Santa Clara County
General Contractor in Palo Alto
New construction, ADUs, additions and whole-home renovations — built and permitted by a licensed general contractor working in Palo Alto.
- Licensed CA General B #1112902
- Fully Insured
Building in Palo Alto
Every city in our area is its own jurisdiction with its own review process. What's true in one does not carry across the city line — which is why this page exists rather than a single generic service-area page.
Palo Alto is not just a city with a municipal utility. By its own description it is the only city in California that owns and operates a full suite of municipal utility services — electric, natural gas, water, wastewater and fiber — and has done since 1896.
On a construction project that changes who you deal with for almost everything. Elsewhere in our service area an ADU or an addition means coordinating with PG&E for electric and gas and a separate water company for the meter, each with its own queue. In Palo Alto electric, gas, water and sewer are all the same city department. That can be genuinely simpler, because it is one relationship instead of three. It also means there is no second opinion and no alternative provider, so the sequencing has to be right the first time.
It also means the PG&E answer is the wrong answer here, the same way it is in Santa Clara. Anything you read about ADU metering or service upgrades that assumes PG&E needs re-checking against City of Palo Alto Utilities before it goes in a budget.
Older neighbourhoods also carry tree protections that can decide where a foundation or an ADU is physically allowed to go. That is a before-design question, not an after-design one — a protected tree found late redraws a site plan.
We work throughout Palo Alto — whether you're in Old Palo Alto, Crescent Park, Midtown, Barron Park, or College Terrace, the build is the same standard.
Permits. Work in Palo Alto is permitted through the City of Palo Alto Development Services Department (Building Division). We carry the submittal and the plan-check corrections — that is our job, not yours.
What Fits Here
What we build in Palo Alto
New Construction
New Construction in Palo Alto, built and permitted by a licensed general contractor.
Learn more →ADUs
ADUs in Palo Alto, built and permitted by a licensed general contractor.
Learn more →Home Additions
Home Additions in Palo Alto, built and permitted by a licensed general contractor.
Learn more →Whole-Home Remodels
Whole-Home Remodels in Palo Alto, built and permitted by a licensed general contractor.
Learn more →Budget
What a Palo Alto project costs
We publish our real ranges rather than making you book a call to find them out, and our minimum project size is $20,000. What moves a number in Palo Alto is rarely the finishes — it is the site, the utilities and what turns up once something is opened.
Public record
Permits and ADU rules in Palo Alto
These are links to the city's own pages, not our summary of them. We carry the submittal and the plan-check corrections on a project we build, so this is not information you have to act on yourself. It is here because you should be able to check it either way.
Palo Alto is all-digital and takes no paper plan submittals. Applications run through its Accela Citizen Access portal, starting with a pre-application.
Pre-approved ADU plans. Palo Alto runs a pre-approved ADU plan program and is still building out its public gallery. Since AB 1332 took effect on January 1, 2025, California cities have had to run a pre-approved ADU plan program and post the approved plans publicly. Where a usable plan exists it can take real time and design cost out of a project, because the design has already been reviewed and only the site-specific work is left.
Links checked August 2026 and pointing at government pages. Cities change both their pages and their rules, so confirm anything current with the City of Palo Alto Development Services Department (Building Division). We deliberately do not publish Palo Alto permit fees or review times here: those move, they vary by project, and a number that is out of date is worse than no number at all.
Common Questions
Straight answers
Do you build in Palo Alto?
Do you handle the Palo Alto permit process?
What does building in Palo Alto cost?
Before you hire anyone
Worth knowing before you sign in Palo Alto
- The same project is a different project in each of these 16 cities What actually changes at a city line, Palo Alto included — hearings, tree permits, fire districts and the thresholds nobody mentions.
- How big a deposit can a contractor legally ask for? California caps it at $1,000. Most people are asked for far more.
- How to check a contractor's license before you sign The CSLB lookup, and what a suspended bond actually means.
- Change orders and allowances, explained Where a fixed price stops being fixed, and what should be in writing.
- Why two ADU quotes can be $80K apart Fixed soft costs are most of the answer.
- Can I build an ADU on my lot? Setbacks, access, utilities and service capacity — a per-parcel answer.
- What changed in California ADU law on 1 January 2026 Palo Alto now owes you a completeness decision in 15 business days, or the application is deemed complete.
- How big can my ADU actually be? State law caps how small Palo Alto is allowed to cap you — 850 sq ft, or 1,000 with more than one bedroom.
- The inspection found unpermitted work. Now what? Three routes, and the one question to settle before you negotiate.
Nearby
Other cities we build in
Building in Palo Alto?
Book a 30-minute discovery call and we'll tell you what's realistic — scope, budget and timeline — whether or not we're the right builder for it.