







A free site visit, a check of what your lot allows and a written, line-item price.
Get your free estimateFast, Reliable Home Addition Contractor Across Los Altos
A home addition in Los Altos typically runs $250 to $450 per square foot depending on scope, finishes, and whether you’re adding a room, a sunroom, or a full second story. Most projects on the flat lots near downtown or through the hillside neighborhoods of Old Los Altos take four to eight months from permit to final inspection. We’re the Home Addition Contractor team homeowners call when they want a written price before any work starts and a crew that actually shows up in the window they gave. Call (669) 266-4319 and we’ll walk your lot, talk through what’s possible under Los Altos zoning, and put a real number in front of you.
Key Takeaways
- A room addition in Los Altos generally costs $85,000 to $280,000 total; second-story work starts around $250,000 because of structural and seismic requirements.
- Los Altos has design review and heritage tree rules that can add 6 to 10 weeks to permitting. Local experience saves you from expensive resubmissions.
- Every Lodgewick job comes with a written price before work starts and a 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing.
- We service all Los Altos neighborhoods including Old Los Altos, The Country Club area, Loyola Corners, and the hills off Page Mill Road.
Why Lodgewick ADU San Jose Is Los Altos’s Preferred Home Addition Contractor Company
Los Altos homeowners tend to ask harder questions than most, and we like that. They’ve seen bids that looked firm and weren’t, and they’ve heard promises about show-up times that evaporated. Our answer is The Kingswell Way, spelled out on every project: say the price before the work, show up in the window we give, leave the site cleaner than we found it, put the guarantee in writing, and come back if anything fails within 365 days. Russ Delmar leads our Los Altos builds, and he’s the one walking your lot on the first visit, not a rotating cast of salespeople.
We work with homeowners from the flat, established streets off Foothill Expressway to the tighter hillside parcels above Interstate 280. The difference between those two sites is enormous: one might need simple foundation work, the other might need retaining walls, drainage engineering, and a structural engineer on call. That local familiarity is why people around Los Altos keep our number. Dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from the brand’s San Francisco Bay Area office, and crews serve Los Altos locally.
When a Los Altos homeowner asks us for a reference, we connect them with another client in their neighborhood. When they ask what a permit will cost, we walk them through Los Altos’s specific planning and building fees, not a generic estimate from somewhere else in the Bay Area. That’s the difference between a contractor who happens to work here and one who actually knows how the city reviews plans.
Sunroom Addition in Los Altos

