Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
Fast, Reliable General Contractor Across San Diego
You’re looking for a General Contractor in San Diego because something needs to be built, fixed, or finished – and you want a straight number before any work starts. Bradford Remodeling gives you a written price for every project, a full-year written guarantee on completed work, and a real person on the phone whenever you call (903) 568-7222. We schedule from our San Diego office and our crews work across the metro every week. No repricing at the door. No no-show crews. Call and get the scope written down.
Why Bradford Remodeling Is San Diego’s Preferred General Contractor Company
San Diego homeowners choose Bradford Remodeling because we run on The Garrison Standard: every price, every guarantee, and every scope is committed to paper before a single tool comes out. Our General Contractor team includes background-checked, uniformed technicians, so you know who’s walking through your door before they arrive. We’ve been part of the Garrison Partners family since 2004, and every job is held to the same written agreement discipline, whether you’re in Clairemont or Mission Hills. Homeowners from National City to La Jolla deal with the same thing here: contractors who start low and reprice after demo. We put the number in writing at the start and it holds.
Our San Diego reputation rests on finishing. When a project closes with us, you get a clean job site, a documented scope that matches what we built, and a signed written guarantee in your hand. That guarantee is the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the work fails within a full year, Bradford comes back and corrects it at no charge. No fine-print carve-outs, no fought warranty claims. Curtis Lane, who leads our crews, checks every punch list himself. If a cabinet door is out of alignment or a grout line is hazy, it gets fixed before we call the job closed.
Styles & brands we work with
Construction Company in San Diego
As a construction company working across San Diego, Bradford Remodeling handles room additions, garage conversions, and structural work that requires permits and inspections. The San Diego permit path for an addition or ADU runs through the City of San Diego Development Services Department, and the process is not fast. A typical home addition in San Diego runs $53,100 to $153,400, while an ADU runs $106,200 to $259,600. Those ranges include framing, MEP rough-in, drywall, finishes, and the inspection schedule. We pull the permits and we walk the inspections. You get a fixed written price before footing excavation starts.
Room Additions and Structural Work
A San Diego room addition starts with a soils review, not a hammer. In canyon neighborhoods like Mission Valley or the coastal bluffs of La Jolla, drainage and slope stability drive footing depth. Skip that review and the inspector catches it later, or the soil moves and the slab cracks. We order the geotech review before we bid the footings, because a two-foot footing and a five-foot caisson are different projects with different prices.
ADU and Garage Conversion Scopes
San Diego’s ADU ordinance allows detached units on many single-family lots, but the utility connections – sewer, power, water – are where bids fall apart. A garage conversion in San Diego typically starts around $35,400 and runs to $94,400, and that range assumes the slab is viable and the existing structure can carry the new roof load. We verify slab thickness and electrical service capacity during estimating, so the written price covers the real job, not a hopeful guess.
Remodeling Contractor in San Diego
A remodeling contractor in San Diego handles kitchens, baths, and whole-home reconfigurations. A kitchen remodel in San Diego runs $16,520 to $53,100 depending on cabinet grade, counter surface, layout changes, and whether we’re moving plumbing or electrical. A bathroom remodel runs $10,620 to $33,040. When we start a remodel, we open walls and find what’s actually there: old cast-iron drains, knob-and-tube wiring, or framing that never should have passed. The difference between a good bid and a bad one is whether that discovery is already priced.
Kitchen Remodel Scope and Cost Drivers
Cabinet grade drives kitchen cost faster than anything else in San Diego. KraftMaid and Wellborn lines span a wide price band, and Cambria or Caesarstone counters add real cost over granite tile. A mid-range San Diego kitchen with painted shaker cabinets, quartz counters, and a tile backsplash typically lands between $22,000 and $35,000. Layout changes that move the sink or range add plumbing and electrical rough-in, and those are line items on our written estimate, not surprises later.
Bathroom Remodel Scope and Cost Drivers
A tub-to-shower conversion in San Diego homes often reveals more than tile. In Allied Gardens and other postwar tracts, we routinely find rusted galvanized drain lines and rot at the subfloor where old showers leaked for years. We handled a hall bathroom and partial kitchen remodel in Allied Gardens where the tub-to-shower conversion required replacing a rusted galvanized drain line and sistering two load-bearing joists before we could set the pan. After rough-in, the City of San Diego inspector signed off on the framing and plumbing, and we closed the walls with a curbless shower and KraftMaid vanity the homeowner picked from our allowance sheet. Final punch list: two items, fixed the same day.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Diego
We install and work with a documented roster of premium brands so specifications are traceable: KraftMaid and Wellborn cabinetry, Cambria, Caesarstone and Silestone surfaces, Kohler and Moen fixtures, GAF roofing, James Hardie siding, Therma-Tru doors, and Belgard hardscaping. For San Diego homeowners looking at manufactured housing options, we’re also familiar with Abodu and Dvele ADU systems and can coordinate site work around those builds. Because we stock common local parts at our San Diego yard, a missing trim piece or a hardware swap doesn’t stall a job for a week. If it’s on the spec sheet, it’s ordered before demo day.
