ADUs & Additions in Claremont

City of Claremont Community Development Department, Building Division. Building permits are issued by the Building Division of the Community Development Department, and under Municipal Code Chapter 16.300 no building permit is issued until any required design review has been approved. Section 16.300.030 routes pools, walls, fencing, grading, hardscape, patio structures and exterior changes to single-family homes through staff review, while exterior changes in the Historical Claremont and Arbol Verde districts go to the Architectural and Preservation Commission when the Director of Community Development finds they could have a substantial adverse visual impact. Pool permit applications need plans prepared by a licensed structural engineer with a wet signature and stamp, and in the Hillside District and the RS (20,000) district, which follows the same grading standards, any excavation or fill, or any cut or fill slope, over three feet in vertical height needs the Director's prior approval. We prepare the drawings, make the submittal and handle plan-check corrections ourselves, so you are not the one chasing plan check.

Claremont's RS single-family districts set minimum lots of 8,000, 10,000, 13,000 or 20,000 square feet and cap lot coverage at 30 to 40 percent by district; covered patios and decks count toward that cap, as do uncovered decks more than three feet above grade, while pools and uncovered patios do not. In Historic Claremont, blocks often pair large corner houses with smaller homes and many lots carry guest houses or accessory dwelling units, while North and Northeast Claremont were laid out with winding streets, cul-de-sacs and larger lots with very deep setbacks. One local condition that shapes the work: Pools must sit at least five feet from any structure, with the water line at least five feet from every property line and the pool at least twelve feet from overhead electrical wires unless they are safety cable. Plot plans must show filled ground and any slope within 25 feet of the pool or deck, and where fill or slopes are near the pool a soils report is required unless the City Engineer waives it.

All of it, including Historic Claremont, Old Claremont, Claraboya and North Claremont. Our crews run every job out of our Cahuenga Pass base in Los Angeles, with our own people on site.

Detached ADU: generally $150,000 to $400,000+ across Southern California. What moves it is square footage, finish level, utility runs, and site access; garage conversions typically run well below a ground-up detached build. We give line-item pricing after seeing the site rather than quoting a number over the phone.

Plan a realistic year. Design and engineering typically take one to three months, city plan check and corrections add several more, and construction usually runs four to eight months depending on size and site access.

Usually yes, and often substantially, because the foundation, walls and roof already exist. The trade-offs are that you lose the garage, and older slabs and framing sometimes need upgrading to meet current code.

California ADU law is designed to allow long-term rental, and an ADU is one of the few ways to add rentable square footage to a single-family lot. Short-term rental rules vary by city, so confirm your local ordinance before counting on that income.

Yes. Plans, engineering, Title 24 and the city submittal are all handled in-house, including responding to plan-check corrections. That is a service we sell on its own, so it is not something we hand off.