ADU Builder & Contractor in Palo Alto

Palo Alto is not one kind of neighborhood, and that changes how we approach every accessory dwelling unit here. A post and beam Eichler in Greenmeadow has an exposed roof structure and a slab that behaves nothing like the raised foundation under a 1920s home in Professorville. Ranch homes in Barron Park and Midtown sit differently again, often on wider lots with a detached garage already near the rear property line.

As an ADU builder and contractor in Palo Alto, we read the house and the parcel together before anything gets drawn. Setbacks, protected trees, and where utilities enter the property decide far more about your unit than any floor plan you found online.

State law has removed most of the discretion cities once had over ADUs. It limits how far a city can restrict unit size, parking, and owner occupancy, and it requires ministerial review, which means a compliant application is approved without a discretionary hearing.

What still varies is the counter you walk up to. Palo Alto runs its own planning and building review, with its own submittal requirements, plan check comments, and inspection scheduling. The city also takes tree protection seriously, and a mature coast live oak or redwood near your rear yard can move a detached unit several feet or change its footprint entirely. We check the trees at the same time we check the setbacks, because finding out later is expensive.

We run ADU projects as design build, which means the same team handles design, permitting, and construction. The alternative, where a designer produces a set, hands it off, and disappears at bid time, is where budgets tend to break. When the people drawing the unit are the people building it, the plan reflects real costs and real site conditions from the beginning.

It also gives you one point of contact. Homeowners searching for ADU contractors near me are usually trying to avoid coordinating four separate parties, and a single general contractor removes exactly that. Our ADU contractor services page covers what each phase includes.

If you are weighing an ADU on your Palo Alto lot, the useful first step is a straight conversation about what the parcel allows and what it will take to build. Get in touch with our team and we will take a look.