ADU Construction and Garage Conversions in Santa Monica

California ADU law applies statewide and it is ministerial. A complete application gets judged against written standards, with no hearing and no discretionary vote. The permitting agency has sixty days to approve or deny once the application is complete, and fifteen business days to tell you in writing whether it is complete at all. Those clocks are yours. They start on a complete submittal, which is why the packet matters more than the pace of the counter.

Santa Monica layers its own standards on top. Section 9.31.025 of the municipal code governs accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units in the city, and plans go to the city's own Building and Safety Division. No part of that runs through a Los Angeles counter. Beverly Hills and Malibu are separate jurisdictions again, each with its own submittal rules.

Our estimating desk assembles the submittal against both layers in one pass. Site plan, floor plans, elevations, structural calculations, Title 24, utility routing, and the supporting documents the city asks for. Some parcels carry review layers beyond the standard path. We confirm which of those apply to your address before drawings begin, so nothing arrives as a surprise in plan check.

Santa Monica single-family parcels run narrow and deep, with a garage at the back and an alley behind it. That geometry decides the project before anyone picks a finish. A detached unit at the rear takes the alley for access and leaves the main house's yard intact. An attached unit borrows a wall and shortens every utility run. A conversion of the existing garage uses a slab and three walls that already stand, usually the shortest path to a permit and the least disruption to the household.

Setbacks, height, and floor area come from the ordinance. We measure the lot, plot the buildable envelope, and design inside it. Drawing a dream unit and trimming it in plan check wastes a season. Mature trees, existing hardscape, and the neighbor's window lines get plotted in the same pass.

Utilities decide more than most owners expect. Panel capacity, sewer lateral condition, gas sizing, and the point where water service enters the lot shape the mechanical scope. Our field team opens and verifies those before design locks.

A garage conversion is a structural upgrade wearing a simple name. The slab was poured for a car, so it gets tested and often gets overlaid or underpinned. The header over the old door opening becomes a shear condition. Walls that were never insulated get furred, insulated, and sealed. Fire separation to the main house has to be built and inspected, never assumed.

Alley-facing units carry their own conditions. Access, refuse staging, utility easements, and the fence line all sit in that one strip of ground. Where the city allows it, we stage material off the alley. Trucks stay off your street and the front of the house stays clean through the whole build.

Junior units inside the main house behave differently. They take a bedroom, add a compact kitchen, and often share a bath. They move fast when the plumbing is already close and they crawl when it is not. Our estimating desk walks the existing plumbing before recommending that route.

Design-build means one agreement covers the drawings, the engineering, the permit, and the build. You never become the general contractor over your own consultants.

Your project lead owns the sequence. Survey and existing conditions first. Then schematic layout, structural and Title 24, then the permit submittal. Plan check corrections come back to the same desk that sent them out. Inspections get scheduled against the build calendar so the framing crew is never standing still waiting on a sign-off.

Change is normal on an existing structure. Open a wall on a Santa Monica bungalow from the forties and you find knob and tube, undersized joists, or a slab that has moved. We price the change in writing before the work happens, with the drawing marked up so you can see exactly what moved. No verbal add-ons.

The schedule is written and it is updated weekly. You hold the current one, never the one from bid day.

We hold a painting and decorating classification and we self-perform that work. Drywall level, caulk lines, sanding between coats, and the last coat on your trim stay with our finish crew. None of it gets handed to whoever happens to be available that week.

Most of our ADU clients stay in the main house through construction. That sets the rules on site. Floor protection and dust walls go up before demolition. Work hours follow the city's ordinance and the household's routine. Tools get put away and the site gets swept at the end of every day. The crew parks where you tell them to park.

Selection runs on a schedule. Long-lead items get identified at contract and ordered early: windows, doors, cabinetry, tile, plumbing fixtures, appliances. Late material is the quietest way a clean project runs long. Our estimating desk builds the order calendar backward from the framing date.

Build And Decor Construction is a licensed and fully insured Los Angeles general contracting firm with more than 400 completed projects. CSLB License #1113888, held by license holder Sebastian Moreno Rivera, carries Class B General Building along with Class C-33 Painting and Decorating. Everything we install carries a one-year workmanship warranty.

Clients rate our work 5.0 stars on average across 88 reviews. Ratings current as of August 2026.

We take a limited number of ADU projects at a time so the same field team carries your job from demolition to punch list. The first step is a free on-site estimate. Call (949) 558-9738 or reach us through buildanddecorconstruction.com. Our office is at 8033 Sunset Blvd #336, Los Angeles, CA 90046.