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 San Rafael
Building an ADU in San Rafael means working with the hills, not against them. Our crews know the difference between a flat lot in Terra Linda and a slope behind the Dominican University campus, and we design accordingly. Call (707) 760-0502 to schedule a free on-site consultation in San Rafael, and we’ll give you a written price before any plans are drawn.
Lodgewick ADU San Francisco is the ADU company of the Kingswell family, established in 2010. Every project operates under The Kingswell Guarantee: a written price before work begins, a defined arrival window, a clean job site, and a written guarantee on every job. If the work isn’t right within 365 days, we come back and make it right. Free.
Why Lodgewick ADU San Francisco Is San Rafael’s Preferred ADU Builders Company
San Rafael homeowners keep calling us because we show up when we say we will and we put the price in writing before the first nail. The Kingswell Way means saying the price before the work, showing up in the window given, leaving the place cleaner than we found it, putting the guarantee in writing, and coming back if anything fails. A lodge is a small house on a larger property. That’s exactly what an ADU is, and it’s what we build.
Russ Delmar leads our San Rafael ADU team. He’s walked Dominican slopes that look flat on paper but fail under a wet winter, and he’s coordinated with Marin County plan checkers on daylight plane appeals for 1960s ranchers. We work with local architects and structural engineers who know San Rafael’s hillside ordinances. No generic flat-lot assumptions. No surprises when the soils report comes back.
Dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from our San Francisco Bay Area office, and our background-checked, uniformed crews serve San Rafael locally. A live person answers every call, 24/7. No voicemail loops, no chat bots.
JADU in San Rafael
A JADU in San Rafael is a Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit: a compact living space created within the footprint of an existing single-family home. Think of it as converting a spare bedroom, den, or original carport into an independent studio with its own entrance, kitchenette, and bathroom. In San Rafael’s Dominican neighborhood, many 1960s ranchers have original carports that are prime JADU conversion candidates, but the city’s daylight plane rules effectively prohibit second-story additions and push designs toward single-level or step-down conversions.
A typical JADU conversion in San Rafael runs $85,000 to $160,000, depending on whether you’re working inside existing walls or excavating a carport into the hillside.
Carport-to-JADU Conversions in Dominican
On a sloping Dominican lot with a 1962 rancher, we converted the original carport into a 480-square-foot JADU for a homeowner who needed a place for an aging parent. The city’s daylight plane rules eliminated any second-story option, so our crew regraded and terraced the driveway apron, poured a stepped foundation with deep retaining walls, and installed a custom French drain system tied to the existing storm line to handle the winter runoff from the hill above. We coordinated with the architect on a lower-pitched roof to stay under the plane and specified James Hardie siding and a custom millwork window seat that doubled as storage.
The drywall was delayed six weeks because the homeowner chose a specialty lime plaster finish that had to be ordered from a Bay Area artisan, but the contract price was fixed in writing before we ordered any long-lead material.
Interior JADUs Within the Existing Home
When there’s a spare bedroom or a large laundry room inside the house, a JADU conversion avoids most hillside foundation work entirely. These projects run $85,000 to $130,000 and typically finish in eight to twelve weeks once permits clear. The catch is San Rafael’s energy and egress requirements: the unit needs its own exterior door, a kitchenette with a sink, and a bathroom that meets current code, which sometimes means rerouting plumbing through a 1960s slab.
ADU Plans in San Rafael
ADU Plans in San Rafael are the architectural drawings and structural calculations required for a Marin County building permit. Before you spend a dollar on an adjustable-rate construction loan, you need a plan set that accounts for San Rafael’s hillside geotechnical constraints, daylight plane rules, and stormwater drainage requirements. We prepare and submit these plans with a local architect and structural engineer who understand what the plan checkers will flag on a sloping Dominican or Glenwood lot.
Complete ADU plan sets for San Rafael typically run $8,000 to $18,000, including site survey, soil report coordination, and permit submission.
What San Rafael Plan Checkers Actually Flag
Plan checkers in San Rafael look at drainage before anything else. On hillside lots, you’ll need a graded site plan that shows where seasonal rainwater goes, plus retaining wall details if you’re cutting into a slope. They also enforce the daylight plane rules strictly: if your design pokes above the plane, it goes back for redesign, and that redesign is where the schedule and the price start to move.
Fixed-Price Plans Before Long-Lead Orders
We write the plan price before we order anything, and the plan set stays in your name. If you decide to build with a different contractor after plans are approved, the drawings are yours. But if you build with us, the plan fee is credited against the construction contract.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Rafael
We work with ADU Builders who know how to specify materials that hold up to Marin’s wet winters, and we match each homeowner’s lot, budget, and timeline to the right brand. On San Rafael hillsides, we regularly specify James Hardie fiber cement siding because it handles winter moisture better than wood and meets the city’s fire-resistance requirements for hillside structures. We also install Plant Prefab units and Boxabl modules when a faster, factory-built shell makes sense on a tight Dominican lot. Your designer or architect chooses the finish level; we lock the material pricing in writing before ordering.
