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 Lehigh Acres
Home additions and ADU construction in Lehigh Acres typically runs between $45,000 and $130,000, with detached ADUs starting around $90,000 and garage conversions coming in between $30,000 and $80,000. Those are real numbers for this market, not phone-quote numbers that change when the crew shows up. At Barrett & Sons Construction, we’ve worked the Lehigh Acres grid long enough to know that a fair price here has to account for utility gaps, elevation requirements, and the surprises hiding inside 1960s CBS walls. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll walk the lot with you before we put anything on paper.
Why Barrett & Sons Construction Is Lehigh Acres’s Preferred Home Additions & ADU Company
Tom Barrett founded this company in 1998, and his sons run the crews. That’s not a talking point. It means the person you talk to on the phone is the same person who signs the permit and stands in your yard while the walls go up. We’re not a franchise dispatching strangers from three counties away. Our Home Additions & ADU team knows Lehigh Acres because we work here, week in and week out.
We answer our own phone. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, a live person picks up. No voicemail box, no out-of-state call center reading a script. When you call about a second-story addition off Homestead Road or a detached ADU near the drainage canals, you get someone who knows what those words mean.
Every job we take in Lehigh Acres gets permits pulled and inspections signed. The permit inspector works for you, not for me. That’s why I like him. And every price change, every allowance adjustment, every scope addition arrives as a written change order before we touch a single board. The allowance that isn’t on paper is a surprise waiting for a date.
Our Home Additions & ADU Services in Lehigh Acres
ADU Design & Permitting
Building an ADU in Lehigh Acres starts with the paper trail, and the paper trail here is different than it is in Fort Myers or Cape Coral. Lee County requires minimum finished-floor elevation certificates on lots with no prior site prep, and many original-grid parcels never had site prep. We handle the survey, the elevation certificate, the septic setback check, and the permit package as one piece of work, so you’re not chasing paperwork between three different offices. Design runs through our drafting team, then straight into permitting with the county.
Garage Conversion ADU
Lehigh Acres has thousands of attached garages on 1970s CBS homes that never got used for cars. Converting one into a rentable unit or in-law suite usually runs $30,000 to $80,000, depending on whether you’re adding a kitchenette, a bathroom, or just finishing out living space. The hidden cost driver here is electrical. Many of these older garages were wired for a single outlet and a door opener, not a full living unit, so a panel upgrade often lands in the scope. We write that into the allowance upfront, not after the drywall is off.
New Detached ADU
A new detached ADU in Lehigh Acres runs $90,000 to $220,000, and the spread depends almost entirely on site conditions. On a lot with established water and sewer taps, it’s a straightforward build. On an outlying grid lot where water, sewer, and underground electric were never extended, you may be looking at an on-site well, a septic system, and a long utility run before the first block is laid. We coordinate all of it, and we’ll tell you what the lot needs before you sign. Not after.
Junior ADU & Interior Conversion
Junior ADUs are the quiet workhorse of Lehigh Acres infill. Converting a large bedroom, a den, or a bonus room into a semi-independent living space with its own entrance and a kitchenette runs on the lower end of the addition range, often $45,000 to $80,000 depending on plumbing and egress requirements. These projects move faster because the shell already exists, but the code triggers are the same: window egress, smoke and carbon monoxide separation, and sometimes a dedicated circuit for a small kitchen. We pull the permit, meet the code, and finish the job with a signed inspection.
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 Lehigh Acres
We install materials you can look up, not mystery brands off a van. For hardscape and site prep on ADU projects, we work with Techo-Bloc and Cambridge Pavers. For foundation and compaction work, Quikrete products are in our mix on nearly every slab in the eastern grid sections. We stock local quantities for Lehigh Acres jobs, which means we’re not waiting on a distribution run from across the state when your elevation certificate deadline is two weeks out.
Common Home Additions & ADU Problems We See in Lehigh Acres Homes
- Original aluminum wiring in 1960s CBS homes. Open a load-bearing wall for a room addition and you may find aluminum branch circuits that don’t meet current code for the added square footage. That triggers a service panel upgrade and reframing that a phone quote never included.
- Utility gaps on original grid lots. Platted and sold lot-by-lot in the 1950s and 60s, many parcels in 33974 and 33976 still have no established water or sewer tap. Assuming city utilities exist like they do in Fort Myers is the single most expensive assumption in Lehigh Acres construction.
- Fill and compaction failures on low-lying eastern lots. The flat terrain near the drainage canal network has a high water table and drains poorly. Underestimate the fill for a detached ADU slab and you’ll fail the elevation certificate, then pay for the rework.
