Free planning tools
Tools for planning a Los Angeles addition
Most of the questions homeowners ask us early on are answerable before anyone visits: whether an ADU beats an addition, what a permit will cost, how much of your lot you are actually allowed to build on. These tools answer those, using the same figures we use internally. Every one of them 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 a single number on a competitor's page with no explanation behind it. That is not much to make a six-figure decision on.
So each of these tools does two things. It gives you a usable answer in about a minute, and it tells you exactly where every figure came from, on a methodology page you can check. Where a number is genuinely uncertain, we say so rather than inventing precision. Where your city changes the answer, the tool asks which city you are in.
None of them are a quote. A quote requires someone standing 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.
Room Addition Cost Calculator
Size, finish level and project type in, a Los Angeles cost range out. This one lives on Bartona Builders, our parent company — same team, same numbers, no reason to build it twice.
Permit Cost & Timeline Estimator
What the permit actually costs once plan check, school fees and sewer charges are counted, and how long each stage takes — for the City of Los Angeles and for 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 actually 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 are visible from a form.
What these tools do reliably is rule things out, put an honest range around the decision, and tell you which questions to ask next. Treat the output as a starting position for a conversation, not as a price. When you are ready for a real number, we will come look at the house and 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 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.