See the difference
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AfterCommon General Contractor Problems We See in San Diego Homes
- Coastal corrosion and dry rot. Within a few miles of the ocean, interior-grade fasteners and untreated lumber fail fast. Salt-laden fog gets into wall cavities and eats uncoated steel. We spec hot-dipped galvanized or stainless fasteners and pressure-treated sill plates on any coastal job, because a $200 fastener upgrade beats a $9,000 rot repair in year four.
- Soil surprises in canyons and bluffs. Mission Hills, Bankers Hill, and coastal La Jolla sit on expansive clay or fill. A room addition bid that assumes a standard footing can turn into a change order for deeper piers or a retaining wall. We run the geotech review before we write the price.
- Allowance-sheet bait pricing. A low bid that lists builder-grade fixtures and laminate counters is a future change order. The moment you pick Cambria counters or Kohler fixtures, the price jumps. We write allowances against real brands you actually want, so the bid reflects the finished job.
- Unpermitted work from previous owners. San Diego has thousands of homes with unpermitted sunrooms, converted garages, and added bathrooms. When we open those walls, we have to bring the framing, electrical, and plumbing up to current code before we can build on top of it. That’s not a Bradford fee; that’s the City of San Diego. We flag it during estimating, so it’s in the number from day one.
Pricing for General Contractor in San Diego, CA
Here are the real ranges we write for projects across San Diego. These are not national averages pulled from a website. They’re the numbers we put on written estimates for work in this metro:
| Project | San Diego Price Range |
|---|---|
| Kitchen Remodel | $16,520 – $53,100 |
| Bathroom Remodel | $10,620 – $33,040 |
| Home Addition | $53,100 – $153,400 |
| ADU Construction | $106,200 – $259,600 |
What moves a San Diego project inside these ranges? Mostly three things. First, condition: a 1960s tract home in Clairemont that still has galvanized drain lines and a 100-amp panel costs more to remodel than a 2000s build in Otay Ranch. Second, finish level: builder-grade boxes versus KraftMaid or Wellborn cabinets and Cambria or Caesarstone tops. Third, access: a detached garage conversion on a canyon lot with no staging space runs higher than the same square footage on a flat cul-de-sac in Scripps Ranch. Call (903) 568-7222 for a free written estimate. We’ll walk the project, show you the line items, and give you a number that doesn’t move.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Diego
Beyond our San Diego base, our crews work in Coronado, National City, Chula Vista, and Lemon Grove. Coastal projects in Coronado get the same marine-grade fastener spec we use in Point Loma, and Chula Vista jobs carry the same written-price commitment as every remodel in the city. Call (903) 568-7222 and we’ll schedule a walk-through wherever you are in the metro.
Serving San Diego, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Diego area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About General Contractor in San Diego
Yes, if you’re moving plumbing, changing the drain location, adding circuits, or altering framing, the City of San Diego requires a permit and inspections. A surface swap – same footprint, new vanity, new tile, no plumbing moves – usually doesn’t require one. We pull permits when the scope requires them and we walk the inspections with the City of San Diego inspector on site. The cost of the permit is a line item on our written estimate, not a surprise. Call (903) 568-7222 and we’ll tell you if your specific scope triggers a permit.
We write the change order before the material is ordered, and you sign it before we spend a dollar of your money. The change order shows the new line item, the cost delta from the original allowance, and the impact on schedule. If you’re moving from a standard vanity to a KraftMaid or Wellborn cabinet line, or from granite tile to Cambria or Caesarstone slab, you’ll see the exact number on paper first. No verbal approvals, no surprise invoices. Call (903) 568-7222 and we’ll walk you through our change order process.
Rough-in is the stage after demolition and before drywall: the framing is complete, the plumbing supply and drain lines are in but not yet connected to fixtures, the electrical wiring and boxes are run but no switches or outlets are installed, and the HVAC ducting is set if the scope includes it. For a San Diego kitchen or bath, the City of San Diego inspector typically visits twice at this stage – once for framing and once for plumbing and electrical. We take photos of everything before the walls close, so you have a record of what’s behind the tile.
A standard San Diego kitchen remodel – same layout, cabinet replacement, counter upgrade, backsplash – runs 6 to 8 weeks from the start of demo to final punch list, plus 2 to 4 weeks for the permit review if the scope requires one. Layout changes that move plumbing or electrical add a week or two. Custom cabinet lead times can add 4 to 8 weeks depending on the manufacturer. We’ll give you a printed schedule with your written estimate, and we’ll tell you upfront if a material lead time will move the date. Call (903) 568-7222 for a scope-specific timeline.
A draw schedule is a written agreement that ties payments to completed milestones, not to promises. A typical San Diego remodel draw schedule runs: deposit at contract signing, a draw at rough-in inspection, a draw at drywall or cabinet install, and the final draw at punch list completion. Bradford Remodeling writes the draw schedule into your contract before work starts, and every draw corresponds to work you can see and inspect. You never pay ahead of work that hasn’t been done. Call (903) 568-7222 and we’ll explain the draw schedule for your specific project.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner at Bradford Remodeling, serving San Diego with written prices and a one-year guarantee on every job.
