What I draw, and what happens after I draw it.
Every project below ends the same way: a permit set submitted to your city, tracked through review, and corrected until it's approved. If you're not sure which of these you're looking at, or what's legally on your property to begin with, start at the bottom of this page with as-built documentation. Timelines below are typical, not guaranteed — actual schedules depend on how quickly you review drawings and how quickly consultants respond.
ADUs & Casitas
Arizona changed the rules in your favor. HB 2720, signed in May 2024, requires cities over 75,000 people — Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Scottsdale, Tempe and the rest of the metro — to allow accessory dwelling units on single-family lots. Up to 1,000 square feet or 75% of your house, whichever is smaller. Setbacks capped at five feet. And your city cannot make you add off-street parking for it.
What that means in practice is that a casita your neighbor was told "no" on five years ago is permittable today. The work is in designing one that uses the allowance well and clears review the first time.
Design starts at $3,500. Typical timeline: about 10 business days for construction documents once your design is approved, with consultant reviews (Manual J/S/D, structural where needed) running concurrently.
Not sure if this is your project? Twenty minutes on the phone, no charge, and you'll know whether it's permittable and roughly what it takes. Book a free call — 480-688-3638.
What you get
- Site plan with setbacks, easements and utility routing
- Floor plan, elevations, building sections
- Electrical and mechanical layouts
- Energy code compliance documentation
- Structural coordination with a licensed engineer where the design calls for it
- Submittal to your city and correction responses through approval
What it doesn't include
- Construction — I draw it, your contractor builds it
- Soils reports or survey work, if your lot needs them
- Utility upgrades or impact fees charged by the city
- Interior finish selection
Custom Homes
A custom home starts from a blank lot instead of an existing structure, which means every decision is on the table — orientation, room layout, roofline, how the house reads from the street. That's the appeal of building new, and it's also where projects lose momentum: the more open the canvas, the more there is to decide.
The process runs the same discipline as everything else on this page — as-built or site survey first, then floor plan, then elevations and roof lines, each one signed off before the next starts — just with more rounds, because there's more to get right the first time and the owner has more calls to make along the way.
Every custom home is priced to the project — call to talk through scope and get a number. Typical timeline: 14-21 days for construction documents once your design is approved, longer than the other services here because there are more decisions along the way and the pace depends on how quickly you review and respond.
Thinking about building new instead of adding on? Twenty minutes on the phone, no charge, and you'll know roughly what it takes to get started. Book a free call — 480-688-3638.
What you get
- Site plan with setbacks, easements and utility routing
- Full floor plan, elevations and building sections for the whole house
- Electrical and mechanical layouts
- Energy code compliance documentation
- Structural coordination with a licensed engineer
- Submittal to your city and correction responses through approval
What it doesn't include
- Construction — I draw it, your contractor builds it
- Soils reports or survey work, if your lot needs them
- Utility upgrades or impact fees charged by the city
- Interior finish selection
Home Additions
A bedroom, a second bath, a bigger kitchen, a whole second story. The design problem is rarely the new space — it's the seam. Where the addition meets the existing house is where the roof lines have to work, the foundation has to be tied in, the loads have to go somewhere, and the finished thing has to look like it was always there rather than bolted on.
Twenty-one years of watching additions get built is what tells me which of those seams a drawing needs to solve before anyone starts framing. Typical timeline: about 10 business days for construction documents once your design is approved, with consultant reviews running concurrently.
Not sure if this is your project? Twenty minutes on the phone, no charge, and you'll know whether it's permittable and roughly what it takes. Book a free call — 480-688-3638.
What you get
- Existing and proposed floor plans
- Roof plan showing how the addition ties in
- Elevations and sections
- Foundation and framing plans, engineer-coordinated
- Site plan with setbacks and lot coverage
- Full submittal and plan review handling
What it doesn't include
- Structural engineering seal — coordinated, billed separately
- Demolition or construction
- HOA architectural review submissions, unless we agree to it up front
Remodels
Paint and cabinets don't need a permit. Moving a wall, relocating plumbing, changing a window opening, altering the electrical service — those do, and the line between them catches people out constantly. The expensive version of this mistake is finding out mid-project, after the drywall is off, with an inspector standing in your kitchen.
I'll tell you on the first call which side of that line your project falls on. If it needs a permit, here's what that takes.
