Get a planning range for the drafting fee on a permit-ready set, based on project type, the area being drawn, and how much usable documentation already exists. Every line item is broken out so you can see what moves the number.
Nothing here is a quote, a bid, an engineering determination or a boundary determination. We are a drafting and design firm: we coordinate with a licensed structural engineer and a Licensed Land Surveyor when your project needs one, rather than performing or stamping that work ourselves.
A permit drawing set is one coordinated package: cover sheet, site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections, details, schedules and code notes, drawn to the standard your building department expects to review. The fee tracks how many of those sheets have to be produced from nothing, and how much investigation happens before the first line is drawn.
A flat rate per square foot looks tidy and hides most of the real work. A 400 sq ft detached ADU and a 400 sq ft bedroom addition are not the same job, because the ADU carries its own kitchen, bath, egress path, fire separation and utility connections. That is why the bands above are set per project type instead of one blanket number. Very small scopes hit a floor, because a 120 sq ft bathroom still needs a cover sheet, a site plan, elevations and CALGreen notes.
Documentation is the biggest single swing. Where permitted plans exist and still match the building, drafting starts on day one. Where they do not, somebody has to measure the building and produce as-built drawings first. On this site that is usually a Matterport scan plus field verification, and it is billed as its own visible line rather than being folded quietly into the square-foot rate.
The fee covers drawings and compliance documents. It does not cover city permit fees, school district fees, land surveys, soils reports, or any construction cost. It also does not cover structural engineering itself. Where a project needs beam sizing, a shear wall schedule, a foundation design or a wet stamp, we coordinate with an independently licensed structural engineer who performs and stamps that work. The engineer sets their own fee, which is why the estimator shows it as a separate pass-through line instead of burying it in the drafting rate. Where a project needs a boundary or elevation determination, that is a Licensed Land Surveyor's work and we coordinate one in the same way.
Revisions catch people out. Nearly every Bay Area jurisdiction returns at least one round of plan check comments, and responding to them is a normal part of the process rather than a sign something went wrong. One round of corrections is standard in our scope. Projects that change direction mid-drafting, or that pick up a planning review on top of the building review, generally need more. No drafting firm can promise a particular plan check outcome or that a city will accept a submittal, and we do not.
To see what the finished package contains sheet by sheet, the permit sets and expediting page walks through it. For the design side, including layout studies before anything is finalized, see architectural drafting and design.
Most residential drafting is agreed as a flat fee, but that flat fee is assembled from a per-square-foot band adjusted for project type, existing documentation and scope. The estimator shows the underlying band so the assembly is visible rather than hidden. Very small projects hit a minimum, because the sheet count stops shrinking 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 actually there, draw it accurately, and reconcile it against current code. Framing 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 layered on top of drafting, and the range widens accordingly.
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 carries the engineer fee as its own line so it can be budgeted, but we do not perform, stamp or certify engineering ourselves.
Often, 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 carrying planning or design review on top of building review, or projects whose scope changes after drafting starts, usually need more. Nobody can promise a specific plan check result.
Residential or commercial, drafting or Title 24 — send a few details and we'll follow up with next steps and a free quote.
(408) 676-8747
Sunny Drafting