A room addition, a second story, an ADU for a parent or an adult child, a shop out back, or a home built from the ground up. Different animal from a remodel — new footings, new framing, new utilities. Serving Utah County's fastest-growing corridor.
None of that shows once the drywall goes up. All of it is the difference between an addition that reads as original and one that reads as an afterthought in five years.
Five kinds of work that share a foundation, a permit, and a structural connection to what's already there.
An addition needs its own footing, its own structural tie-in to the existing house, and utilities extended to reach it. None of that is visible once it's finished, and all of it determines whether the addition ages like it belongs there.
Learn more →The existing foundation and first-floor framing have to be reviewed before anyone commits to building up. Sometimes they were built to carry a second story eventually; sometimes they need reinforcement first.
Learn more →ADUs have become a real category in Utah as families look for ways to house adult children or aging parents without buying a second property. What your city actually allows depends on your municipality — that's the honest answer, not a guess.
Learn more →A detached structure is still new construction — its own foundation, its own permit, its own inspection — even though it's smaller and simpler than an addition to the house.
Learn more →Building new is the largest version of the same questions an addition raises — foundation, structure, utilities — plus the choice of how design and construction are sequenced against each other.
Learn more →Three steps, and the first one is just describing what you're trying to add.
Room addition, second story, ADU, garage or a new home — tell us the rough size and what it needs to connect to.
Not every builder wants a small addition, and not every builder knows your city's permitting process. You get matched with one who does both.
Design-then-bid versus design-build, realistic lead times, and what your city's process actually requires before a shovel goes in the ground.
Lehi, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Vineyard, Bluffdale and Herriman have absorbed a large share of the Wasatch Front's growth over the past decade, and it shows in two ways at once. New subdivisions keep filling in what used to be farmland, and the houses built ten and fifteen years ago in the same corridor are now hitting the point where families want more space than they bought — a second child, a parent moving in, a home office that used to be a spare bedroom.
That second pattern is why additions and ADUs have become a real category here rather than a rare request. It is generally cheaper to add onto a house you already own and like than to sell it and buy bigger in a market that has only gotten more expensive. The tradeoff is that adding footprint means engineering, permitting and inspection in a jurisdiction that is also busy processing permits for every new subdivision around you — which is exactly why lead times and sequencing deserve an honest conversation before you start.
The distinction is not marketing language — it is permits, foundation, structural connection and utilities. Remodeling changes what's inside walls that already exist. An addition creates new exterior walls, a new roofline, new footings below frost depth, and a structural tie-in to the existing house that has to be engineered so the two structures move together rather than against each other. It is closer to a small standalone building project than a big remodel, and it gets reviewed and inspected accordingly.
ADUs are the clearest example of how much this depends on where you live. Utah cities have been actively updating their rules as demand for them has grown, and what one city allows on setbacks, size, parking and occupancy can differ meaningfully from the city next door. We are not going to tell you a number that sounds official and turns out to be wrong for your address — the honest answer is that it depends on your municipality, and the builder you get matched with should be able to tell you what your city's planning department actually requires before you spend money on a design.
Salt Lake, Utah, Davis and Weber counties.
Build 801 handles projects that add footprint or build a new structure — room additions, second stories, ADUs, detached garages and custom homes. Interior remodeling of existing space, basement finishing, kitchens and bathrooms are handled by our sister sites, which specialize in that kind of work. If your project turns out to be a remodel rather than an addition, you'll be pointed to the right one.
Rules for accessory dwelling units are set city by city in Utah and vary on size, setbacks, parking and occupancy, and they've been changing as demand has grown. Rather than guess, the builder you're matched with will pull your city's current requirements before design starts. Your city's planning department is always the definitive source.
It depends on what you value more. Design-then-bid gives you a finished design and competing bids on it, but the final cost is a surprise until bidding happens. Design-build gives you cost visibility as the design develops, but commits you to one builder earlier. Both are explained plainly before you have to choose, rather than pushed as the obviously right answer.
Longer than most people expect going in, mostly because of permitting and inspection timelines that a builder doesn't fully control, especially in a fast-growing corridor where the city is processing a high volume of permits. Material lead times on certain components add to that. You'll get a realistic read on sequencing rather than an optimistic one.
Yes — a foundation is part of the construction on any addition or new home, and it gets engineered and inspected as part of that project. What we don't sell is standalone flatwork like driveways or patios as their own service; that's handled by our concrete-focused sister site.
Describe the project and we'll match you with a builder who works your city's process and your project's scale.
Get Matched With a BuilderA rough description is plenty — we'll follow up to understand the site and scope before matching you.
