San Diego ADU builder.
Plans, permits, and construction from one team, for backyard units built like small houses. Free feasibility conversations anywhere in San Diego County.
Building an ADU in San Diego, from lot to keys.
Thinking about an ADU in San Diego and not sure whether to start with an architect, a contractor, or the city? Start with the fact that an ADU is really two projects: a paper project that lives at the permit counter, and a construction project that lives in your yard. NewGen runs both, because the architect who draws and submits the plans works on the same team as the crew that pours the footings, under one license and one written bid.
What our ADU work covers
- Site assessment: setbacks, slope, access, and where the unit actually fits.
- Architectural plans, drawings, and the full permit submission.
- Foundation, framing, and roofing for site-built construction.
- Utility connections: electrical service, water, and the sewer path.
- A real kitchen and a real bathroom, not an afterthought of either.
- Windows, insulation, and finish to current energy code.
- Interior and exterior paint by the trade this family started in.
- Every inspection from first footing to certificate of occupancy.
How an ADU project runs
- Feasibility Conversation
Call or text (619) 925-6087 with the address. Lot, zoning, and access determine what is possible before anyone draws a line.
- Site Walkthrough
We walk the property with you: where the unit sits, how utilities route, what the slope and setbacks allow.
- Plans and Permit Set
The architect on our team draws the ADU and prepares the permit submission, designed to the budget we discussed rather than a fantasy version of it.
- Permit Review
The plan set goes to the city, and corrections come back to the people who drew it, which keeps the review cycle short.
- The Build
Foundation to final inspection under one license, with a written bid for the agreed scope and changes approved before extra work happens.
The backyard is doing nothing
You have a deep lot in Clairemont (92117) or Allied Gardens (92120), the yard past the patio is dirt and good intentions, and every ADU builder in San Diego seems to have a waitlist. A detached unit back there is the highest-value construction most homeowners will ever commission, whether it becomes a long-term rental or a place for family.
Common scenarios: detached ADUs on alley lots in North Park (92104) and Normal Heights (92116), a backyard casita sized for one or two people, a two-story ADU where the lot is tight but the height allows it, units placed to keep the main house its own yard.
The garage conversion question
If your garage stores everything except a car, a garage conversion is the cheapest path to a livable unit, because the slab, walls, and roof already exist. It is not free square footage though: the slab needs evaluating, the ceiling height has a code floor, and insulation has to be brought from garage-grade to living-grade.
Common scenarios: garage remodels to full ADUs in Linda Vista (92111) and Serra Mesa (92123), junior ADU conversions inside the existing footprint, detached garages in City Heights (92105) becoming studio units, and the honest cases where we advise building new instead because the garage was never going to get there.
Family moving in, not tenants
When people say granny flat, they usually mean it literally: a parent is moving in, and everyone wants closeness without sharing a hallway. A granny flat in San Diego gets designed differently than a rental unit: fewer steps, wider doors, a bathroom that will still work at eighty, and a kitchen scaled to one cook.
Common scenarios: parents relocating from out of state, single-story units in San Carlos (92119) and Del Cerro yards, adult kids saving for their own place, a unit that starts as an office and is plumbed to become a home later.
You have a fence line and a Pinterest board
If your ADU planning is currently a screenshot folder and a rough idea of where the unit would go, you are exactly at the right stage to talk to us, because the expensive mistakes happen before construction. ADU floor plans that ignore the sewer path, the panel capacity, or the setback lines get redrawn, and redrawn plans cost review cycles.
Common scenarios: feasibility checks before buying a property in Point Loma (92106) or Ocean Beach (92107), JADU versus full ADU decisions, budget-first design conversations, and La Jolla (92037) lots where slope and coastal rules shape the answer.
Detached, attached, junior, or up
A detached ADU is its own building and its own address in the yard. An attached unit shares a wall with the house and usually a shorter utility run. A junior ADU carves a small unit out of the existing home, bathroom required, kitchen allowed in a compact form. And a 2 story ADU buys floor area on lots where footprint is the constraint.
Which one your property wants is a zoning and budget question before it is a design question. That is the conversation we have at the walkthrough, with the architect involved from the first sketch, since ADU design decisions and permit decisions are the same decisions.
The architect is the point
ADU projects live or die in the plan set. Ours are drawn, submitted, and corrected by the architect on the team, not a third party.
Site-built, to code, to last
Stick-built on a real foundation, inspected at every stage, finished like a small house because it is one.
A budget before a blueprint
The unit gets designed to the number we discussed, so the plans that get approved are plans you can afford to build.
Licensed, bonded, insured
California General B #1151759, general liability insurance, and a one-year labor warranty in writing.
What moves an ADU bid.
ADU construction in San Diego gets quoted across a huge range, and most of the spread is explainable. These are the four questions that move the number, and they are all answerable at a site walkthrough.
