It is incredibly important to take the time to consider your use case and work through the whole process to understand what is on the horizon when building your ADU and to make sure the finished product will fit your needs perfectly. We understand the container home route may not be for everyone, but the process is quite similar whether you are using one of our shipping container homes or not.
ADU & Permitting Research
As you have probably gathered up to this point, this information can get confusing pretty quickly. Trying to understand the permitting needs, contractor expectations if you are hiring a builder, and regulations around these structures can lead to more questions than answers, so pairing up with a knowledgeable ADU builder like Bob’s Containers can remove a large portion of the confusion and lead to accurate and quick decisions based directly on your needs. You can also work through this phase yourself but it will be time consuming and potentially frustrating trying to navigate local, state, and federal regulations if they apply. Once you and your contractor have a good grasp of the permitting process and needs, you are ready to purchase your ADU and move to the planning phase.
Paying for Your ADU
Gold coins and seed in clear bottle on white background,Business investment growth concept
There are a wealth of options available to purchase your container and these options continue to expand. We offer the following payment options for the purchase of your container home ADU and many of these options are available no matter what type of ADU you choose to build:
For a detailed understanding of our financing options, visit our financing page. Each project has its own set of hurdles to overcome and we are here to help you understand and choose the best option for your needs.
Planning for Your ADU
Here at Bob’s we conduct a feasibility study for all of our builds. Some are much more involved than others depending on the location the unit will be placed. We have broken up the process into two parts to make it more manageable and the process will follow along similar lines whether you work with us for your ADU or not.
Calendar Schedule And Organizer Agenda Event Planning
Feasibility Study
The first part of the process is the study itself. This involves taking the time to determine if your goals as a homeowner are possible under the current zoning and building requirements in your location. Once we demonstrate the possibility of the project, we move to create a list of what will need to be done to accomplish the goals. Each state, city and county have vastly different requirements. These could be, but are not limited to, the following:
- Architectural Plans
- MEP
- Structural
- Site Plan
- Geo Tech Survey
- Land Survey
- Tree Survey
- Civil Engineering
- Com check
In addition to the professional services listed above it may be required to search flood plain maps to ensure the build is not in the floodplain as well as online measurements utilizing aerial photos to document impediments to construction such as large trees, steep slopes, or narrow street access. These are all determined on a case by case basis and there are solutions for every scenario.
If the use is permitted by right (by right means you have the right to do the thing you want to do or build the thing you want to build) you can build or place the structure as long as it is built to code. For example, if your property is zone “Single Family” you have the right to build a single family home. If it is zoned “Industrial” you have the right to build a warehouse or factory. Each of these use cases is written out in the municipality you want to place the unit within and varies case by case and location by location.
If the use is not permitted by right we let you know the variances you will need to get in order to proceed in addition to the above. If you then decide to proceed, we prepare a Permitting Proposal. This is a comprehensive permitting offering that takes every part of permitting out of your hands and puts us at the helm to accomplish the needs for permitting associated with the unit. This process can take 2-4 weeks depending on our queue and local market conditions. Once you have completed these processes you can move forward on the build process.