How Sunburst ADU Builders Was Born in Highland
We started Sunburst ADU Builders in 2018 because we kept walking onto properties in Highland where people had been told their accessory dwelling unit would be simple, and then watched the project spiral. One job stays with us. A homeowner near Baseline had saved for years to build a small unit for her mother. The crew she’d hired poured the slab, framed half the walls, then disappeared with the final draw. She had a half-built shell in her backyard for eleven months and no way to finish it. We walked that site with her, looked at the exposed framing and the warped subfloor, and we made a decision. This trade needed someone who would treat a backyard home like what it actually is: someone’s family, someone’s savings, someone’s future. Not a quick job. Not a line item. So we built our company around a different rule. We show up. We finish what we start. And we tell the truth about what things cost from day one. That’s how Sunburst started in Highland, and it’s still how we operate.
Our Founder’s Personal Connection to the ADU Trade
Our founder came into this work through the framing side of construction. For years before Sunburst existed, the work was additions, remodels, repairs. Then the ADU conversation started changing in California, and in places like Highland, San Bernardino, and Redlands, homeowners began asking a new question: can I build something small in my backyard that actually feels like a home? The first time we framed a backyard unit end to end, the smell of fresh lumber and the feel of chalk line dust on our hands, we understood something we hadn’t before. A house in the backyard is different from an addition. It’s more personal. It’s for an aging parent, an adult child who can’t afford rent, a rental that pays the mortgage. It carries weight.
What keeps us in this trade isn’t the framing, though we still love the framing. It’s the moment a homeowner walks into a finished ADU for the first time. We’ve watched people stand in a small kitchen nook and cry because it meant their mother could live ten steps away instead of across the country. We’ve seen a young couple finally afford to stay in Highland by renting out a unit we built behind their house. That’s what gets us out of bed. Not permits, not plans, not paint. The fact that a well-built small house changes a family’s actual life.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably still be framing somewhere, because we’ve never been able to walk past a foundation without wondering what goes on top of it. The work chose us as much as we chose it.
Meet Our Team – The Person Behind Every Job
Our founder and owner leads every Sunburst ADU Builders project from first walkthrough to final inspection. The background is in residential framing and construction management, with years spent in the field before the company was founded in 2018. Training came the old way: on actual job sites, under tradesmen who demanded better, through mistakes that taught lessons no classroom could. What separates this approach from a corporate operation is simple. The person who shakes your hand at the estimate is the same person accountable for the outcome. When a homeowner in Highland calls about their project, they’re talking to someone who actually knows what’s happening with their build.
Away from the job site, the commitment to building things extends to the community. There’s a genuine belief that a person’s work should outlast them, and that every wall we frame in Highland, Mentone, or Loma Linda carries that responsibility. Our owner’s commitment to every customer is straightforward: treat every backyard home like it’s being built for our own family. Because in this business, if you wouldn’t put your own mother in it, you shouldn’t put anyone else’s mother in it either.
Our Promise to Highland Homeowners
Honest pricing comes first. We provide written line-item estimates so a homeowner in Highland knows exactly where their money goes before we ever break ground. No vague allowances. No handshake numbers that drift upward later. If a change happens mid-project, it’s documented and approved before work continues.
Quality parts and materials follow. We don’t cut corners on the things that matter: foundation work, weatherproofing, electrical, roofing. These are the components that determine whether an ADU lasts ten years or fifty. We build for the fifty.
Standing behind every job matters. When Sunburst finishes a unit, the relationship doesn’t end at final inspection. If something isn’t right, we come back and make it right. That’s not a policy we printed on a brochure. It’s how we’ve operated since the first project we took on in 2018.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed. Every professional working under the Sunburst name is required to hold the license their state requires for the work they perform.
- Insured and bonded. Coverage is maintained so homeowners have protection throughout the build.
- Years of local experience. We’ve been building in the Inland Empire since 2018, and the bulk of our work has been in Highland and the surrounding communities.
- Strong local reputation. Our business has grown through referrals from homeowners who’ve seen our work firsthand.
A license matters because it means the person working in your home has met the training and standards the state requires. Insurance and bonding matter because they protect you, your property, and your investment if something goes wrong. Local experience matters because building in Highland means knowing the soil conditions, the sun exposure, and the city’s permitting process. Reputation matters because it’s earned one finished ADU at a time, and it’s the one credential no company can buy.
Rooted in Highland
We work where we live. Highland isn’t a service territory to us; it’s home. We know the neighborhoods north of Baseline and south of the foothills. We understand the temperature swings between summer and winter that shape how an ADU should be insulated and oriented. When our founder drives past a finished Sunburst project in Highland or Redlands, there’s a sense of ownership that goes beyond business. These buildings are part of the community now. They’ll be here after all of us. That’s a responsibility we carry with genuine care.
Written by the Owner & Founder, Sunburst ADU Builders, serving Highland and the surrounding communities since 2018.