Slope, access for equipment and material, and how far the unit sits from the street. A flat lot with alley access and a hillside backyard are different projects.
The sewer path and the electrical panel decide more budgets than finishes do. A long trench or a panel upgrade belongs in the bid, not in a surprise.
The kitchen and bathroom are the most expensive square feet in any unit. A compact, well-planned wet core keeps a small ADU affordable.
Bigger costs more, but not linearly. A second story adds structure and stairs; a smaller footprint with better layout often wins.
The estimate is free, and the feasibility conversation costs you a phone call. If the honest answer is that your lot fights the project, we will say that too.
ADU permits in San Diego, without the mythology.
California has spent years forcing cities to make ADU approval faster and more predictable, and San Diego is one of the friendlier cities in the state to build one in. That does not make the process automatic. The clock only runs well when the plan set is complete: a submission with a vague sewer connection or a missing structural detail comes back as corrections, and every correction cycle costs weeks.
This is where having the architect and the ADU contractor on the same team stops being a slogan. The person answering the city’s corrections is the person who drew the plans and the person who will build from them, so answers come back buildable instead of theoretical. ADU permits in San Diego reward exactly one thing: a clean plan set from people who have been through the review before.
Architect first, or one team from the start.
Plenty of good ADUs get built the traditional way: hire a designer, take the drawings out to bid, pick from the ADU contractors in San Diego who respond. We just think the order is backwards, and here is the honest comparison.
- You pay for the plans before any builder has priced them.
- Drawings made without a budget routinely design past it, and value-engineering after approval means re-drawing.
- Permit corrections bounce between a designer and a builder who have never met.
- Bids arrive months after the idea, priced against plans nobody owns.
It works. It is just slower and it surprises people at bid time.
- The unit is designed to a stated budget from the first sketch.
- Plans, permit answers, and construction come from the same people.
- The bid and the drawings grow up together, so approval day is a start date conversation.
- One license, CA General B #1151759, accountable for all of it.
The same logic runs our general contracting and whole-home work.
Where we do this work.
- Escondido Deep North County lots with room for detached units.
- Chula Vista ADUs and garage conversions across the South Bay.
- Oceanside Backyard units from the coast inland along the 76.
- Poway Family compounds on lots that were built for this.
- San Marcos New units behind homes from Lake San Marcos to San Elijo Hills.
ADU questions, answered.
How much does it cost to build an ADU in San Diego?
We bid each unit individually because the site decides so much of the number: utility runs, slope, access, size, and how much kitchen and bathroom you want. What we promise is the shape of the process: a feasibility conversation, a site walkthrough, then one written number for an agreed scope, with changes priced and approved before extra work happens. The estimate is free.
How long does an ADU take, start to finish?
There are two clocks: permit review and construction. The permit clock depends on how clean the plan set is, which is why ours are drawn by the architect who will answer the corrections. The construction clock depends on size and site. You get both estimates with the bid, based on your property rather than a marketing average.
What are the ADU requirements in San Diego?
The rules keep getting friendlier, and they keep changing, which is exactly why we do not summarize San Diego ADU regulations in a paragraph that could be stale by spring. The durable facts: most single-family lots here can add at least one unit, setbacks for ADUs are reduced compared to a house, and the review process is streamlined by state law. What your specific lot allows is a feasibility question we answer with the address in hand.
Can you convert my garage into an ADU?
Usually, yes. A garage conversion in San Diego keeps the existing footprint, which contains cost, and the work goes into what you cannot see: slab evaluation, insulation from garage-grade to living-grade, ceiling height, and a proper wet core. When a garage is a bad candidate, we say so at the walkthrough and price the better path instead.
What is the difference between a JADU and an ADU?
A junior ADU is a small unit, capped in size, carved out of the existing house, with an efficiency kitchen and its own entrance. A full ADU is a complete independent dwelling, attached or detached, with no such cap on ambition. Some lots can have both. Which combination makes sense is a zoning and family-plan question we sort out in the feasibility conversation.
Do you handle the ADU plans and design?
Yes, and it is the reason to call us specifically: the ADU architect work, the floor plans, and the permit submission happen on the same team as the construction. Design decisions get made with the budget and the build in the room, which is how the approved plans end up being the built plans.
Can I build a two-story ADU?
On many lots, yes, and on tight lots a 2 story ADU is often the only way to get real square footage. The tradeoffs are structural cost, stairs eating floor area, and neighbor sightlines, which the design has to respect. Where footprint is the constraint, going up is a conversation worth having at the site walkthrough.
What warranty comes with an ADU build?
Our labor carries a one-year written warranty, on top of the manufacturer warranties for systems and materials, which pass through to you. An ADU is a small house, and we treat the warranty conversation the same way we would on any home we build: in writing, before you sign anything.
Ask a San Diego ADU builder what your lot allows.
Call or text (619) 925-6087 with the address, or send the form. The feasibility conversation and the estimate are both free.