All Forum Posts by: Chen Zhou

@William Yeh If you really care about speed, you should consider Prefab. Otherwise it makes a lot more sense to go the traditional route because the cost would come down about the same if not cheaper for the ground up, mainly due to high transportation cost...

@Stephanie Lew, I'm sorry to hear about your experience!! Yes, you can definitely do this with similar budget as mine this year. My $7000 included everything all the way through getting the permit approved by the city. I didn't pay the architect the last installment (3 installments in total) until I got the approval from the city. Anyway, good luck from this point on!! 

@Gaurav Mehta

I don't think a garage conversion would reduce the value as it can generate rental income, but the additional square footage might not be valued at the same $$/sqft as the main house, depending on whether it's attached vs. detached.

@Binod G.

...My point is that it's harder to find comps where detached ADU's square footage is valued the same as the main house in terms of $$/sqft...

@Binod G.

Are you talking about replacing existing meters or adding new submeters?

Thanks,

Chen

@Jim G.

Tankless gas water heater is the standard nowadays. Gas line extended to ADU is preferred for sure.

PG&E doesn't allow people to install gas submeters on their own (you can install an electricity submeter yourself for a few hundred dollars after filling out an easy online application). Unfortunately, gas as is viewed as dangerous and a more sensitive area for PG&E due to a recent accident I've heard, so they are pretty strict with it.

@Lee Ozawa

I'm building an attached ADU partly to save cost on utility hook up - it's much easier to extend gas/electricity/water/sewer line within the same house structure (of course there's also the benefit of having the ADU square footage counted as part of the main house in appraisal as it's easier to find comps).

I've heard that it'd be a little more expensive if you have to dig into the ground to extend gas & water & sewer lines into a detached ADU (electricity is easier), so you want to minimize the distance b/w the main house and the ADU hook-ups in your design phase. A good designer should know how to save you $$.

For electricity hook-up, you just need a subpanel and sometimes the city would ask you to upgrade the entire electricity wiring and the main panel. Typically people don't have separate meters for gas or electricity as they are not worth the cost (would cost >$10,000 for PG&E to install separate meters).

Good luck!!

Chen

@Vipul Parikh @Harish Maiya

I asked realtors/banks around about reappraisal value - if you can build an attached ADU, the additional square footage will definitely be counted as part of the main house in terms $$/sqft, because it's easy to find comparable houses within 5-10 miles. Lots of houses in the area are partitioned into a couple of units.

@Laura C.You can do under $250/sf (including architecture) from ground up - let me know if you need a referral. Permit + inspection cost + school/park fees is probably around $40k. Prefab is not as flexible so I'd advice against it unless it has a huge cost advantage.

@Abe Shen

If you really want to save money, you don't have to have separate meters for ADU. Both my architect and contractor recommended against adding a separate meter (cost is not worth it and you don't have to include that in the plan you submit to the city anyway at least in San Jose), but I did get a separate address for my ADU. Like you said you can add cheaper non-PG&E and non-ACWD meter connected with existent meters if you really want to keep track.

Given the size of your lot, if I were you I would strongly consider 1) and 2) over 3). Much more privacy with 1) or 2) and you get to keep 900 sqft of space (!!!!) for maybe just a little more cost. With the right contractor, it's highly likely you can keep the construction cost of 1) or 2) under $250k.