ADU Construction in San Marino
San Marino ADUs start with a pressure gauge on the water line: service size, pressure for two homes, the route to the unit, then plans, permit and build.
A pressure gauge on an outdoor faucet is the first thing we put on a San Marino lot before a backyard unit is planned. That reading, with the size of the water meter and the line from it, tells us whether the existing service can feed a second home with a shower and a kitchen running at once. After a fire, the same service may also have to supply the replacement house, so we measure for both.
What the water reading changes
If pressure is low or the line is small, the plan may call for upsizing the meter and the pipe from it, or adding a booster pump. If pressure runs high, a regulator protects the fixtures in both homes. The line to the unit runs in its own trench with a shutoff valve the family can reach. We also check whether the main house will need fire sprinklers, since a unit built alongside it may have to match that requirement, and sprinklers change the size of the service.
From measurements to the permit
Every reading goes on the plans: meter size, pressure, the route of the new line and the shutoff. San Marino's building department reads those notes alongside the full drawing set, where the setbacks and the gap between the two homes are also drawn. When sprinklers are part of the design, their layout may be reviewed as a separate submittal. We order the work so the water line is in and tested before the slab is poured, and the inspector sees the trench while it is open.
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Water is the utility we size first for that sequence. With approval from San Marino for the parcel, the unit's service is set up to feed both homes, so the later house connects without leaving the family short of pressure. A shutoff at each building lets either one be worked on alone.
We take the pressure reading on the same visit that answers this. A unit qualifies on a single level and at 500 square feet of floor or under, provided the San Marino lot has room for it inside the setbacks with water and sewer routes that work. A design outside those limits is drawn under a separate scope.
A garage may have a hose bib outside and no water inside at all. Bringing a kitchen and a bath into one means a new supply line, new drains under the slab and a water heater, so we measure pressure at a faucet by the garage and locate the sewer before anything else. The building itself is checked on the same visit.
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