Estimate the drafting fee for a permit-ready drawing set by project type, square footage and how much usable documentation already exists. Every line item is broken out so you can see what drives the number.
Every result is a planning estimate, not a quote or an engineering determination. Real numbers depend on site conditions, existing structure, engineering requirements, and your jurisdiction’s current fee schedule. For structural and engineering work we coordinate with a licensed engineer — we do not perform or stamp engineering ourselves. Get a project-specific estimate before committing to a budget.
A permit drawing set is a coordinated package of documents: a site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections, details, schedules and code notes, drawn to the standard your building department expects to review. The fee reflects how many of those sheets have to be produced from scratch and how much investigation goes in before drawing starts.
Rates per square foot look deceptively simple. In practice a 400 sq ft ADU and a 400 sq ft bedroom addition are different amounts of work, because the ADU carries its own kitchen, bath, egress, fire separation and utility connections. That is why the bands above differ by project type rather than applying one flat number. Very small scopes hit a floor minimum, because a 120 sq ft bathroom still needs a cover sheet, a site plan, elevations and CALGreen notes.
The single biggest swing factor is documentation. When permitted plans exist and match the building, drafting starts immediately. When they do not, someone has to measure the house and produce as-built drawings first. That measure-up is real field time and is billed as its own line item, not folded invisibly into the square-foot rate.
Our fee covers drawings and compliance documents. It does not include city permit fees, school district fees, surveys, soils reports, or any construction cost. It also does not include structural engineering itself. When a project needs beam sizing, a shear wall schedule, a foundation design or a wet stamp, we coordinate with an independently licensed engineer who performs and stamps that work. The engineer sets their own fee, which is why that row is labelled as a separate pass-through rather than part of the drafting rate.
Revisions matter more than most homeowners expect. Nearly every Bay Area jurisdiction issues at least one round of plan check comments, and responding is normal, not a failure. One round of corrections is standard in our scope. Projects that change direction mid-drafting, or that trigger planning review on top of building review, tend to need more. No drafter can promise a specific plan check outcome, and we do not.
If you want to see what the finished package contains sheet by sheet, the permit sets page walks through it. For the design side, including layout studies before drawings are finalized, see architectural drafting and design.
Most residential drafting is quoted as a flat fee, but that flat fee is built up from a per-square-foot band adjusted for project type, existing documentation and scope. The estimator above shows the underlying band so you can see how the number is assembled. Very small projects hit a minimum, because the sheet count barely drops below a certain point no matter how small the addition is.
Because the work already exists and nobody documented it. Someone has to measure what is there, draw it accurately, and reconcile it against current code. Framing that is hidden behind finished walls sometimes has to be exposed before it can be documented, and the city may require an engineer to evaluate what was built. That is investigation work on top of drafting work.
No. Structural design and stamping are performed by an independently licensed engineer. We coordinate the drawings with that engineer so the two packages agree, and the estimator shows the engineer fee as its own line so you can budget for it, but we do not perform or stamp engineering ourselves.
Often, but not always. Most Bay Area building departments issue plan check comments on the first submittal regardless of who drew the set, and one round of responses is included as standard. Projects with planning or design review layered on top of building review, or projects that change scope after drafting starts, usually need more. Nobody can promise a specific plan check result.
Tell us what you're building and we'll get back to you with next steps — usually within one business day.
(408) 634-6655
Yuna Drafting