Santa Clarita ADU services
From a JADU in a Valencia two-story to a guest house on Agua Dulce acreage, our ADU services cover each type of unit and each stage of the work. Here is how the pieces fit together.
All ADU services
A separate backyard home with its own foundation and utilities. State law lets most single-family lots add one of up to 800 sq ft just 4 feet off the side and rear lines, and we place it around oaks, slopes and pools.
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Fresh square footage built against an outside wall of the home, entered through its own door. Short utility runs and a structural tie-in to the existing home make it a good fit for shallow backyards.
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An attached or detached garage rebuilt inside as a studio or one-bedroom home. You keep the slab and shell, add insulation, plumbing and a kitchen, and the parking does not need replacing.
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A small suite, 500 sq ft at most, made from a bedroom wing or part of an attached garage. It gets a kitchenette and a private outside door. Owner occupancy applies only if the bathroom is shared.
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Living space built over a garage or as a two-story unit where ground space is short. Requires structural upgrades and careful attention to height limits, privacy and fire separation.
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Factory-built modular or panelized ADUs installed on a site-built foundation. We plan the delivery route, crane access, utility stubs and local permits for the unit you choose.
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Detached units and conversions of storage, laundry or garage space on duplex and apartment lots. State law allows several units, and the city applies its own multifamily standards.
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Site plans, floor plans, elevations and engineering drawn for city or county plan check. Design starts with the lot's limits and keeps cost drivers in view from the first sketch.
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Filing and managing the ADU application with Santa Clarita's Planning Division and Building & Safety, or with LA County Regional Planning and Public Works for unincorporated parcels.
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The underground part of the job: foundations on valley soils or hillside pads, grading and drainage, sewer and water laterals, panel upgrades with SCE and sprinklers where required.
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Compact kitchens and bathrooms laid out on shared wet walls, with appliances, ventilation and finishes chosen for small spaces and long-term rental use.
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The right ADU depends more on your property than on preference. A compact tract lot in Plum Canyon or Bridgeport may only have room inside the house, which points to a junior ADU or a garage conversion. A deep yard on an older Saugus street can take a detached cottage. A hillside pad in Tesoro del Valle may favor building up or working inside rather than grading a new footprint.
California lets a single-family lot combine types, so a conversion, a JADU and a new backyard unit (800 square feet or less) can all share one parcel. Many owners start with the type that fits today's budget and keep the option of adding another unit later. We map out the possibilities for your lot at the start so the first project does not block the second.
Every ADU, whatever its type, needs drawings and a permit. Our design work starts with a site review: jurisdiction, zoning, fire hazard zone, slopes, oaks, utilities and HOA rules. The drawings that follow are made for the agency that will review them, whether that is the City of Santa Clarita or Los Angeles County.
Permit work means assembling the full submittal, filing it, tracking the state-mandated review deadlines and answering correction comments. In the city, that runs through the Planning Division and then Building & Safety. For unincorporated parcels it runs through county Regional Planning and then Public Works. We handle both.
Construction starts below grade. Site work is the foundation and everything buried around it: grading, drainage, the sewer and water lines, a bigger electrical service if needed and sprinkler piping when fire rules call for it. On flat valley lots this is straightforward; on slopes or rural acreage with septic and wells it becomes a large share of the project.
Above grade, we build the unit itself: framing, roofing, windows, insulation, drywall and finishes. Kitchens and bathrooms get special attention because they concentrate cost and determine how livable a small unit is. For prefab ADUs we handle the site side and the installation, and for multifamily properties we phase work around tenants.
Some local requirements follow every project, whatever the unit. Each unit, junior ones included, needs a door to the outside of its own. Leasing the ADU on its own is allowed for stays of a month or longer, while selling it apart from the house is not. Its single-family handout lists no parking requirement for ADUs or JADUs. Under state law, no impact fees apply to units of 750 square feet or less.
Local conditions add more. The Oak Tree Preservation ordinance affects siting. Sand Canyon and Placerita Canyon have Special Standards Districts. The 2025 CAL FIRE maps widened the Very High fire zones across the valley, bringing Chapter 7A construction to more lots. Outside city limits, county rules replace the city's, and Agua Dulce adds its own Community Standards District. We sort out which of these touch your parcel in the first site review.
FAQs
Yes. We can take an ADU from site review and drawings through permits and construction to final inspection. Owners who already have approved plans can also bring us in for the build.
A junior ADU or garage conversion usually costs the least because it reuses existing structure. Detached and above-garage units cost more because they are new construction. Site conditions and finishes still matter for every type.
Yes, and potentially three. A single-family parcel may hold one unit made from existing space, one JADU and one new backyard unit capped at 800 sq ft. Multifamily lots can add more under separate rules.
Yes. We work in unincorporated areas including Stevenson Ranch, Castaic, Val Verde and Agua Dulce, where LA County issues ADU permits.
ADU consultation
Not sure which ADU type fits? Describe the lot and your goals in the consultation form. Within 24 hours we will contact you by phone or email to talk through the options.