A free site visit, a check of what your lot allows and a written, line-item price.
Get your free estimateFast, Reliable ADU Builders Across Emeryville
Building an ADU in Emeryville means working with a city where most homes predate 1980 and many garages date to the 1920s and 1930s. That changes everything about how a build should be priced and planned. Our ADU Builders team has opened enough Emeryville walls to know what’s behind them: balloon framing, missing footings, knob-and-tube wiring, and undersized headers. We quote the real number before work starts, not after demo day. If you’re weighing a detached ADU, a garage conversion, or a junior unit, call (707) 760-0502 and we’ll walk the lot with you.
Why Lodgewick ADU San Francisco Is Emeryville’s Preferred ADU Builders Company
Russ Delmar leads our team, and he’s built a reputation in Emeryville around one habit: writing down what we’ll do and what it costs before anyone swings a hammer. Homeowners here have told us they’ve been burned by contractors who quote low, open a wall, and then hand over a change order for twice the job. That’s not how we operate. The Kingswell Guarantee is a written document on every project: a written price first, a defined arrival window, a clean job site, and a written guarantee. If the work isn’t right within 365 days, we come back and make it right. No phone tag. A live person answers when you call, any hour.
We know Emeryville lots are tight. We know the marine layer sits over Christy Avenue the same way it sits over the Bay Street blocks. We know the difference between a pre-1950 detached garage off Hollis Street and one behind a condo complex near the Emeryville Marina. That local familiarity means our inspection catches the structural issues before they become your surprise invoice.
ADU Plans in Emeryville
ADU Plans in Emeryville are where most builds either succeed or quietly go wrong. A plan set for an accessory dwelling unit here has to account for a lot more than square footage: it has to reflect what’s actually inside your existing walls, what the Emeryville permit desk will flag, and what the structural engineer will require once rot or missing footings are discovered. Most Emeryville homeowners need professional ADU plans whenever they’re converting a pre-1950 garage, adding a detached unit to a narrow lot, or building a JADU inside an existing home. Plan costs for a typical Emeryville ADU run $4,000 to $9,000 depending on structural scope and engineering review.
Structural discovery before the drawings are final
We don’t draw plans in a vacuum. Before a line is set, we open exploratory access points at the foundation, the roof connection, and the electrical panel. In Emeryville, that step alone routinely changes the plan set. A garage that looks square from the street often has a slab with no perimeter footing and walls that were never tied to anything stronger than old redwood siding.
Code-trigger reviews baked into the plan
Our plans include a written list of every code upgrade the permit will trigger: electrical panel capacity, shear wall requirements, egress window sizes, and insulation minimums. You’ll see those line items in the plan phase, not after the inspector walks the site. That’s the difference between a plan that prices the build and a plan that just gets the permit.
ADU Contractor in Emeryville
An ADU Contractor in Emeryville has to do more than frame walls and hang drywall. The job here means assessing a 90-year-old garage that was never meant to be lived in, reinforcing it to current seismic and building code, and then building a comfortable, rentable home on a lot that might be 3,000 square feet. Homeowners typically call us when the garage has become a storage problem, when an aging parent needs a place on the property, or when rental income would offset a mortgage. General contracting for a garage conversion in Emeryville runs $180,000 to $320,000; a detached stick-built ADU starts around $250,000 and can exceed $400,000 with site work and utility trenching.
The pre-1950 garage reality
In Emeryville, many of the garages we convert were built between 1920 and 1945 with no foundation beyond a floated slab and no header over the door opening. That’s not a defect, it’s simply how they built then. Converting one into a legal ADU almost always means pouring new footings around the entire perimeter and installing an engineered beam where the old roll-up door hung. We price that work up front, with allowance line items you approve in writing.
Permit-ready crews
Our crews have worked through Emeryville’s permit process enough times to know what the inspector will check. We pull permits, schedule inspections, and stand with you through the final sign-off. No homeowner should play project manager on a build this size.
Trusted Brands We Service in Emeryville
We work with established manufacturers and materials that hold up in Emeryville’s damp, salt-touched air. For prefab and panelized ADUs, we’ve installed Abodu and Cover units, and we regularly recommend them for Emeryville lots where crane access or a compact footprint makes site-built framing slower and more expensive. For exterior cladding and trim, we use James Hardie siding and backer products, which resist the moisture wicking and mold problems that standard housewrap and cheap drywall create in coastal-influenced buildings. For garage conversions that keep the original structure, we often use Tuff Shed components for roof and wall assemblies. Because we stock and order from these manufacturers regularly, Emeryville homeowners get faster material lead times than a general contractor ordering one-off.
