Part 1 · Before you talk to anyone
When you need plans
Design costs money before you know whether the project is even affordable. This chapter is about the order in which you spend — and where you can still stop cheaply.
A common homeowner question at this point
Do I need drawings? Do I need a permit? And how much is all of this going to cost me before I even find out whether I can afford the project?
The order you spend in is the whole chapter
There is a version of this that goes badly, and it is common enough to be worth naming first.
A homeowner falls in love with an idea. They hire someone to draw it. Money goes out over weeks or months, drawings arrive, and the drawings are beautiful. Then they take those drawings to contractors for pricing — and discover the project as drawn costs dramatically more than they can spend. Now the design money is gone, and it bought a plan for a house they cannot build.
For a major project that will need plans, first make sure the concept is financially realistic using contractor ballparks — before spending heavily on design. Once plans exist, use the same plans to get comparable pricing. And do not rush into permits before the project is known to be feasible.
This inverts the usual order. The conversation with a builder is not the last step after the design is finished. A rough version of it belongs near the beginning, before significant design money has been spent.
The sequence, and where you can stop cheaply
Each step below costs more than the one before it. The value of doing them in order is that the cheap steps are where you find out the expensive ones are not worth taking.
- 1Concept — costs nothingYour Chapter 2 brief. What you want, why, and what matters most. Nothing has been spent and everything is still possible.
- 2Ballpark conversations — little or nothing spent yetYou show the brief to two or three contractors and ask, in broad terms, whether what you are describing is in the same world as the budget you have. This is not a bid and nobody should treat it as one.
- ⏹Honest exit pointIf the concept and the budget are far apart, this is where you find out — before spending heavily on design. Go back to Chapter 3: reduce scope, save longer, or phase.
- 3Design and drawings — real moneyOnly now. Whoever you use, you are paying for a considered solution to the brief you wrote.
- ⏹Second honest exit pointSchematic drawings often exist before full construction documents. Pricing that early version is another chance to stop or adjust before the most expensive drawing work happens.
- 4Bidding from one set of plansEvery contractor prices the same drawings. Chapters 8 and 9 are about this, and it is where the plans repay their cost.
- 5PermitThe submission happens when the project is known to be affordable and real.
Ask AI Mickey about this chapter
Confused about plans, permits or who governs your address? Ask — it will explain the process and point you at the right authority, and it never estimates how long a permit takes. It knows the homeowner research and Lior’s experience behind this guide, and the complete 15-chapter guide — and it knows you are on Chapter 4. There is nothing to sign up for and no email required.
Do you actually need plans?
The honest answer is that it depends on your specific project. Your local building department is the authority on what your project requires. A qualified professional looking at your actual house can help you assess it before you ask.
What is useful to know in advance is the shape of the answer. Broadly, the more a project changes the structure, the footprint, or the systems of the house, the more likely it needs drawings and a permit. Replacing what already exists in the same place tends toward the simpler end; moving structure, adding space, or changing what a room is used for tends toward the more involved end.
You do not need to make this call yourself, and you should not try to. Chapter 7 covers what to ask a contractor at the first meeting, and this is one of the things a good one will tell you right away.
A useful thing to know about Los Angeles specifically
Not every permit involves a long drawn-out review. The City of Los Angeles publishes a Counter Plan Check process for simple projects that need a plan check but can be handled over the counter, available at its Metro (Downtown), Van Nuys, West LA, South LA and San Pedro offices. It also runs Express Permits, which are issued for simple projects that need no plan check at all and can be applied for online. Whether your project qualifies is a question for them, not for this page.
Source: Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, Counter Plan Check and Express Permits service pages, dbs.lacity.gov. Verified August 10, 2026.
Which authority governs your house?
This may be the most practically useful thing in the chapter, and it is easy to get caught by.
Homeowners tend to treat “Los Angeles” as one authority. It is not. There are 88 incorporated cities in Los Angeles County, each with its own planning department — and more than 65% of the County is unincorporated, where the County itself is the authority.
Los Angeles County Planning states plainly: “Unincorporated communities sometimes use a city name in the mailing address, but you can use our interactive GIS mapping tool, Jurisdiction Lookup Tool, to check if we are your planning department.”
In other words, your mailing address does not tell you who governs your property. A letter addressed to a city name does not mean that city’s building department has anything to do with your project.
Source: Los Angeles County Planning, Frequently Asked Questions, planning.lacounty.gov/faqs. Verified August 10, 2026. The Jurisdiction Lookup Tool is at planning.lacounty.gov.Before you ask anyone anything about permits, find out which authority actually governs your address. It is free, and it means every subsequent question you ask is aimed at the right department. It also protects you from advice given in good faith by someone thinking about a different jurisdiction entirely — which can happen in online discussions, where a question about one city gets answered with another city’s rules.
How long will the permit take?
You will not find a number here, and it is worth being cautious with generic permit timelines.
Permit timing genuinely varies — by jurisdiction, by project type, by whether plan review is needed and how deep it is, by how many rounds of corrections come back, by the department’s workload that week, and by whether your property sits in an area with additional review. The City of Los Angeles says so itself: its own plan-check guidance explains that timing varies week to week with the backlog at the time of submittal.
What is worth understanding are the drivers, because those are what you can actually ask about:
- Which authority you are in. Review timing can differ between neighboring jurisdictions on identical work.
- What kind of project it is. Simple over-the-counter work and a structural addition are not the same queue.
- Corrections. A plan that comes back with corrections goes through another review round. Corrections can add meaningful schedule variation, which is why they are worth asking about in advance.
- Workload. Current workload can change review timing.
