Measure room by room or area by area, get one total, and see what that number drives on the drafting side: permit-set scope and Title 24 energy compliance.
Enter each room or area separately. Length times width, in feet.
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.
Break odd shapes into rectangles and enter each one as its own row, which is what the rows above are for. An L-shaped addition is two rectangles. A great room with a bumped-out breakfast nook is two. Curved or angled areas take the widest length and width and run slightly high, which is the right direction to be wrong when you are scoping drawings.
For a permit set, the number that matters is the area being drawn, which includes spaces that will never appear in the energy model. A garage still needs a floor plan, elevations, a section and a door schedule. For Title 24, the number that matters is conditioned floor area only, and mixing the two is the most common reason a homeowner is surprised by which figure appears on which document. Enter everything you want drawn above, then subtract the unconditioned areas mentally when you think about the CF1R.
Two 800 square foot projects can require meaningfully different work. An addition into an existing house needs the existing conditions measured and drawn before anything new can be shown, so as-builts add scope that a detached ADU on open ground does not carry. Multi-story work adds framing plans, stair sections and often a daylight plane study. Complex roofs add planes and details. Sloped sites add grading and drainage. Projects with unpermitted existing work need legalization documentation before the new scope is even reviewable.
Jurisdiction matters too. Sheet expectations differ across San Jose, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Fremont and Los Gatos, and a set that satisfies one counter may need additional sheets at another. Our permit set page lists what a complete package normally carries, and the Title 24 CF1R energy calculations page covers how the energy report is produced and registered.
Small projects carry a floor. The measure-up, site plan, title sheet, code data and sheet setup cost roughly the same whether the addition is 200 square feet or 700, so a per-square-foot rate applied to a very small area will land under any real minimum. Treat the ranges above as planning figures for a mid-sized scope and expect a small project to price closer to a fixed minimum than to the multiplication.
For drafting scope, either is close enough, because the difference is a few percent. For Title 24 and for zoning floor area, the definitions are specific and differ from each other, so the drawings state exactly which convention is being used on each sheet rather than leaving it implied.
It counts for drafting, because it still has to be drawn, dimensioned and detailed. It does not count as conditioned floor area for Title 24, so it is excluded from the energy model. Covered patios, carports and unconditioned storage work the same way.
An addition has to be documented against an existing house. That means measuring and drawing existing conditions, matching framing and finishes, and showing how new work ties into old, all of which is drafting work that a freestanding ADU does not carry. The ADU set is often larger in area but simpler per square foot.
No. The CF1R energy report is priced separately because it is a separate deliverable with its own registration, and it is often needed on projects where we are not producing the full drawing set. Add it to the drafting figure to see the full documentation cost.
Neither. City plan check and permit fees are paid to the jurisdiction and are set by its own fee schedule. Construction is your contractor. Everything on this page is the cost of producing drawings and compliance documents, which is what we do.
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