Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
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AfterFast, Reliable Home Additions & ADU Across Highland Village
A full room addition or ADU in Highland Village typically runs $45,000-$130,000 depending on foundation work, finishes, and what code upgrades the walls reveal once they’re open. Our crews work in Highland Village every week, and we know what the permitting process actually demands here, especially near the lake. If you’re planning a second story, a sunroom, or a detached ADU, call (877) 610-1318 for a written estimate. Our Home Additions & ADU team handles the whole job from survey to final inspection.
What makes work different in Home Additions & ADU in Highland Village is what inspectors find once a 1980s brick veneer comes off. Original aluminum wiring. Notched load-bearing headers. Slab cracks from North Texas black clay that’s been heaving for 35 years. We plan for that on day one, not when you’re already paying for a tarp over an open wall. That’s the difference between a quote that holds and one that keeps climbing.
Why Barrett & Sons Construction Is Highland Village’s Preferred Home Additions & ADU Company
Tom Barrett started this company in 1998, and he still runs it with his sons on-site most days. That matters when a project sits on Lake Lewisville’s edge, inside a federal easement most contractors don’t think to check until the stop-work order arrives. We know to check before ground breaks.
Highland Village homeowners keep hiring us because the price on the contract is the price on the final invoice. Every allowance is written down. Every change order is signed before work proceeds. If it’s not done right, Tom comes back and makes it right. That’s the 90-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s printed on every contract, not whispered as a sales line.
Calls to (877) 610-1318 are answered by a live person, day or night. Not a call center in another state. Not a voicemail box that fills up on weekends. When your framing inspection gets booked for 8 a.m. and you have questions at 7, you’ll reach someone who can actually help.
Our Home Additions & ADU Services in Highland Village
ADU Design & Permitting
ADU Construction in Highland Village runs $90,000-$220,000, with design and permitting as the first spend and the biggest risk. The Corps of Engineers boundary issue alone can add weeks if it’s not caught early. We run a pre-construction survey on every lakeside lot before we draw plans, so your permit application goes to Denton County clean and complete the first time. Then we handle the engineering, the submittals, and the resubmittals. You shouldn’t have to learn FEMA terminology to build a guesthouse.
Garage Conversion ADU
A garage conversion in Highland Village ranges $30,000-$80,000, less if the slab and framing are sound, more if you’re adding a bathroom and bringing 1980s electrical up to current code. Many Highland Village HOAs require the exterior to keep looking like a garage from the street, so we design conversions that comply with architectural guidelines while functioning as a real living space inside. Window brands like Simonton and Ply Gem give us product options that pass HOA review without a fight.
New Detached ADU
A new detached ADU in Highland Village is a ground-up build, meaning foundation work on that sticky black clay, new utility lines, and its own meter. We price soil testing into the plan because a footing poured without a geotech report on Vertisol is a crack waiting for its first dry summer. We pour thickened-edge slabs with proper reinforcement and moisture controls, and we schedule pours around the heat, not against it.
Junior ADU & Interior Conversion
A junior ADU fits inside the existing footprint, often a finished basement, a bonus room over the garage, or a large primary suite conversion. It’s the most cost-effective way to add a legal rental unit or a private space for aging parents without touching the foundation. Since much of Highland Village’s housing stock was built between 1985 and 2005, the interior conversion usually triggers an electrical upgrade, which we scope and price up front.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Highland Village
We stock and install brands you can look up before you sign, including Simonton and Ply Gem windows plus PGT impact products for lake-facing exposures. For sunrooms and enclosed patios along Lake Lewisville, the right glass matters because summer storms move fast across the water. We don’t put mystery-brand materials into Highland Village homes just to shave a few hundred dollars off a bid. You’ll see the brand name in writing, on the contract, before you approve a penny of it.
Common Home Additions & ADU Problems We See in Highland Village Homes
- Corps of Engineers boundary surprises. Lots along Lake Lewisville can fall partly inside the federal flowage easement. If the footing is inside that boundary, Denton County won’t sign the permit until the Section 404 clearance comes through. We run the survey first so you never get a stop-work order on a half-poured foundation.
- Black clay movement at the tie-in. Highland Village sits on Vertisol soils that expand in wet winters and shrink hard in drought summers. An addition slab poured without proper soil prep will move independently from the original slab, cracking drywall and pulling framing apart at the connection point.
- Concealed electrical and plumbing dead ends. Highland Village’s 1980s-era homes were built to codes that lag today’s requirements. Open a wall for a sunroom and you may find aluminum wiring, undersized circuits, or copper that’s been spliced too many times. The permit triggers a code upgrade, and that upgrade is a line item, not a buried allowance.
- HOA-driven design restrictions. Most Highland Village subdivisions have active HOAs with real architectural committees. Building plans that ignore their guidelines get rejected, and revisions cost weeks. We draft to the HOA’s standards from the first submittal, not the third.
