Garage Conversions and Detached ADUs Across Los Angeles
Aggregate Construction Group is a design and build ADU contractor working across Los Angeles County, from garage conversions on standard residential lots to detached new construction in the San Fernando Valley and on the Westside. A garage conversion is usually the fastest and least expensive route to a legal second unit, because the slab, the walls, and the roof are already standing and the utilities sit close by. Detached units cost more and take longer, but the garage stays a garage and you keep full control over layout, ceiling height, and which way the windows face.
Lot conditions decide this more often than preference does. Setbacks, sewer lateral capacity, the size of the existing electrical panel, and whether the property falls inside a hillside or coastal overlay all narrow what is buildable before anyone draws anything. We run that feasibility check first, the same way we open every project as Sherman Oaks general contractors, so nobody pays for a set of plans the lot cannot carry.
The ADU Types We Build in Los Angeles
We build detached ADUs, attached units sharing a wall with the main house, garage conversions, above-garage units, and junior accessory dwelling units carved out of an existing bedroom with its own entrance and efficiency kitchen. Each type follows a different permit path and a different build sequence. A garage conversion means dealing with a slab that was never poured for living space, insulating a shell built to be unconditioned, and adding a separate subpanel. Detached construction means new foundation, new framing, and a utility trench back to the house or the street. The kitchen and bath inside the unit are built to the same standard as any bathroom remodel we do in the main house, because a rental unit gets harder use, not lighter.
California ADU Law and What Changed for Los Angeles Owners
State law now sits further in the property owner’s favor than at any point since ADU legislation began. AB 976 permanently removed local owner occupancy requirements, so the main house and the ADU can both be rented. AB 1332 requires every city to offer pre-approved ADU plans with a thirty day approval window, and Los Angeles runs its own ADU Standard Plan Program that takes months out of plan check. AB 2533 opened a legalization path for unpermitted units built before 2020, which matters given how many LA garages were converted without paperwork. AB 1033 lets participating cities, Los Angeles among them, allow an ADU to be sold separately as a condominium. The ADU statutes were renumbered in 2024 and now live at Government Code sections 66310 through 66342, so older city checklists still cite sections that no longer exist. Review of a complete application is ministerial and runs sixty days, and units under 750 square feet are exempt from impact fees.
Multifamily Lots and What SB 1211 Opened Up
SB 1211 took effect on January 1, 2025 and raised the detached ADU cap on lots with an existing multifamily building from two units to as many as eight, capped at the number of units already there. The same law stops cities from requiring replacement of uncovered off-street parking that gets removed to make room for an ADU, and that single change is what makes rear surface lots buildable. For owners of duplexes, fourplexes, and small apartment buildings, underused paving becomes rentable square footage. We already work these properties through our apartment renovation and exterior projects, so the crew that knows the building is the crew that adds to it.
From Feasibility Study to Certificate of Occupancy
The sequence runs feasibility and survey, schematic design, plan check submittal, permit issuance, site work and foundation, framing, rough-in for plumbing and electrical and mechanical, inspections, insulation and drywall, finishes, utility connections, and final sign off. Utilities are where Los Angeles schedules slip most, particularly LADWP service upgrades and sewer connections, so we file those applications early instead of when they turn urgent. Drawings and permit sets come out of our in-house design service, and built-ins, closets, and interior doors come out of our carpentry shop, which keeps the finish stage from waiting on an outside sub.
Licensing and How We Contract ADU Work
Aggregate Construction Group holds California contractor license number 1034714 and carries general liability and workers compensation coverage. ADU work is contracted with a written scope, a payment schedule tied to milestones rather than calendar dates, and change orders documented before the work proceeds. Request a feasibility walkthrough and we will tell you what the lot supports, which path is fastest, and what the honest timeline looks like, within one business day.