- Special designations on your property. Hillside, coastal, historic preservation overlay, fire hazard severity zone, flood or methane zones and similar designations each bring their own additional clearances and reviews.
Who pulls the permit — and an important owner-builder issue
This is one of the few places in this guide where a wrong move can expose you personally, so it is worth being precise.
Someone may suggest that you pull the permit as an owner-builder, rather than the contractor pulling it in their own name. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons a homeowner acts as owner-builder. But there is also a well-known pattern that the authorities themselves warn about in writing.
Every owner-builder in the City of Los Angeles must read, initial and sign an acknowledgment that states: “I understand a frequent practice of unlicensed persons is to have the property owner obtain an ‘Owner-Builder’ building permit that erroneously implies that the property owner is providing his or her own labor and material personally. I, as an Owner-Builder, may be held liable and subject to serious financial risk for any injuries sustained by an unlicensed person and his or her employees while working on my property. My homeowner’s insurance may not provide coverage for those injuries.”
The same form states the remedy: “I understand that I may protect myself from potential financial risk by hiring a licensed Contractor and having the permit filed in his or her name instead of my own.”
Source: Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, “Owner’s Acknowledgment and Verification of Information” (Notice to Property Owner for Owner-Builder Permits), dbs.lacity.gov. Verified August 10, 2026.The Contractors State License Board warns owner-builders: “When you sign a building permit application as an owner-builder, you assume full responsibility for all phases of your project and its integrity.” And on who you then use: “If you use anyone other than a licensed subcontractor for work, you may be considered an ‘employer.’”
Chapter 6 sets out separately, from CSLB’s own words, when a license is required at all — and a building permit is one of the triggers.
Source: Contractors State License Board, “The Responsibilities of an Owner-Builder,” cslb.ca.gov/consumers/know_risks_of_owner_-_builder. Verified August 10, 2026.The practical takeaway is short: if a contractor asks you to pull the permit in your name for work they are going to do, treat that as a question you need a straight answer to — not as paperwork. Ask why. The answer matters.
One set of plans, given to everyone
When drawings do exist, they can help make bids more comparable.
Three contractors pricing three different interpretations of a conversation produce three numbers that cannot be compared. Three contractors pricing the same drawings produce three numbers where the differences mean something. That is the whole basis of Chapter 9, and it starts here.
Each contractor decides for themselves what you probably meant, prices that, and the gaps between them are mostly differences in assumption.
Everyone prices the same defined work. The gaps that remain are real differences in method, quality, inclusions and overhead — which are the differences worth examining.
Your free plans and feasibility decision aid
Work through this before you commission any design. It ends with the ballpark conversation script, which is the cheapest useful step available to you.
Do I Need Plans, And What Do I Risk Spending First?
Free, complete and yours. Nothing is saved and nothing is sent anywhere — if you type into it, print or copy it before you close the tab.
1. Which authority governs my address
Look it up before anything else. In LA County, start with the County’s Jurisdiction Lookup Tool to find out whether you are unincorporated.
2. What my project changes
Structure, footprint, systems, use of a room — or none of those. Plain description, no guessing at technical answers.
3. What the building department told me it needs
Their answer, in their words, with the date you asked and who you spoke to.
4. Any special designation on my property
Hillside, coastal, historic overlay, fire hazard zone, flood or methane zone. Ask; do not assume there is none.
5. My ballpark conversation script
“Here is my brief. Before I spend money on design, is what I am describing in the same world as the budget I have set aside? If not, what would you change first?”
6. What I heard back, from each person
Not prices — reactions. Who said it was realistic, who said it was not, and what each of them would change.
7. My decision, and my exit point
Proceed to design, adjust the concept, or stop for now. Write down in advance what would make you stop.
Still not sure about something? Ask AI Mickey — it knows this guide and where you are in it.
The whole guide, on one page
Part 1 — Before you talk to anyone
- 1Where do I start?The first move is not choosing a professional. It is getting clear on what you want.
- 2Turn your wish list into a clear project briefA clear brief everyone receives, so each professional starts from the same requirements.
- 3Budget and quality levelWhy early budget expectations can miss, and how to build a more useful budget.
- 4When you need plansYou are hereWhat to do first, when plans come in, and how to avoid spending heavily too early.
Part 2 — Finding the right contractors
- 5Finding contractors with no referralWhere to look when you do not have a referral, and how to write an inquiry that gets answered.
- 6Researching and narrowing the listHow to check someone properly, and what a license does and does not prove.
- 7The first call and the first meetingWhat to ask, what to watch, and how to get useful answers.
Part 3 — Proposals, comparing, signing
- 8Getting three comparable proposalsSend the same scope to each contractor and compare what is included, excluded and allowed for.
- 9Comparing bids apples to applesHow to compare the scope, allowances, exclusions and assumptions behind different totals.
- 10Before you signThe second check, the contract, and the payment rules California law requires.
Part 4 — Building and finishing
- 11Preparing for constructionLead times, dust, living arrangements and the decisions to make before work starts.
- 12Communication during constructionLior’s communication method for keeping the project clear and documented.
- 13Change orders and the unforeseenHow to distinguish a hidden condition from scope that was missing from the original bid.
- 14When it starts going wrongHow to document a problem, lower the temperature and know when to get professional advice.
- 15Finishing, and the file you keepHow to close out the job, handle the punch list and keep the records you may need later.
Before you go on
That is the end of Part 1. You now have a description of what you want, a brief that other people can act on, a budget built from quality and scope rather than a borrowed figure, and a sequence that keeps design spending behind the point where you know the project is real.
Everything so far has been about you. Part 2 is about them — finding the people who might build it, and working out who is worth your time.