Does an ADU Make Sense for You?
ADUs are all the rage in Boulder. And why not?! They have tremendous upside and provide a ton of flexibility to a property with a single family home. So, what is an ADU? It stands for Accessory Dwelling Unit, and in essence it is a second home or apartment on the property where there’s already a stand alone single family house. The City of Boulder has loosened up the rules around ADUs recently, but there are still very strict parameters you must follow to get one approved by the city’s planning department. Please call us up and we’ll help you figure out if it’s right for your home!
For this project, the homeowners wanted to convert their existing 2-car detached garage into an ADU. Their goals were to have a simple one bedroom studio space with a small kitchen and a bathroom. They wanted to maintain one of the bays of the garage for bikes and outdoor toys. At first blush, this makes perfect sense. The building structure is already there. The foundation, walls, and roof were in good shape. Add some insulation and some heating and you’re done, right? Well, not quite.
The first hurdle we had to jump was how to provide off-street parking since we were eliminating the parking provided by the old garage. We were lucky in this case because there was enough space between the existing garage and the sideyard property line to provide a legitimate parking space.
The second hurdle was that we had to get water and sewer services to this old garage. This required a carefully dug trench between the garage and the house, while missing the concrete patio and a 50-year old maple tree. We debated if hot water should come from the main house but decided to provide a separate water heater in the ADU to service the space.
The third hurdle was how to create an efficient building envelope for the new conditioned space. Picture yourself in an old garage in the winter. It’s going to be cold. Even if we add aggressive insulation to the walls and ceilings, the concrete floor is still going to be icy cold. To counteract this, we installed 2” of rigid foam insulation over the garage slab, then tongue and groove plywood, and then LVP finish flooring. This detail maintained maximum ceiling height and created a thermal break between the conditioned studio space and the cold concrete floor.
In conclusion, while we had our fair share of logistical challenges, converting this garage into an ADU made a ton of sense. ADUs add a tremendous amount of functional and financial value to your property. Most famously, you can rent them out for added income. We’ve also seen them become mother-in-law apartments for multigenerational families, home offices, teenager living zones, or simply a place to get away.