Project Cost Calculator

Q: Are you licensed and insured?

Yes. California General Building (B) license #1112902, a $25,000 contractor bond, and an active workers' compensation policy with The Hartford. Verify it on the CSLB registry — and here is how to check any contractor's license, including ours.

Q: What areas do you serve?

Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Milpitas, Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, and Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley in San Mateo County. We deliberately keep a tight radius — travel time comes out of the quality of supervision.

Three questions. It gives you a planning range, not a quote — but it is built from the numbers we actually bid, not from national averages.

Why the ADU number does not scale evenly with size. Roughly $13,500–$18,500 of an ADU's cost — plans, survey, soils report — is fixed no matter how small the unit is. We hold that part constant and price the rest by size, which is why halving the square footage does not halve the price. Most bids you will collect are built off a flat multiplier, and that is wrong at exactly the sizes people ask about most. The full explanation →

Our published ranges

The same numbers the calculator uses. We publish them so you can rule us in or out before anyone spends an afternoon on a site visit.

Work	Range
New Construction	From $500/sq ft Ground-up, plus site work and soft costs.
ADUs	$300K–$360K for a good-quality build Priced per project, not per square foot — roughly $13.5K–$18.5K of plans, survey and soils work is fixed no matter how small the unit is. Size, site conditions and finish level move it from there.
Home Additions	$130K–$490K By square footage added and how much structure has to change.
Whole-Home Remodels	$130K–$490K A true to-the-studs rebuild is priced like new construction, not like a remodel.
Kitchen Remodeling	$24K–$45K typical $65K–$120K+ for high-end work — that is the top of the market, not the middle of it.
Bathroom Remodeling	$22K–$30K typical $20K is our floor. To the studs and waterproofed properly — we do not bid the $10K version.

Every one of these excludes permits and city fees, which are set by your jurisdiction and pulled per job. We do not publish a permit figure because we would have to guess at it.

What an ADU costs at different sizes

Here is the part most people are surprised by. Roughly $14,000–$18,000 of an ADU is plans, survey and soils work, and that cost is the same whether the unit is 400 square feet or 1,200. Strip it out and the rest prices by size. Add it back and a small ADU stops looking proportionally cheap.

Size	Planning range
400 sq ft	$206,000 – $244,000
500 sq ft	$253,000 – $302,000
600 sq ft	$300,000 – $360,000
800 sq ft	$394,000 – $476,000
1,000 sq ft	$488,000 – $591,000
1,200 sq ft	$582,000 – $706,000

Under about 350 sq ft the fixed costs are such a large share of the job that a range off a calculator would mislead you more than it helps. Those are still worth building. They just need a real look first.

Before you hire anyone

Read firstIs a 50% deposit legal in California? Two minutesHow to check a contractor's license During the jobWhen should you refuse a change order? Our processHow payments work on our projects Real workSee a job mid-build, including what went wrong EverythingAll our guides

Common questions

Are you licensed and insured?

Yes. California General Building (B) license #1112902, a $25,000 contractor bond, and an active workers' compensation policy with The Hartford. Verify it on the CSLB registry — and here is how to check any contractor's license, including ours.

What areas do you serve?

Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Milpitas, Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, and Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley in San Mateo County. We deliberately keep a tight radius — travel time comes out of the quality of supervision.

What does a remodel cost?

It depends on scope, but we publish real ranges rather than making you book a call to find out. Use the calculator above, or see the full table below. If your number is well under our floor, that is useful for both of us on day one rather than week three.

Do you handle permits?

Yes — we carry the submittal and the plan-check corrections under our license. That last part is the bit people underestimate; it is rarely one submission and done. More on permits →

Do you do the design?

Not the interior design, no — we won't pick your finishes and cabinet doors with you. But we do coordinate the architect and structural engineer who produce your stamped permit set, and that's priced as part of the project. On ADUs we can also start from a standard design plus a materials list. If what you want is someone to shape the look with you, that's an interior designer and we'll say so up front.

What happens on a Project Discovery Call?

A video call first, always. It is scope discovery, not a sales pitch — it exists so we arrive at your site already understanding the project. We will ask your budget, because a builder who does not ask is planning to find out the expensive way.

Ready for a real number?

Book a Project Discovery Call. It's a video call first — scope discovery, so we arrive at your site already understanding the project.

Book a Project Discovery Call Call (408) 597-2733

Work out roughly what your project costs