ADU Construction in Mar Vista, Attached or Detached
A Mar Vista ADU on a lot rebuilt after a fire, attached to the new house or standing apart, with LADBS plan review, a Coastal Zone check and inspected stages.
Should the ADU share a wall with the new house, or stand by itself in the yard? Asked at the first site meeting on a Mar Vista lot after a fire, it gets an answer before anything is sketched, since it reorders the rebuild. Attached, the unit is framed with the main house as one structure. Detached, it can go up first on its own footings and serve as your home while the larger house is built.
What an attached unit asks of the main house
A shared wall between two homes has to be a rated fire separation, built as a tested assembly with no gaps at the floor, the ceiling or the roof. Each home needs its own exterior entrance, and the two generally get separate heating, cooling and water heating. Sound matters on that wall too, so it is insulated and framed to limit what carries through. Because the unit is part of the main structure, it is hard to finish and occupy while the rest of the house is still open framing, and its plan check generally runs with the main house set.
A detached unit on a Westside lot
Standing apart, the ADU gets its own footings, roof and utility runs, and the lot needs room for the spacing the codes set between buildings, or rated walls where they stand close. In return, LADBS can permit and inspect it on its own schedule, and it can house you through the rest of the rebuild if the city allows early occupancy. One more check comes first on this Westside lot: where the Coastal Zone boundary runs in relation to the parcel. A lot inside that line may need a coastal permit or an exemption before the building permit can issue.
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ADU Construction in Mar Vista: questions
Only a detached unit really can. Built on its own footings and finished first, it can be your home through the main build once it passes final and the city accepts early occupancy. An attached unit is part of the house frame, so it reaches completion with the rest of the house, and moving in early is not practical.
If the unit keeps to one story and 500 square feet, the package can apply, and your lot gets checked before you commit. The Mar Vista site plan records the coastal check and the distance between the unit and the planned house, and the floor plan shows the unit's own entrance.
Sometimes. A garage built against the new house would become an attached unit, with the shared-wall rules that come with it. A detached garage is simpler to convert if its slab, wall framing and roof can carry a dwelling, which we open up and check. Each option then gets its own written price.
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