Lakewood ADU Construction
Lakewood ADU and JADU planning in phases: Cedarline sizes the panel and sewer for both units, then designs, permits and builds each one to final inspection.
"If we build the junior unit inside the house now, can a backyard cottage still follow?" For a single-family Lakewood lot the answer is generally yes, since state law allows one JADU and one ADU on the same parcel. Planning both at once helps: we size the panel and the sewer branch for the later unit and keep its footprint clear while the first one is built.
Phasing the JADU and the cottage
Doing the JADU first converts a bedroom on an exterior wall into a small studio with its own door and an efficiency kitchen. The backyard unit can follow when the budget allows. To avoid digging twice, the first permit can include a sleeve under the walk, a capped sewer stub and a panel sized for both units. We also mark the future unit's setbacks and access path so a patio or new planting does not block it later. Each phase gets its own permit, its own final inspection and its own written price.
How the types compare on one plan
Privacy, cost and yard space pull in different directions. A freestanding cottage keeps two homes apart but needs its own footing and the longest trenches. Joining a unit to the house trims plumbing runs and spends one shared wall. A garage turned into a unit gives up storage and parking in exchange for a shell already standing. The junior unit uses floor area you already heat and cool. Seeing every option drawn on one plan of your Lakewood lot makes the choice concrete, and the phasing question answers itself once the costs sit side by side.
ADU Construction in Lakewood: common questions
We measure the rear yard, the garage and the bedroom wing of the house first. With those numbers we show whether a detached unit clears the side and rear setbacks, whether an attached one would block existing windows, whether the garage is sound and whether a bedroom with an outside wall could become a JADU.
Lakewood screens ADU applications for zoning under the state ADU statute, and building plan check then reviews structure and energy. When a JADU and an ADU are planned together, we file them so the reviewer can see both on the site plan and the floor plan at once. Each correction is answered in writing.
It will. The state ADU statute stops the city from demanding parking to make up for a converted garage. The garage must still work as a home, which means a floor that can take plumbing, walls that can be insulated and the old car opening reframed into a wall with a proper entry.
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