Home Additions & ADUs in Burbank, CA

Costs vary enormously with the type of project — a room addition or bump-out sits well below a detached ADU, and a garage conversion that reuses an existing foundation typically costs less than either a new room addition or a ground-up detached unit. Lot access, utility-connection distance, foundation type and finish level all move the number, so we do not quote a figure sight unseen. We give you a fixed written scope after the feasibility review and design phase, tailored to your specific lot and project.

Yes, virtually every addition and ADU project requires a permit through the City of Burbank Community Development Department, Building Division, covering the structural plans, utility connections and Title 24 energy compliance on the new square footage. We prepare and carry that permit paperwork as part of the job, and we confirm at the consultation exactly what your specific project and lot require before design begins. State law requires cities to act on a complete ADU application within 60 days through a streamlined, ministerial process, which is generally faster than the discretionary plan-check timeline a standard room addition goes through.

For most Burbank properties with a garage or usable rear-yard space, yes — California's statewide ADU law has made backyard units one of the most common addition projects in the state, driven by rental income potential, multigenerational housing needs, or simply more usable square footage on the lot. Across the wider SCAG region, ADUs grew from 11% to 26% of all housing permits between 2018 and 2022. We run a feasibility review of your specific lot at the consultation, covering setbacks, size limits and utility access, so you know what your property can actually support before committing to a design.

A garage conversion reuses an existing detached structure and its foundation, which generally makes it faster and more cost-efficient since the shell is already in place. A new detached ADU is built from the ground up, which gives you full control over the size, layout and placement on the lot but takes longer and costs more due to new foundation and framing work. Both are common in Burbank given the deep postwar lots with detached garages, and we review which fits your property and goals at the feasibility stage.

A single room addition typically runs two to four months once construction starts, while a detached ADU commonly runs four to nine months including design, permitting and the build. Garage conversions tend to run faster, often six to twelve weeks, since the existing structure and foundation are reused. Design and permitting time is often the longest and least predictable phase in California, and we confirm a realistic full timeline at the consultation alongside the fixed scope.

The Rancho is Burbank's horse-keeping district near the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, and properties there carry zoning that governs what structures can go where on the lot relative to any horse-keeping use. If your property is in that district, we review the specific overlay as part of the feasibility stage so an addition or ADU is sited correctly from the start. Most Burbank additions are not affected, since this overlay is specific to that one neighborhood.

Yes, hillside lots climbing into the Burbank Hills and the Verdugo foothills fall under grading and brush-clearance rules that flat Valley-floor lots do not carry, and some of these areas sit in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones with additional fire-hardening requirements on new construction. We confirm your parcel's hillside and fire-zone status during the feasibility review, since it affects both the engineering and the permit path for an addition in that area. A hillside addition often also needs a geotechnical soils report to confirm the foundation design accounts for slope stability, which is not a requirement on a flat tract lot, and that report typically has to be in hand before the City will complete plan check.

Yes, adding a second story means the existing first-floor foundation and framing have to be verified to carry the new load before any construction begins, and in California that review includes the seismic bracing and shear-wall detailing the state's high-seismic zones require. We work this engineering out at the design stage, with a structural engineer where the scope calls for one, so the framing plan that is approved through plan check is the plan that actually gets built. Adding a second story also means re-engineering the roof structure and often requires temporary shoring to support the existing walls and roof while the new floor framing ties in, since the house has to stay structurally sound throughout construction, not just once the addition is finished.

Yes, a detached ADU is typically built with its own kitchen and bathroom to function as a fully independent living unit, which is part of what makes it useful for rental income or multigenerational housing. That means new water, sewer and electrical connections back to the main service, which the City reviews alongside the structural plans as part of permitting. We plan the utility routing at the design stage so it is efficient to build and inspect rather than an afterthought.

Yes, we build additions and ADUs across the East San Fernando Valley, including Toluca Lake, North Hollywood, Glendale, Studio City and Sun Valley, on the same design-build, fixed-scope basis. What changes across the boundary is the permitting authority — North Hollywood is a City of Los Angeles neighborhood permitted through LADBS, Glendale is its own independent city with its own building department, and Toluca Lake is split between Burbank and Los Angeles depending on the address. Wherever your lot sits, the process and the engineering standards the work is built to stay the same, and the number to call is (747) 350-1456.