Common ADU Builders Problems We See in Emeryville Homes
- Missing footings under pre-1950 garage slabs. A garage that’s stood for 80 years can still have no foundation by current code. Converting it means pouring new footings, and that work has to happen before any framing or finishes. We catch it in the inspection, not the first week of demo.
- Balloon framing with no header over the old door opening. Many Emeryville garages from the 1920s and 1930s were framed without a proper header. The moment you widen an opening or tie a new roof to those walls, the inspector will require an engineered LVL beam and new shear connections.
- Knob-and-tube wiring hidden behind drywall and plaster. Opening walls often reveals wiring that was never designed for a modern electrical load. Once visible, it triggers a full circuit replacement under permit, which can add $8,000 to $18,000 to a conversion. We write that allowance into the contract before walls are open.
- Moisture wicking through standard envelope materials. Emeryville’s marine layer means prolonged damp exposure. An ADU built with basic housewrap and interior-grade drywall near the bay will grow mold behind the walls within a few rainy seasons. We specify moisture barriers and cement board from the start.
Pricing for ADU Builders in Emeryville, CA
Here are real numbers for Emeryville, not a vague “it depends.” A JADU inside an existing home typically runs $90,000 to $150,000. A garage conversion that keeps the original structure runs $180,000 to $320,000, and the spread depends mostly on whether footings and seismic upgrades are needed. A detached one-bedroom ADU starts around $250,000 and goes up from there with utility trenching, site drainage, and material selections. Prefab units from Abodu or Cover generally fall between $200,000 and $350,000 all-in for Emeryville lots. Every estimate is free, written, and itemized before you sign anything.
We Also Serve Cities Near Emeryville
Our crews regularly build across the East Bay. We serve Emeryville plus Oakland, Orinda, Richmond, and San Francisco. If you’re in one of those cities and comparing ADU contractors, the same Kingswell Guarantee applies: written price, real arrival window, clean site, and a written 365-day guarantee on the work.
Serving Emeryville, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Emeryville area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About ADU Builders in Emeryville
Emeryville’s housing stock is older on average than Oakland’s or Berkeley’s when you look at how many garages date to before 1950. A pre-1950 garage conversion here almost always needs new perimeter footings and wall reinforcement, which is a $25,000 to $60,000 structural scope before any finishes. Oakland and Berkeley have newer infill housing in places, which changes the mix. The other factor is lot size: Emeryville’s small parcels often require creative site access, hand trenching, or crane scheduling that adds cost. Call (707) 760-0502 for a written estimate based on your specific garage.
The most common triggers are electrical, structural, and egress. If the walls hide knob-and-tube wiring, the inspector will require a new circuit run and possibly a panel upgrade. If the walls lack shear strength, the permit will mandate plywood shear panels or a steel moment frame. If any new bedroom has a window that doesn’t meet current egress size, that opening must be enlarged or added. Each of these is a known, predictable scope item. We price them as written allowances in your contract, so the permit review doesn’t become a surprise. Call (707) 760-0502 to review your specific wall assembly.
We open a few strategic inspection points before we write the estimate, which means most “unexpected” framing damage is already documented. If we do find rot or failed framing that was impossible to see until walls came down, the written allowance in your contract covers that exact scope. You approve the additional line item in writing before we proceed. Nothing moves without your sign-off. That’s The Kingswell Way: price before work, every time. Call (707) 760-0502 and we’ll show you what an allowance clause actually looks like in plain English.
Most Emeryville homes built before 1980 have 100-amp panels or less. Adding an ADU, even a small studio, usually pushes the load calculation over that capacity for a permitted build. A panel upgrade to 200 amps typically runs $4,000 to $8,000. If your panel is in the garage you’re converting, the relocation is extra and gets priced separately. We’ll check the panel during the initial site walk, not after the permit is submitted. Call (707) 760-0502 for a free estimate that includes the panel line item.
Yes, and it’s one of the most common scenarios in Emeryville. The old garage either gets reinforced with new footings and a seismic retrofit, or it gets demolished and replaced with a new structure on a proper foundation. The decision usually comes down to whether the existing walls and roof are worth saving. A garage with straight walls and sound framing can be retrofitted for $25,000 to $50,000 in structural work. One with severe rot or racking is often cheaper to tear down and rebuild fresh. We’ll give you a written comparison of both options before you choose. Call (707) 760-0502.
Written by Russ Delmar, Owner at Lodgewick ADU San Francisco, serving Emeryville and the East Bay since 2010.
