.
Specializing has made us better at it. We're not a general remodeler who also does additions — additions are the thing, which means we've seen the same problems on enough Pasadena bungalows, Burbank tract houses and Glendale hillside lots to price them honestly instead of optimistically.
Veteran-led, and it shows in the boring places
The company is led today by a former U.S. Air Force veteran. The military habits that carried over aren't the ones people expect — nobody's shouting on our sites. What carried over is that a schedule is a commitment rather than an aspiration, that the site gets cleaned at the end of every day, and that when something goes wrong you say so immediately rather than hoping it resolves itself.
It also shows in how we write estimates. We'd rather include the electrical panel upgrade we're fairly confident you'll need and lose the job to a lower bid than win it and hand you a change order in week four. That costs us work sometimes. It's still the right way to do it.
Why we work where we work
Our office is on East Green Street in Pasadena, and our service area radiates out from there — Glendale and Burbank next door, across to the Valley and the Westside, north to Santa Clarita, west to Thousand Oaks. We've deliberately kept it to the distance where our crews can be on your site for full days rather than losing hours to the freeway.
The other reason for a defined service area is regulatory. Knowing that Pasadena has historic review, that Glendale's foothills need soils reports, that Thousand Oaks protects its oaks and that Santa Clarita's HOAs review before the city does — that knowledge only comes from working somewhere repeatedly. A contractor who works everywhere knows none of it.
How we work
What we hold ourselves to
Craftsmanship
The details you'll never see get done the same way as the ones you will. That's not a slogan, it's just what happens when the people framing your walls learned from someone who learned from someone.
Straight answers
If your basement should stay storage, we'll say so. If an ADU makes more sense than the addition you asked about, we'll say that too, even though it's a different-sized job.
Written everything
Estimates itemized. Change orders priced and approved before work proceeds. Schedules with the permit phase separated from the construction phase so you know whose delay it is.
Permits, always
Every project permitted under our own license. We won't build you something unpermitted that you have to explain to a buyer's agent in five years.
Credentials
The paperwork, plainly stated
Room Additions Los Angeles is a DBA of Bartona Builders, which holds California State License Board license #886079. You can verify that license, its status, its classification and its bonding directly on the CSLB website — we'd encourage you to check ours and to check anyone else you're considering.
We carry liability insurance and workers' compensation coverage, and we'll provide current certificates on request before any work begins. We pull permits under our own license for every project. If a contractor ever asks you to pull an owner-builder permit for work they're performing, that should end the conversation — it shifts the liability onto you.
Our office is at 81-93 E Green St, Pasadena, CA 91105. It is a real office with real people in it.
Ready to talk about your addition?
Free in-home consultation and a written estimate at no cost.