A Sunroom Addition is one of the more popular ways Los Altos homeowners add year-round living space without a full second-story build. On the flat lots behind Covington Road or off San Antonio Road, a sunroom often works as a dining extension, a home office with garden views, or a quiet reading room that catches the afternoon light. Because Los Altos gets mild winters and warm, dry summers, a well-positioned sunroom with proper glazing and ventilation stays comfortable most of the year without a dedicated HVAC line.
In Los Altos, a sunroom addition typically runs $60,000 to $140,000 for a 200 to 350 square foot build, depending on whether you’re doing a prefab glass structure or a stick-built room with foundation and roof tie-in. James Hardie siding or a matching stucco finish keeps the exterior looking like it belonged on the original house. Permitting through the City of Los Altos usually moves faster for a single-story sunroom than for a second-story bump-out, but you’ll still want experienced plans that pass planning review without multiple resubmissions.
Design Review and Setbacks
Los Altos has specific setback and lot-coverage rules that affect where a sunroom can sit. Our team handles the site plan, the design review submittal, and any heritage tree reports if your addition comes close to a protected oak or redwood.
Glass, Shade, and Energy Code
Title 24 energy requirements apply to sunrooms in Los Altos, and so do practical concerns like west-facing glare. We spec low-E glass, operable windows, and sometimes a mini-split for the hottest August afternoons.
Room Addition Contractor in Los Altos
ADU Builders in Los Altos is our specialty, and room addition work is what we do most often: adding a bedroom, a family room, a larger kitchen, or an in-law suite onto an existing single-family home. The city’s housing stock is heavily mid-century ranch and contemporary rebuilds on 10,000 square foot lots, which gives homeowners room to expand sideways rather than up. A ground-floor addition off the back of a ranch home on a flat parcel near The Country Club area usually runs $85,000 to $200,000 for 300 to 500 square feet.
What drives Los Altos pricing more than anything is the existing structure. Houses built in the 1950s and 60s often need foundation upgrades, shear wall additions, and electrical panel changes before a single new wall goes up. Seismic retrofitting isn’t optional in this part of the Bay Area, and we’d rather tell you that cost upfront than surprise you with a change order mid-job. That’s what a written price means to us: the number on the first contract is the number you pay, unless you ask us to change scope.
Foundation and Seismic Work
Los Altos sits in a seismically active zone, so any room addition that attaches to an existing home must meet current California shear and tie-down requirements. We include that structural work in every written estimate.
Matching the Original Architecture
Whether your home is a classic ranch, a contemporary rebuild, or a newer Mediterranean, the addition should not look stapled on. Our crews match rooflines, eave depths, window styles, and siding profiles so the new room reads as original.
Trusted Brands We Service in Los Altos
Los Altos homeowners often come to us with specific material preferences, and we’re comfortable working with all of them. We work regularly with James Hardie siding and trim on Los Altos additions, especially where homeowners want fire-resistant, low-maintenance exteriors that hold paint in the summer heat. For homeowners considering a prefab or panelized addition, we’re familiar with Abodu and Cover systems, which can shorten the on-site build time on tighter Los Altos lots. When you call, let us know if you have a brand in mind, and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s the right fit for your site and budget.
Common Home Addition Contractor Problems We See in Los Altos Homes
- Heritage tree trigger delays: Los Altos protects many mature oaks and redwoods, and an addition that comes within a protected radius of one can add weeks to permitting. We check tree locations on the first site visit so there are no surprises after plans are drawn.
- Foundation surprises on mid-century homes: Older Los Altos houses frequently have shallow or unreinforced foundations that need upgrading before an attached addition is safe. We budget for this in the written price, not as a “discovered condition” later.
- Title 24 energy and solar requirements: New conditioned square footage in Los Altos triggers California energy code requirements, including roof-mounted solar on some projects. We include the energy modeling and any required PV in the initial estimate.
- Hillside drainage and slope issues: Homes above Interstate 280 or off Page Mill Road often sit on slopes where winter rains test every drainage system. A room addition that ignores drainage can put water against the new foundation within a year. We engineer for slope and runoff from the start.
Pricing for Home Addition Contractor in Los Altos, CA
Here are honest ranges for Los Altos, based on what we’ve built and bid in this market. A modest room addition of 250 to 400 square feet runs $85,000 to $160,000. A primary suite addition with a full bathroom runs $140,000 to $240,000. A second-story addition starts near $250,000 and can exceed $500,000 for larger builds with structural reinforcement. A sunroom runs $60,000 to $140,000. What moves your number within those ranges: site access, foundation condition, heritage tree proximity, finish level, and whether the addition touches a hillside or flat parcel. Call (669) 266-4319 and we’ll give you a written line-item quote for your specific lot. Estimates are free, and the number we write is the number you’ll pay.
We Also Serve Cities Near Los Altos
Along with Los Altos, our Home Addition Contractor in Los Altos clients often have family or investment properties in nearby cities. We take on addition and ADU work in Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Santa Clara, and Los Gatos. The permitting and design review processes differ slightly in each, and we handle them all. If you’re weighing a home addition in Los Altos and a Garage Conversion Contractor in Los Altos project on the same property, we can price both at the same site visit.
Serving Los Altos, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Los Altos area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Home Addition Contractor in Los Altos

After the site visit and written estimate, a Los Altos home addition typically starts within 4 to 10 weeks once your plans are approved and permits are pulled. Design review with the City of Los Altos can add time, and a heritage tree or hillside lot can extend that. Call (669) 266-4319 to schedule your free estimate and we’ll give you a realistic timeline for your specific site.
Yes. We work across Old Los Altos, The Country Club area, Loyola Corners, North Los Altos, and the hillside streets above Interstate 280 and Page Mill Road. Each area has slightly different zoning, lot sizes, and review triggers, and we plan for those differences from the first walkthrough.
If an existing addition has failed or a foundation issue has been flagged by a home inspector, we can schedule a structural assessment quickly. This is not a one-day patch job; we’ll bring in a licensed engineer, document what’s needed, and give you a written remediation price. Call (669) 266-4319 and we’ll work through it with you.
Los Altos construction costs run higher because of stricter design review, heritage tree protections, hillside engineering on many parcels, and the prevalence of older homes that need seismic and foundation upgrades before work can begin. You’re also paying for crews who know how to meet those requirements without resubmitting plans twice. The cost difference is real, and so is the avoided headache.
It covers the workmanship and materials on your addition for a full year from completion. If anything fails within that window, Lodgewick comes back and makes it right, at no charge. That commitment is in writing on every Los Altos project before the first nail is driven.
Written by Russ Delmar, Owner at Lodgewick ADU San Jose.