Common ADU Builders Problems We See in San Rafael Homes
- Slope-blind plans that die at the soil report. A designer draws a flat-lot foundation on a San Rafael hillside, the geotechnical report comes back with expansive clay, and the whole plan set has to be redrawn. That’s $10,000 and six months gone. We take soil samples before we draw the first line.
- Daylight plane violations on Dominican ranchers. Many 1960s ranchers in the Dominican neighborhood can’t support a second-story ADU because the city’s daylight plane rules cut off vertical additions. We design step-down and single-level conversions that stay under the plane instead.
- Winter drainage failures on hillside builds. San Rafael’s wet winters send runoff down slopes that were barely stable in August. Without French drains and retaining walls tied to the storm line, a hillside ADU gets water in the foundation by February. We spec drainage with every hillside plan.
- Long-lead finishes that blow up the schedule and the price. Custom millwork from Bay Area cabinet shops runs 10 to 14 weeks during peak season, and architectural glass or specialty lime plaster can add another six. We lock pricing for these items in writing before ordering, so the price doesn’t move when the lead time does.
Pricing for ADU Builders in San Rafael, CA
A detached ADU in San Rafael runs roughly $320,000 to $500,000 for an 800-square-foot one-bedroom unit, depending on slope work and finish level. Garage and carport conversions land between $180,000 and $300,000. Junior ADUs start around $85,000 and top out near $160,000. Custom millwork, architectural glass, and limestone or lime plaster finishes push toward the top of these ranges.
San Rafael’s hillside lots add real cost: geotechnical reports, retaining walls, drainage systems, and step-down foundations add $40,000 to $100,000 compared to a flat lot in a flatter Marin neighbor. We give you a written line-item price before work starts, with no change orders unless you change the scope. Call (707) 760-0502 to schedule your free estimate. We’ll walk the lot, look at the soil, and tell you what’s realistic before you spend money on plans.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Rafael
Our crews serve ADU Builders in San Rafael and the surrounding Marin communities. We regularly schedule work in Corte Madera, Sausalito, and Richmond, and we coordinate projects across San Francisco for homeowners who need consistent crews from the same company on multiple properties.
Serving San Rafael, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Rafael 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 San Rafael
Daylight plane rules limit how much of your neighbor’s sunlight a structure can block, and on Dominican’s 1960s ranchers, that plane often cuts off second-story additions entirely. A carport conversion stays under the plane if we design a single-level or step-down unit that excavates into the hillside rather than building up. Before you commit, we check the parcel’s plane envelope and tell you what’s buildable. Call (707) 760-0502 to have us walk your lot and give you a written answer.
Expect expansive clay, seasonal groundwater, and slope-stability requirements that trigger a soils report, retaining wall engineering, and drainage design. San Rafael’s hilly terrain means many properties need custom foundations with deep piers or stepped footings before ADU construction can even be permitted. We handle the soil report and the engineering, and we give you a written price before work starts. Call (707) 760-0502 for a site walk and a realistic budget range.
Yes. Framing a 480-square-foot JADU takes three weeks. Waiting on a Bay Area cabinet shop for custom millwork can take 10 to 14 weeks during peak season, and architectural glass or specialty lime plaster can add six more. The schedule on high-end San Rafael ADUs is set by the long-lead items, not the crew. We order those items early and lock their pricing in writing before ordering, so you’re not paying surprise upcharges when the artisan finally delivers. Call (707) 760-0502 to discuss your timeline and finish level.
Sometimes, but not always. If the garage slab is in good shape and the lot’s slope is moderate, we can often convert the structure without tearing out the foundation. On steeper Dominican lots, the existing slab is usually undersized for habitable space, and you’ll need new footings and a retaining wall. We do a foundation assessment before any plans are drawn, and we tell you honestly which path your lot requires. Call (707) 760-0502 for a free evaluation.
You hire the architect and designer, or we bring in our local partners. Either way, we handle the structural engineering, the soils report, and the permit submission, and we meet with your design team before plans are finalized to flag any daylight plane or drainage issues that would send the plans back for revision. The price for construction is fixed in writing before we order any long-lead material, so the architect’s scope and our scope never conflict. Call (707) 760-0502 to start the conversation, and we’ll bring a written plan proposal to your first site meeting.
Written by Russ Delmar, Owner at Lodgewick ADU San Francisco, serving San Rafael and Marin County.
