If you searched "general contractor Santa Clarita", your project has probably outgrown a single trade. The kitchen needs to move, a wall has to come out, and the kids need one more bedroom at the back of the house. A remodel that also adds space runs through structure, plumbing, wiring, the roof and every finish in one job. It needs one builder who holds the whole order of work and prices it in one document. Here we explain what sets that price, when one contract makes sense, and how we plan the job around a family still at home.
A rough sketch of your floor plan is enough to begin, with the rooms you want changed circled and the new space drawn in by hand. Add the address and request a quote for the remodel and the added room.
Old rooms and new floor area in the same job
Adding a room changes how the rooms next to it work. A bedroom at the end of the hall can turn the old linen closet into a passage. A family room off the back may push the kitchen to a new wall. Once one of those moves is on the table, pricing the addition and the remodel apart tends to leave gaps where they meet.
So we draw them together. A whole home remodel and a room addition share one plan on these jobs, with floor heights, ceilings and traffic through the house settled before framing starts. A family can still do less. Plenty of projects are one added bedroom and a reworked bathroom beside it, and that plan is drawn the same way.
Our home base is Santa Clarita, in the Santa Clarita Valley, and we build out to Stevenson Ranch, Sylmar and Granada Hills. Fire-zone mapping can touch a parcel here, so the new roof and exterior materials get checked against it early, while changing them still means editing a drawing.
Where a remodel and addition quote gets its number
A figure given before anyone has seen your house would be a guess, so we quote from the visit. These are the items that make one project cost more than another.
Scope. Count the rooms that change. A new wall between two rooms is small work. A reworked kitchen brings cabinets, appliances, plumbing and wiring with it.
Added area. New floor needs a foundation or a floor system, walls, a roof and a tie-in to the old house. How much you add matters, and so does whether it goes out or up.
Structure. Taking out a bearing wall to join old and new needs a beam and posts, and the posts may need footings. Our structural work page covers that kind of change, and our second story note covers what going up asks of the house.
Trades. Each extra trade has to be scheduled and inspected in turn. Moving a bathroom pulls in drains and vents, and our note on the cost to add a bathroom shows why the drain route drives that line.
Permits. We draw the remodel and the added floor area as one set of plans. Engineering, review comments and inspections all sit on this line, and a bigger scope gives the reviewer more to read.
Phasing. Building everything in one run is usually the shortest path. Splitting the job so a kitchen or a bathroom stays open longer adds crew trips and temporary setups, and we price those days so your family can weigh them.
When one general contractor should hold the contract
California's Contractors State License Board advises hiring a licensed "B" General Building contractor when one contract combines work such as plumbing, electrical and carpentry, and it uses a kitchen remodel as its example. For a single trade, like roofing alone, the board suggests a contractor licensed in that specialty. Its website also has a license check, so run the number of anyone you are weighing.
A remodel with added space lands on the general contractor side of that line. Three choices then decide how big the contract gets:
- All at once or in stages. One run costs fewer return trips. Stages spread the spending, and the plan has to leave the later work easy to reach.
- Which rooms join the job. A hallway floor or an old bathroom next door may be cheaper to redo while the crew is already there.
- Finishes you choose now. Anything you have not picked goes in as a stated allowance, and you can see how your choices move the total.
If all you need is one kitchen or one bathroom, call us as well. We take those on without an addition attached.
From your kitchen table to a phased written scope
We sit down with you first and ask how the house runs on a weekday. Then we walk each room you want changed, measure the lot, read the framing where we can see it and check the panel and the plumbing routes. If a bearing wall or a second floor is in the plan, an engineer reviews it before anything is drawn.
Your quote comes back in writing, split by phase, with structure, trades, finishes and permit work as separate lines inside each phase. It tells you which kitchen or bathroom stays open during each phase and what we assumed about conditions behind the walls. Pull out any room and you can see what the job costs without it.
Papers and lists that speed up your quote
- Your floor plan sketch, or any old drawings of the house.
- Past permits and any survey of the lot.
- A ranked list of the changes, with the ones you could give up at the bottom.
- The dates you are working around, such as a baby due or a parent moving in.
- Photos of rooms you like, for the finishes you have in mind.
Call us or send the form with the address and your sketch. We will set up the visit and write one quote covering the old rooms and the new space.