Decks & Patios in Sherman Oaks
Fired clay brick patios, shade planning and LADBS-reviewed covers and decks for Sherman Oaks lots with an ADU, drawn on one set by Cedarline Design Build.
Fired clay brick carries its color through the whole body of each brick, so hard inland sun finds no coating to bleach or peel. For a patio at the door of a Sherman Oaks ADU, that makes brick our first suggestion. Kiln-fired clay also keeps its size and shape while dry wind pulls moisture out of the yard, and a cracked brick lifts out and gets replaced without cutting its neighbors. A matte, mid-tone blend keeps glare off the unit's windows.
Laying brick between two doors
Brick goes down on a compacted crushed-rock base, dug deep enough that the finished surface lands a comfortable step below the ADU threshold. A steel or concrete edge restraint holds the outer row, so the field cannot creep into the planting beds. The surface falls gently away from both the unit and the main house toward a drain inlet or a planted strip, and the joints take a stabilized fill that hardens once it is wetted. A running bond or a herringbone pattern changes how the patio reads from each door, and a soldier course can show where the patio for one home ends.
Shade over the brick
Masonry soaks up warmth through the day and gives it back slowly after sunset, pleasant for an evening table and less so for a midday chair. A patio cover or a tree planted on the sunny side of the brick answers that. Any roofed cover, freestanding or tied to the ADU, counts as a structure under the Los Angeles building code, so its posts, footings and uplift hardware go on the plans for LADBS to review. A tree needs no permit, though its roots want clearance from the unit's foundation and sewer lateral, so we place it on the site plan along with the building.
Decks & Patios in Sherman Oaks: common questions
Each door gets a landing of its own, and the brick between them follows. Brick can run in one color under both homes while the bond pattern turns at the boundary, so the yard reads as a single garden with two rooms. A hedge in a raised bed or a change of a single step in level adds privacy where the doors face each other.
Within Los Angeles, a detached deck stays exempt only while it is no more than 30 inches above grade, no larger than 200 square feet and does not serve an exit door. Past any of those limits, or once it attaches to a building, it goes to LADBS. Roofed patio covers get reviewed as well, while brick or concrete laid flat on the ground usually does not.
Yes. The patio's finished height is tied to the ADU threshold, and any cover or raised deck shares the unit's setbacks, so one Sherman Oaks plan set keeps those figures in agreement. LADBS can then check the outdoor structures in the same review, and footings near the unit get inspected alongside its foundation work.
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