Pricing for Home Additions & ADU in Highland Village, TX
Here’s what we see in this market:
| Project | Typical Range in Highland Village |
|---|---|
| Home Addition | $45,000-$130,000 |
| Garage Conversion | $30,000-$80,000 |
| ADU Construction | $90,000-$220,000 |
The big variables are foundation work on black clay, the level of electrical and plumbing upgrades the building code requires once walls are open, and Corps permitting timelines if your lot touches the lake boundary. We give you a fixed scope with written allowances for the things we can’t see until demolition. If a surprise shows up, you get a change order with a price before we proceed. No open-ended cost-plus contracts. No vague allowances that turn into five-figure surprises. Call (877) 610-1318 for a free estimate with real numbers.
We Also Serve Cities Near Highland Village
Our crews serve Highland Village and the surrounding communities, including Flower Mound, Lewisville, Lake Dallas, and Corinth. Whether you’re off Highland Shores Boulevard or deeper into the 75077 zip code, the same owner-operated crew shows up with the same written-scope promise.
Serving Highland Village, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Highland Village 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 - Home Additions & ADU in Highland Village
Yes, it can. The Corps boundary doesn’t follow the shoreline; it follows the 522-foot flood pool elevation, which extends past the water’s edge onto many private lots on the south shore. If your addition footprint is inside that boundary, you need COE setback compliance and possibly a Section 404 clearance before Denton County will issue a permit. We run the survey early so you know before you pay for plans you can’t permit. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll check your lot.
In most cases, yes. Homes built in the 1980s often have aluminum branch wiring, which is legal but carries expansion and connection risks. When the wall is open and the work area is exposed, the electrical inspector can require arc-fault protection, grounded circuits, or full replacement of the exposed runs. Budget $2,000-$8,000 depending on the size of the addition and what’s actually in the wall. We write that as a line item, not a mystery allowance. For an exact figure on your home, call (877) 610-1318.
We order a geotech report before we dig. On Vertisol soil, we typically use drilled piers or a thickened slab engineered for the expansion index of your specific lot. Then we keep the trench dry and the pour timed to avoid 100-degree afternoons that cure concrete too fast. A slab poured right on unamended Highland Village clay will crack at the tie-in; we’d rather spend the money on soil work than on a structural repair two years later.
A realistic all-in range is $45,000-$130,000. The low end assumes good slab, clean electrical, and a simple gable roof. The high end includes structural modifications, Corps permitting near the lake, full electrical panel replacement, and premium finishes. The upgrades you can’t see are the ones that blow up a vague quote. We identify them in the inspection phase and price them in writing before you sign. Call (877) 610-1318 for a fixed-scope estimate.
Often yes, but the HOA will have rules about exterior appearance, parking, and utility connections. Some Highland Village HOAs require the garage door to remain functional or the facade to match the original elevation. We read the HOA’s architectural guidelines before we draw plans and design the conversion to pass the first review. That saves you weeks of resubmittals and frustration.
How We Open Up an Older Highland Village Home Without Blowing the Budget
In Highland Village, the difference between a quote that holds and one that collapses usually comes down to what happens in the first week after demolition. When our crew opens a wall, they find what 35 years of weather, cable installers, and North Texas soil have actually done to the house. The permit inspector then requires the structure to meet today’s code, not the code from when it was built.
On a 1990s brick-veneer home off Highland Shores Boulevard, our crew opened a wall for a sunroom addition and found original aluminum wiring and a load-bearing header that had been notched by a previous cable installer. We wrote the scope of work to include a rough-in and upgrade path, priced a change order for engineered LVL replacement, and had the city inspection sign-off before we closed the wall. The homeowner knew the full price of the surprise before it was fixed.
That’s the Barrett & Sons approach. Inspection first. Written allowances. Any surprise priced and approved in writing before we touch it. An allowance that isn’t on paper is a surprise waiting for a date.
Why Lake Lewisville Changes the Permitting Math
Unlike inland neighbors such as Flower Mound or Corinth, Highland Village lots bordering Lake Lewisville may sit inside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ flowage easement or project boundary. That means a simple room addition can trigger Section 404 clearance and COE setback compliance before Denton County will issue a building permit. The setback is 75 feet from the 522-foot flood pool elevation, and on sloping lakeside lots that line is rarely where you’d guess.
Landowners near the shore often start a sunroom or covered patio project without realizing their lot partially sits inside the federal boundary. The contractor might miss it too, until the footings are down and the inspector pulls the permit. Then work stops, and you’re paying for an engineer, a surveyor, and a federal filing you didn’t plan for. We identify this boundary before we break ground. It costs a few hundred dollars and saves months.
Call Barrett & Sons for a Free Estimate in Highland Village
If you’re planning a room addition, a sunroom, or an ADU in Highland Village, start with a written estimate from a contractor who actually works here. Tom Barrett’s name, address, and license number are published and verifiable. Look us up before you sign anything. Then call (877) 610-1318 to schedule your free estimate. We’ll walk your lot, check the HOA rules, check the Corps boundary, and give you a fixed price with every allowance in writing.
Written by Tom Barrett, Owner at Barrett & Sons Construction, serving Highland Village and the Lake Lewisville area since 1998.