- Insurance-driven elevation upgrades after Hurricane Ian. Lehigh Acres took significant inland flooding in September 2022. Many homeowners are now adding square footage while simultaneously raising finished floor elevations to meet new insurance requirements. That’s two scopes in one, and we plan for both from day one.
Pricing for Home Additions & ADU in Lehigh Acres, FL
Below are the ranges we quote for Lehigh Acres work. These include materials, labor, permits, and the county inspection. What moves the number is what’s behind the wall and under the slab. A 1960s CBS addition with original wiring and a high water table costs more than the same footprint on a 2010 production lot with established utilities. We don’t hide that. We write it into the allowance and hand you a number you can actually plan around.
| Project | Lehigh Acres Price Range |
|---|---|
| Home Addition | $45,000-$130,000 |
| ADU Construction | $90,000-$220,000 |
| Garage Conversion ADU | $30,000-$80,000 |
| Room Additions | $45,000-$130,000 |
| Second Story Additions | $45,000-$130,000 |
Call (877) 610-1318 for a free estimate. We’ll walk the lot, check the panel, look at the elevation, and give you a written line-item quote before you commit to anything.
We Also Serve Cities Near Lehigh Acres
Barrett & Sons Construction runs crews throughout the greater Lehigh Acres area. We handle additions and ADU work in Gateway, Fort Myers Shores, Fort Myers, and San Carlos Park. If you’re on the edge of the grid or just outside the county line, call us and we’ll tell you straight whether we can get a crew to your lot. Dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from our Miami office, but the crews working your Lehigh Acres job live in Lee County.
Serving Lehigh Acres, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Lehigh Acres 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 Lehigh Acres
Expect original aluminum wiring, undersized headers, and possibly knob-and-tube in the oldest sections of the home. On a 1960s CBS house off Homestead Road in 33974, our crew opened a load-bearing wall for a second-story addition and found original knob-and-tube, undersized 2×4 rafters with water stains from failed roof flashing, and a wet subfloor from a long-hidden slab leak. We stopped work, brought in a county inspector for a partial sign-off, wrote a detailed change order for new 200-amp service, upgraded framing to meet current wind-load codes, and replaced the subfloor with pressure-treated plywood before sheathing. Every dollar of that was priced and approved in writing before we touched a single beam. Call (877) 610-1318 and ask us to walk your walls before you plan the addition.
Not always, but often enough that we check utility availability before we quote anything. The original Lehigh Acres grid was platted and sold lot-by-lot decades before utilities reached many sections, so water, sewer, septic setback, and underground electric locations are uncertain or nonexistent on a meaningful number of parcels. A straightforward build in Fort Myers might assume city utilities at the curb. In Lehigh Acres, we verify the tap, the septic setback, and the electric service location as part of the pre-construction check. If a main line is distant, that cost goes into the written scope before you sign. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll pull the utility records for your lot as part of the free estimate.
The eastern grid sections near the drainage canal network sit low and flat with a high water table and poor drainage. A slab-on-grade addition or detached ADU there requires careful fill placement, proper compaction, and a county elevation certificate before framing starts. Skip the fill work and you’ll fail the elevation inspection, then pay for the rework and the delay. We budget fill and compaction into every eastern Lehigh Acres slab from the first estimate. Call (877) 610-1318 if you’re east of Homestead Road or near the canals and want a realistic number.
A permit means a county inspector reviews the structural plans, checks the wind-load framing, verifies the electrical upgrade, and signs off before you move furniture upstairs. In Lehigh Acres, second-story additions on 1960s and 70s CBS homes almost always trigger a code-required reframing and service panel upgrade. A permit catches that before it becomes a structural failure or a fire hazard. We pull permits and pass inspections on every eligible job, because the last contractor most customers used told them permits were optional. Call (877) 610-1318 to see what your second-story addition requires under current Lee County code.
We handle them by writing allowances into the contract before the job starts. A failed perc test on an outlying grid lot, an outdated electrical panel behind a 1960s wall, or a septic setback that forces a redesign all get priced, written as a change order, and approved by you in writing before we proceed. The allowance that isn’t on paper is a surprise waiting for a date. That’s how Tom Barrett has run this company since 1998, and it’s how his sons run the crews in Lehigh Acres today. Call (877) 610-1318 and ask us to put your allowances in writing before the first nail moves.
Written by Tom Barrett, Owner at Barrett & Sons Construction, serving Lehigh Acres with permitted additions and ADU builds since the late 1990s.
Ready to talk about your Lehigh Acres addition or ADU? Call (877) 610-1318 for a free estimate. A live person answers. We’ll look at your lot, check your utilities, and give you a written line-item quote with every allowance on paper. No trip charge inside the county, and seniors and veterans get 10% off every job.