Process

Three steps to keys, and a short list of things you have to do.

Every contractor says they handle everything. What that's worth depends on what's left for you, so this page splits it out phase by phase — what happens, who does it, how long the city gets, and where a schedule genuinely can slip.

01

Feasibility & site walk

A straight answer about what your lot can actually take, before anyone spends money.

  1. We walk the property with you and look at the things that decide feasibility: setbacks, existing structures, easements, grade and drainage.
  2. We find the sewer lateral and the electrical panel, and judge whether either needs work — between them, the most common budget surprise on an ADU.
  3. We check how equipment would physically get to the back yard. On a narrow side yard this decides the whole approach.
  4. We talk through which unit type the lot favours, and what your goal is — rental income, family, or an office.
  5. You get a real, fixed-price proposal in writing, with the scope written down.

You

  • Show us the property
  • Tell us what you're trying to achieve

Bayfront

  • Everything else
  • An honest answer, including when it's no

Timing

One visit. The proposal follows it.

Worth knowing

If your lot is a poor candidate we would rather tell you at this visit than after you have paid for drawings. That happens, and it is not a wasted trip.

02

Design & permits

We can recommend architects, designers, and engineers or we can work with yours. We'll be there throughout the process either way to make sure everything runs smooth.

  1. Architectural design from a partner we recommend or one you bring, developed against your city's objective standards rather than a generic plan.
  2. Structural engineering and Title 24 energy compliance, coordinated with the design rather than bolted on afterwards.
  3. We submit, and the city has 15 business days to tell us in writing whether the application is complete.
  4. Once complete, the city has 60 days to approve or deny. ADUs are reviewed ministerially — against an objective checklist, with no design review board and no hearing.
  5. Plan-check corrections come back to us, and we clear them. This is the part that actually decides your timeline.

You

  • Approve the design
  • Sign what the city needs the owner to sign

Bayfront

  • Drawings
  • Engineering
  • Submittal
  • Every correction cycle
  • All city contact

Timing

Runs on the city's clock, not ours: 15 business days to a completeness determination, 60 days to a decision on a complete application.

Worth knowing

Those are the statutory limits on the city's response, not a promise about the whole phase. Real timelines turn on how fast corrections are cleared — which is exactly why we do not hand that back to you.

03

Build & handoff

One crew, a schedule we manage, and a single point of contact through to your keys.

  1. Site prep, then foundation, then the shell — or, on a conversion, opening up what is already there and finding out what it is really made of.
  2. Rough-in for framing, electrical, plumbing and mechanical, each with its own inspection.
  3. Insulation, drywall, finishes, fixtures and the exterior.
  4. Final inspection and certificate of occupancy.
  5. Walkthrough and handover. If rental income is the goal, we can place a tenant from here — Bayfront is DRE licensed.

You

  • Stay in your house
  • Pick finishes
  • Show up to the walkthrough

Bayfront

  • One dedicated crew
  • The schedule
  • Every inspection
  • A single point of contact

Timing

About 6 weeks of construction for a detached unit — our longest build. Conversions and JADUs run shorter.

Worth knowing

That figure is construction only. It does not include permitting, which happens first, and it does not include waiting for inspection slots. Every unit carries a 12-month warranty from certificate of occupancy.

What's genuinely outside anyone's control

Three things can move a schedule that no contractor can promise away. We'd rather name them now than explain them later.

How fast your city moves

State law caps the city's response times, and we hold them to it — but a plan checker's queue in August is a plan checker's queue.

What's under the ground

Sewer capacity, soil, and utility runs are found, not predicted. We look hard on the site walk; occasionally the ground still has an opinion.

What an old structure is really made of

On a garage conversion, opening up a 1950s slab and roof sometimes reveals work the drawings could not anticipate.

What we do control: a fixed scope, a fixed price, one crew, and a 12-month warranty from certificate of occupancy. A detached unit is about 6 weeks of construction — permitting and inspection scheduling sit outside that, which is why we quote them separately rather than folding them into one reassuring number.

It starts with a walk around your lot.

Free, no obligation, and you get a straight answer about what your property can support — including when the answer is that it can't.

Check the numbers