← All Service Areas
Golden Ridge Construction is a licensed general contractor (License #1149928) serving Santa Clara County, California, in Santa Clara County. We handle kitchen and bathroom remodels, ADUs, home additions, and whole-home remodels across Santa Clara County.
These are planning ranges for typical 2026 projects, not quotes. Every project is priced after a site visit.
Construction and remodeling in Santa Clara County is really nine local markets plus the unincorporated county, and the rules change at every city line. San José alone spans 1920s bungalows near downtown to 1990s tract housing on the edges, while Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto carry large numbers of post-war ranch homes and Eichlers, and Los Altos and Cupertino sit on larger lots with more room to add.
What most of it has in common is age. The bulk of the county's housing went up between the late 1940s and the 1970s, which means conventional framing, original single-pane windows, walls that were never insulated, and electrical panels sized for a different era.
That is good news for a contractor and for you. These are predictable houses to work on, and the highest-value projects tend to be the same ones across the whole county.
There is no single Santa Clara County building permit process. Each city runs its own building department, and neighboring cities genuinely disagree about what needs a permit. The table below is the short version of what we run into most often — it is the difference between a project that starts next week and one that waits on plan check.
The pattern worth remembering: cosmetic finish work is usually exempt anywhere in the county, and the disagreements start at cabinets and plumbing fixtures. One call to your city's building department before the design is final settles it, and it is the cheapest hour in the project.
Permit fees and review times change. Check current requirements on the County of Santa Clara Department of Planning and Development building permits page before planning around a date.
Opening the kitchen to the living space is the change that most transforms a post-war plan, and it is structural work, because that wall is usually load-bearing. Adding a second bathroom where one serves three bedrooms changes daily life more than square footage does.
Eichlers are their own discipline. Post-and-beam framing, radiant slabs and flat roofs mean that work which is routine elsewhere needs a different approach here, particularly anything touching the roof or the slab.
Santa Clara County still contains dozens of unincorporated pockets — Burbank, Alum Rock, Cambrian Park and San Martin among them, along with roughly 87 remaining urban islands surrounded by San José. A San José mailing address does not always mean San José issues your permit.
For those properties the permit goes through the County of Santa Clara Department of Planning and Development rather than a city building department, with its own zoning ordinance, fees and inspections. It is the first thing to confirm, because it changes who reviews the plans and how long it takes.
There is a real advantage to being in the unincorporated county: the County publishes free pre-approved ADU plans for unincorporated residents — an 800 square foot two-bedroom and a 1,200 square foot three-bedroom, each in traditional or contemporary style. Build one unmodified and plan review drops to a minimum fee, because code compliance has already been approved.
A lot of Santa Clara County homes have a converted garage or back unit that was never permitted, and owners assume legalizing it means demolition or heavy fines. Since January 2025 that has changed.
California's AB 2533 created an amnesty path for ADUs and junior ADUs built without permits before January 1, 2020. A city or county cannot deny the permit purely because the unit does not meet current building code, unless the issue is an actual health or safety hazard, and no impact fees or utility connection charges apply unless upgrades are needed for safety.
It matters most when you sell, because unpermitted square footage does not appraise and makes lenders and insurers nervous. Our [garage conversion guide](/projects/garage-conversion-bay-area-options) covers what the work involves.
Lots across most of the valley floor are regular and often deep enough for a compact detached unit with usable yard left over. State law sets the floor everywhere in the county: ministerial review within 60 days for designs meeting objective standards, and no owner-occupancy requirement since 2024.
Cities still differ on the details around that floor — fee thresholds, pre-approved plan programs and how quickly they issue. Garage conversions remain the cheaper route where losing covered parking is acceptable, because the slab, walls and roof already exist.
Call (408) 418-8376 or visit our contact page for a free, no-obligation estimate, explore our services, and see all service areas we cover.