Book a free call — 480-688-3638
What you get
- Existing conditions and demolition plan
- Proposed floor plan
- Structural framing where walls come out, engineer-coordinated
- Electrical and plumbing layouts as required
- Energy compliance where the envelope changes
- Submittal and correction responses
What it doesn't include
- Finish, fixture and appliance selection
- Contractor bidding or project management
- Asbestos or lead assessment on older homes
Garage Conversions
The cheapest square footage you already own. It's also the conversion most often done without a permit, which is why so many Phoenix homes have a bedroom that legally doesn't exist — and why it surfaces at the worst possible moment, when the house is being appraised or sold.
Done properly, a conversion has to satisfy egress, ceiling height, insulation and energy code, separation from whatever garage remains, and how your city treats the parking you just gave up. Every one of those is solvable. They just have to be on the drawings.
Book a free call — 480-688-3638
What you get
- Existing and proposed plans
- Egress window and door details
- Insulation and energy compliance for the new conditioned space
- Electrical and mechanical modifications
- Exterior elevations showing the closed opening
- Parking and zoning compliance for your specific city
What it doesn't include
- Construction or demolition
- Retroactive permitting of work already done — that starts as an as-built
- HVAC equipment sizing by a mechanical contractor
Pools & Spas
Pool permits get rejected over the same handful of things: setbacks from the property line, encroachment into a utility easement, equipment placed where it isn't allowed, and barrier code. Arizona's pool barrier requirements are strict and they are not optional — they exist because of drownings, and reviewers treat them accordingly.
The drawing set that clears review is the one that shows every one of those conditions resolved before a reviewer has to ask. Typical timeline: about 7 days from signed agreement to a permit-ready set — drawings are usually done in a day, and pool engineering sets the pace at 3-4 days.
Book a free call — 480-688-3638
What you get
- Site plan with pool location, setbacks and easements
- Barrier, gate and self-latching hardware compliance
- Equipment location and screening
- Drainage and grading considerations
- Coordination with your pool contractor's structural drawings
- Submittal and review handling
What it doesn't include
- Pool shell engineering — that comes from the pool builder
- Excavation or construction
- Landscape design beyond what the permit requires
Patios & Ramadas
In Phoenix, shade is not a luxury item — it's the difference between a yard you use and a yard you look at. But a patio cover is a roof, and a roof has to handle wind uplift and carry its own weight into footings that go somewhere real. Monsoon season finds the ones that don't.
Most cities require a permit for anything attached to the house and for detached structures above a certain size. I'll tell you which side yours lands on. Typical timeline: about 7 days, and that includes producing the as-built of your existing home.
Book a free call — 480-688-3638
What you get
- Site plan with setbacks and lot coverage
- Framing plan, footing details and connection to the house
- Elevations and sections
- Lateral bracing and uplift detailing
- Engineer coordination for longer spans
- Submittal and review handling
What it doesn't include
- Construction
- Outdoor kitchen appliance or gas line design
- Structural engineering seal where required — coordinated, billed separately
HOA Review Submittals
Not every house needs this, but if yours sits in a community with an HOA, getting through architectural review is its own project — separate from the city permit process, with its own paperwork, its own board, and its own timeline you don't control.
The board wants full-color renderings of what you're building, material and finish data sheets proving it meets their standards, and usually more than one meeting before you get a yes — labor-intensive on paper even when the project itself is simple. Flat fee: $500, and that includes the as-built of your existing home. Typical timeline: about 7-10 days to assemble the submittal package — board review and meeting scheduling after that belong to your HOA, not to me.
Book a free call — 480-688-3638
What you get
- As-built of your existing home
- Full-color renderings of the proposed work
- Material and finish data sheets matching HOA standards
- The complete submittal package, assembled and ready to present
- Guidance on what your specific HOA typically asks for
- Submittal and review handling
What it doesn't include
- City permit submittal — priced separately, under whichever service the project itself falls under
- Attending board meetings in person, unless arranged separately
- Getting the HOA to a yes — that's the board's call, not mine
As-Built Documentation
Before anything above can be designed, somebody has to establish what is actually on your property. Not what the county file says. Not what the original builder's plans showed. What is standing there today, measured.
Houses drift from their drawings. Previous owners moved walls, enclosed patios, converted garages, added a room off the back — sometimes permitted, often not. A design built on the wrong existing conditions produces a permit set that fails review or, worse, a set that passes and then doesn't match the building when the inspector shows up.
This is also the honest first step if you're dealing with unpermitted work you inherited. You can't legalize what nobody has documented. Typical timeline: 2-4 hours in the field, then 3-4 days to issue, closer to 4 on larger or more complex homes.
Book a free call — 480-688-3638
What you get
- A boundary survey by a licensed surveyor
- Structural or condition assessment
- Legalizing unpermitted work — that's a separate submittal, and this is step one of it