Building a detached ADU in Los Angeles

[Sarah Purdum]

Hi guys,

We are looking to build a detached 1200sqft 3 bed, 2 bath adu behind our house in Reseda, CA (the valley north of Los Angeles). We have a budget of about $250,000 and we would prefer that it be 2 stories to preserve some of our backyard. (800sqft first story, 400sqft second story. The bathrooms would be directly above each other) We have drawn up a basic floorplan ourselves but we would still have to hire an architect etc. What is a reasonable cost for the project/ cost per sqft to accomplish this?

[Will Barnard]

I think your $250k budget should be enough to get it done, of course your finish selections are what make the costs go up or down.

For architectural design and structural engineering and expediting services (running plans through plan check and dealing with the city and all the clearances needed), you should be able to get that done for under $20k.