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Sometimes the amount of space that we have inside our single-family home simply becomes not enough and we need more. But what to do if you do not have enough money to buy a bigger house? Build Accessory Dwelling Units that are also sometimes called backyard cottages!
Sacramento ADU Builder A+ is an affordable option for additional living space created on the property of your already existing home, which allows you to increase the size of your overall living area for many different purposes that you might have.
However, the process of building an Accessory Dwelling Unit is not easy for many reasons, legal ones included, which is why you should trust such a project to a professional contractor. Keep on reading this article to find out more about the process of building a single-family ADU.
Detached versus Attached Accessory Units
Although you might have heard about various types of ADUs or backyard cottages, there are two main ones under which all others fall: attached ADU and detached ADU. The main difference between these two types of Accessory Dwelling Units is that attached ADUs share a wall with the main single-family house located on your property land, while detached ADUs do not.
The reason why different types of ADUs or granny flats exist lies in the fact that they are created for different purposes. Thus, a detached ADU could be an entirely separate living space that could act as a guest house for your friends and old family members or as an additional source of income received through renting it out. Check tiny house with garage ADU as another ADU building option
An attached ADU, on the other hand, will be connected to the primary dwelling and could be created for the purposes of increasing the entertainment area of your house or could act as a new separate living space for one of your kids.
And in order for you to understand whether you actually need a detached ADU or an attached ADU will do the trick, here are some additional differences between these dwelling units:
Possible Sizing
The major difference between detached ADU and attached ADU is the regulations for their maximum size. Yes, governments of different states and local laws of your cities regulate such things.
It is common for many cities in California to allow the construction of attached ADUs like garage additions that are not bigger than half of the square footage of your primary dwelling. In some cases, the restrictions are bigger, so that attached ADUs should not be bigger than 30% of the square footage of the main house and, thus, could only be considered as single-family ADU.
As for the detached ADUs, the rules are not as strict. That way, most jurisdictions in California allow your detached ADU to be as big as 1,200 square feet. All in all, California state laws permit your detached ADUs to be up to 800 square feet, no matter the part of the state in which you are living right now.
Aside from these regulations are also additional ones regarding the height of your Accessory Dwelling Unit. In this case, the upper hand belongs to the attached ADUs: in most cases, detached units cannot be higher than 16 square feet and also will need at least 4 feet of rear and side setbacks each. At the same time, attached ADUs like a garage or basement ADU share a wall with the main residence, which is why their height could be the same as the one belonging to the initial house, and no setbacks are needed.
Costs for Construction
As you could have already guessed, the pricing of attached and detached ADUs is also quite different. And as expected, a detached ADU will cost more than an attached ADU.
There are multiple reasons for that. First, a detached ADU, in comparison with an attached Accessory Dwelling Unit, does not share a wall with the main house and needs an entirely new foundation. And because of that, an attached ADU in the form of your garage or basement will need a smaller amount of raw materials to be used, and the number of hours spent by the professionals on the construction of the unit will also be lowered.
In the end, a detached unit may cost you around 300,000 dollars, a price comparable to that of a small house; an attached ADU will have a smaller price, somewhere around 200,000 dollars, with the price going down if the ADU is built inside of an already existing structure of the homeowners, such as the attic or the basement.
From the non-legal point of view, an attached Accessory Dwelling Unit that is built not on the rest of the property land but inside of an already existing structure can seem like a simple remodeling project for most families. But as long as your attached ADU project includes a separate entrance, bathroom, and kitchen, the laws of your state will consider it to be an ADU, not a remodeling of an already existing structure.
Possibility of Potential Income
In almost any case, the amount of rent that you could obtain from your tenant will be larger for the detached ADUs and smaller for the attached ADUs.
Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit usually has a larger amount of space available to the occupants, as well as more privacy provided to them with the help of a private entrance, zoning area, and so on. Such conditions allow homeowners to increase the price of the detached Accessory Dwelling Unit as well as receive a bigger property value estimate. However, you need to remember that a detached Accessory Dwelling Unit also means bigger responsibilities and expenses involved. For instance, a detached ADU would require a separate water heater, furnace, utility hookups, and sewer system, the things that would definitely be added to the least of your responsibilities for maintaining. But in any case, a detached Accessory Dwelling Unit will still bring you more income in the long run than an attached basement ADU ever could.
Parking Possibilities
As with any other restrictions, parking requirements vary from one location to another, which is why there is no common solution for this problem as for any other discussed before.
For instance, your state or city laws might dictate that detached ADUs built on your property land should have at least one off-street parking space, with the location being in the front, rear, or side of the detached unit. But if the property is located in a historical district or there is a public transportation stop half a mile from the guest house built by you, then the requirement for the off-street parking space is not mandatory.
As for the attached unit, it might be that only the exterior attached ADU project will require at least one off-street parking space, with no requirements for the interior ADUs.
The situation for any of the two dwelling units could be worsened by the fact of whether or not your city allows overnight on-street parking in single-family zoning districts: if not, your chances of renting out an accessory unit without a parking space might be lowered by such zoning regulations.
And please remember, this is just an example of parking requirements that could take place in your area. In fact, they might be quite different or do not exist at all, which is why hiring a professional contractor will not only help you to build an accessory structure on your property land but deal with local laws as well!When choosing a contractor for your new construction project, a lot of things need to be considered. But first of all, you need to decide on your own desires for the unit before starting to search for a contractor, as it will give you a direction for the companies that could actually implement your ideas into real life.
After that, you could start your search by considering a good ADU building contractor, and here are some reasons why others do the same:
Detached ADU building
Over the years, your detached ADU could play lots of different roles, such as a summer house near the pool, a guest house for your friends and family, or a rental house for any potential tenants.
And because of that, you would want to build an ADU that would not require many changes in the structure throughout the years, only a few refreshments once in a while. So here are a few pieces of advice on this topic professional contractors:
1. Respect the privacy of other people. No matter who will be staying inside your detached ADU, you want to design the windows and doors in such places of the unit that would not be in your constant sight from the principal residence;
2. Storage space should be huge. ADUs are still relatively small houses, which is why you can never go wrong with creating lots of storage space inside such affordable housing. Today you might think that your tenants will be okay with the amount of storage space that you have in the unit, but tomorrow your elderlies will live there and would want more places that could allow for the decluttering of the structure to take place;
3. Designs should be universal. As we had already said, these tiny houses could be quite versatile over the years, which is why you would want to design your ADU in neutral colors with smart layout decisions that would be comfortable for any person. That way, anyone who would live there would enjoy the time spent inside of your ADU and could easily decorate the unit in accordance with their own style;
4. Consider creating a private yard. You might not care that much about the comfort of your possible tenants to create a small private yard or patio near the unit, but you would care about the privacy of your older children, friends, and other family members that might need to stay with you for a while. What is more, a nice-looking private yard would definitely boost your rental income received from the unit!
As you can see, a lot of things aside from the legal requirements and layout of an ADU need to be considered while constructing accessory apartments near your own primary residence, which is why you would save yourself from the need to deal with such a huge amount of problems by hiring a reliable contractor for this project!
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