Meet the Torrance Team Behind Seedling ADU Torrance
Ben Ortega runs our Torrance crew with a simple rule: show up on time, do what you said you’d do, and leave the place cleaner than you found it. The team here has built ADUs from Lomita to North Torrance, and every one of them has knocked on enough doors to know this is a neighbor’s home, not a job site. We’re a small crew by design. That means the person who measures your garage is the same person who walks you through the final inspection.
Our People
Ben Ortega, Owner
Ben started building ADUs in the South Bay before most cities had even finalized their ordinance language. He has spent years working through Torrance’s planning counter on Madrona Avenue, which is why he can usually tell you within the first phone call whether your lot has a shot at a detached unit or whether a garage conversion is the better path. His specialty is the honest pre-build conversation: what a project will actually cost, what the soil under your slab will allow, and where the surprise expenses hide. When he’s not on site, he’s usually walking a property with a measuring wheel, sketching a layout on the back of a printed plot map. He lives in Torrance with his family and two dogs, and he still answers his own phone.
Marcus R., Lead Technician
Marcus has fifteen years in residential construction, the last eight focused on accessory dwelling units across Los Angeles County. He holds lead carpentry certification through the National Center for Construction Education and Research, and he is the person on site most days once a foundation is poured. Marcus is the one who catches framing errors before the inspector does, and he has a habit of re-checking his own work after lunch because, as he puts it, “you see things differently after a sandwich.” Customers in Old Torrance have commented on how clean his cut lines are, and one homeowner on El Prado Avenue kept a scrap piece of his framing to show friends. He is known on the crew for packing the same lunch every single day: a turkey sandwich, an apple, and a thermos of coffee.
Sofia M., Senior Installer
Sofia joined Seedling after five years doing finish work on custom homes in Palos Verdes, and she is the reason our garage conversions look like they were always meant to be living space. Her specialty is the detail work: trim that lines up exactly, door casings with no gaps, flooring transitions that don’t catch a sock. She is certified by James Hardie for fiber-cement siding installation, which matters on Torrance lots where morning marine layer tests every seam. Sofia keeps a notebook in her tool bag with measurements and material notes from every project she has worked on, and she can tell you the exact paint color used on a job from three years ago. She has a rescue cat named Rebar.
Daniel K., Service Coordinator
Daniel is the voice most families hear first and the one they hear most often during a build. He started as a framing apprentice with the wider Cedarwell network and moved into coordination because he was better at keeping schedules moving than he was at cutting angles. Daniel coordinates inspections with the city of Torrance, tracks material deliveries, and keeps the job calendar updated every single day. If the crew is delayed by rain or a back-ordered window from a prefab supplier, Daniel is the one who calls you before you have to call us. He grew up in Gardena, went to North High, and still plays in a Sunday rec basketball league at Wilson Park. On his desk there is a photo of his two nephews with a LEGO house he helped them build that, according to him, has a better floor plan than most real ADUs.
One Standard, Every Job
Every person on this crew works under the same written promises, and those promises come from the Cedarwell Care Promise, which every Seedling location follows. That means shoe covers go on at the door if the crew walks through your main house to reach the build. Drop cloths cover the path from entry to work area, every visit. We use pet-safe products where there is a choice, because we have seen too many dogs decide a cut cord is a snack. Before the crew leaves for the day, someone takes a photo of the clean-up and sends it to you. A live person answers the phone 24/7 during an active build, not a voicemail tree. And if something is not done right, Ben makes it right, in writing, for a full year after the final walkthrough. That is the 365-Day Done Right Promise. No fine print. No “we’ll see what we can do.” Every member of this crew carries that on every job, whether it is a detached ADU behind a home near Torrance High or a garage conversion a block from the beach.
Written by Ben Ortega, Owner at Seedling ADU Torrance, serving Torrance and the South Bay since he first started pulling permits in L.A. County.
