Rightsizing Your ADU Project: Designing Your ADU— Part 4

Creating an ADU is an important decision for any homeowner. ADUs have incredible utility for families and allow for unprecedented intergenerational wealth building.  To get an ADU project to provide a maximum value to a family it must be the right size. To get to “a right size” is one of the most important goals of the design phase for an ADU project. 

Once you’ve researched your jurisdiction’s requirements, have an understanding of your site’s opportunities and constraints, and figured out your wants and needs as well as budget, you can begin the design process. 

• Establish the size and configuration of your ADU using all of the information that you’ve gathered.

• Create a simple site plan for your rear yard. You can do this by hand or using simple design tools such as Sketchup. Put in all the known factors including existing fences and structures. At the preliminary step,you can use fences as assumed property lines. 

• Explore simple plan options using the following minimum space sizes as guidelines: 

  • Master bedroom 11’x13’ space for closet included

  • Secondary bedrooms 9’ x 12’ space for closet included

  • Bathrooms 5’x 8’

  • Kitchen, dining and living combo room (great room) 14’ x 16”

• If you have a 20 foot height limit, explore a two story option.

Once you have your right sized schematic plan and layout, work with your professional architect to create the plan sets and submittal package to obtain your building permit. A good architect will know the jurisdictional requirements and will advocate for your project during the submittal process. 

Ready To Start Your Project?