Los Angeles, CA
NEW ADDITIONS ESTIMATING.

## Addition Estimating in Los Angeles Is Not Simple Los Angeles sits in one of the most regulated residential construction markets in the country. As an addition contractor here, you're managing Title 24 energy compliance on every job, navigating Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) plan check timelines that stretch 8–16 weeks for standard over-the-counter permits, and pricing labor in a metro where framing crews run $85–$110 per hour. A back-of-the-envelope bid doesn't survive contact with a LA homeowner who's already gotten three other quotes. Estimate.Pro is built to produce a priced, sendable scope of work in 8 minutes — not a rough ballpark, a real bid with line items your client can review. ## What Makes LA Addition Work Different **ADU and room addition overlap.** About 40% of addition inquiries in Los Angeles involve attached ADU or junior ADU conversions. Estimate.Pro carries separate scope templates for standard room additions, attached ADUs, garage conversions, and second-story additions. You select the right starting point; the app builds the initial scope around it. **Title 24 line items.** Every permitted addition in California triggers Title 24 Part 6 compliance. That means insulation values, fenestration area calculations, and HVAC sizing documentation. Estimate.Pro prompts you to enter the conditioned square footage and window-to-floor ratio so those cost items — upgraded insulation, low-E glazing allowance, Manual J HVAC upsizing — appear in your estimate rather than landing as change orders after permit submittal. **Seismic anchoring costs.** Los Angeles is in Seismic Design Category D. Foundation bolting, shear wall schedules, and hold-down hardware are real line items on every LA addition. The app's framing and foundation modules include seismic upgrade prompts so you're not absorbing those costs after the fact. **Hillside surcharges.** A significant share of LA additions are on sloped lots in areas like Silver Lake, Echo Park, Mount Washington, or the Hollywood Hills. Hillside work adds crane or materials-hoist costs, extended concrete haul, and sometimes geotechnical report requirements. Estimate.Pro lets you flag hillside conditions during the walkthrough, which applies a cost modifier to your material and labor line items. ## How the Walkthrough Works You open the app on-site. Walk the existing structure. Use the AR measurement tool — ONNX-assisted live AR on supported devices — to capture room dimensions, ceiling heights, and exterior wall runs. Photos taken in lower-light or without a LiDAR-capable device are flagged as estimates so you know exactly which measurements to verify before finalizing. The app generates a scope of work: demo, framing, rough MEP, insulation, drywall, exterior finish, roofing tie-in, windows and doors. Every section is editable. You adjust quantities, swap materials, apply your saved labor rates from your cost workspace. The bid goes out from your phone. ## Pricing That Fits How You Work Estimate.Pro has a free tier with no credit card required. When your volume grows, Pro runs $39 per seat per month. Elite at $79 per seat per month adds Stripe Connect payments — at 0% platform fee on Pro+ plans — and invoice export workflows built for project-based billing. If you're running a crew with multiple estimators, Crew is $399 per month flat regardless of seat count. There is no per-estimate fee. You can bid every job you walk. ## Built for 25 Trades, Sharp on Additions Estimate.Pro covers 25 trades. The additions module is purpose-built: it knows that a room addition requires a foundation inspection, a framing inspection, and a rough MEP inspection before drywall — and it structures your scope accordingly. That structure matters when you're submitting to LADBS and your client is asking why the timeline is what it is. If you do additions in Los Angeles and you're still pricing from a spreadsheet, you're spending 3–4 hours per bid on work the app handles in 8 minutes. That time either goes to more bids or goes home with you.