Real Estate Agent · Bay Area · Member since 2022 · 25 posts · 19 votes
I'm curious if anyone has used generic plans from sites like Houseplans.com to start their ADU build? I kind of know what I'm looking for and can see from the photos that it would work well given my lot size… Just not sure how detailed these plans are, or if anyone has ran into issues with local ordinances? My thought was to purchase the plans for around 500 bucks and then give them to an architect to make adjustments… Would love BP thoughts!
Architect · Bay Area, CA · Member since 2022 · 37 posts · 27 votes
4y
@Nash Mittelman, Oakland is actually one of the city's with it's own pre-approved plan sets that @Paul Dario Jr mentioned but its is a 25'x25' box so won't work on every site.
The other alternate is doing a prefab, there's quite a few companies doing that now since the 2020 legislation passed. They have their own typical sets of plans that can be tweaked by their own architects/engineers. I will actually be doing just that for my own primary residence. I can draft it but I want to save the construction costs and just do prefab. I will, however, be telling them where to put it on the site. The design challenge with prefabs is making sure you position it right on the site so that it is of maximum benefit to the main house and the ADU.
Real Estate Agent · San Francisco, CA · Member since 2020 · 19 posts · 9 votes
4y
@Nash Mittelman Hey! Why not just have the architect survey the entire job instead of paying a 3rd Party Software company to do it? I figure the architect would be more verse regarding local ordinances and it will probably save you more time in the end.
Hey Nash. I didn't use a generic plan to design my ADU. I actually hired an architect to draft the plans.
But what I did discover is that some cities, including Los Angeles Dept. of Building and Safety, has pre-approved plans on their websites. I'll probably use one of these pre-approved plans next time because what I'm told is that these pre-approved plans can cut down on the amount of time it takes to get permits approved by the city. This can be helpful in cities like Los Angeles where I'm told it can take as many as 4-6 months to get permits approved.
Architect · Bay Area, CA · Member since 2022 · 37 posts · 27 votes
4y
@Nash Mittelman, Oakland is actually one of the city's with it's own pre-approved plan sets that @Paul Dario Jr mentioned but its is a 25'x25' box so won't work on every site.
The other alternate is doing a prefab, there's quite a few companies doing that now since the 2020 legislation passed. They have their own typical sets of plans that can be tweaked by their own architects/engineers. I will actually be doing just that for my own primary residence. I can draft it but I want to save the construction costs and just do prefab. I will, however, be telling them where to put it on the site. The design challenge with prefabs is making sure you position it right on the site so that it is of maximum benefit to the main house and the ADU.
@Nash Mittelman, Oakland is actually one of the city's with it's own pre-approved plan sets that @Paul Dario Jr mentioned but its is a 25'x25' box so won't work on every site.
The other alternate is doing a prefab, there's quite a few companies doing that now since the 2020 legislation passed. They have their own typical sets of plans that can be tweaked by their own architects/engineers. I will actually be doing just that for my own primary residence. I can draft it but I want to save the construction costs and just do prefab. I will, however, be telling them where to put it on the site. The design challenge with prefabs is making sure you position it right on the site so that it is of maximum benefi to the main house and the ADU.
In addition Oakland is generally a bit more nitpicky with approval type things. My concern is use a website like that you will have to pay the cost you thought you were saving just to have it redone.