A free site visit, a check of what your lot allows and a written, line-item price.
Get your free estimateFast, Reliable ADU Builders Across Santa Ana
If you’re looking for ADU Builders who understand Santa Ana’s older housing stock, you’ve found the right team. Lodgewick ADU Orange County builds detached ADUs, garage conversions, and JADUs for homeowners in Santa Ana, and we price the job based on what’s actually inside your walls before we ever hand you a contract. We work on the pre-1970s single-family homes that define this city, the ones with alley-loaded garages and 5,000 to 7,000 square foot lots where every square foot counts. Call (350) 203-6060 to schedule a free estimate with Russ Delmar and our Santa Ana crew.
Why Lodgewick ADU Orange County Is Santa Ana’s Preferred ADU Builders Company
Lodgewick ADU Orange County is the ADU company of the Kingswell family, established in 2010, and led by Russ Delmar. Homeowners in Santa Ana call us because they want a real number in writing before a single nail is driven, not a quote that changes the moment a wall gets opened. We’ve built enough ADUs in this city to know that Santa Ana’s aging homes hide things other builders would rather not think about until it’s too late. Our approach is inspection first: we look at your wiring, your framing, your foundation, and your setbacks before we give you a price.
Every project operates under The Kingswell Guarantee. Written price before work begins. A defined arrival window, so you know when our uniformed, background-checked crew shows up. A clean job site at the end of every day. A written guarantee on every build, with a free return visit if the work fails within the 365-day Done Right Promise period. A live person answers our phone 24/7, not a voicemail loop and not a chatbot. When you have a question about your Santa Ana ADU, you talk to someone who can actually answer it.
We know ADU Builders in Santa Ana face specific challenges. Alley-loaded setbacks shrink buildable footprints. Pre-1970s homes carry wiring that won’t pass current Title 24 electrical code. Termites have had six or seven decades to work on old sill plates. We budget for all of it upfront, in writing, so the price you approve is the price you build on.
JADU in Santa Ana
A JADU, or junior accessory dwelling unit, is a self-contained living space built inside the existing footprint of your Santa Ana home, typically converting a spare bedroom or part of a garage into a space with its own kitchenette, sleeping area, and entrance. It maxes out at 500 square feet, which makes it one of the most cost-effective ways to add rentable square footage or a private space for family on lots that can’t support a full detached ADU. In Santa Ana, where so many homes sit on 5,000 to 7,000 square foot lots, a JADU often pencils out at $95,000 to $150,000 depending on whether you’re converting finished space or opening up a garage bay.
Garage-to-JADU Conversions on Tight Lots
Many Santa Ana homeowners choose a JADU over a detached ADU because the lot simply won’t allow a second structure once setbacks and parking are accounted for. Converting attached garage space into a JADU keeps the footprint unchanged while adding a legal dwelling unit with its own entrance. The trade-off is that you lose covered parking, and the city may require you to demonstrate you have the replacement parking or qualify for an exemption under Santa Ana’s ADU ordinance.
What a Santa Ana JADU Permit Actually Triggers
When you convert living space in a pre-1970s Santa Ana home, the permit opens the walls to inspection. That means any outdated wiring behind them, from original knob-and-tube to older aluminum runs, has to be brought up to current code before we close things back up. We write an electrical allowance into every JADU contract we do in Santa Ana, so a surprise like that is priced and approved in writing before we touch it, never sprung on you after the fact.
ADU Plans in Santa Ana
ADU Plans are the architectural and structural drawings your Santa Ana project needs before permits can be issued, and they matter more in this city than almost anywhere else in Orange County. Santa Ana has a proactive ADU ordinance with pre-approved plan options that can bypass months of design review, and knowing how to trigger that checklist is the difference between breaking ground in weeks and waiting on a plan checker for half a year. A typical ADU plan set in Santa Ana runs $4,500 to $12,000 depending on whether you’re adapting a pre-approved design or drawing a custom detached unit from scratch.
Pre-Approved Plan Shortcuts
The pre-approved plans Santa Ana keeps on file cover the most common detached ADU and garage conversion scenarios. If your project fits one of those footprints, we submit to the city with a far shorter review window. If it doesn’t, and your lot has the alley-loaded setbacks and small dimensions common in Washington Square and other older Santa Ana neighborhoods, we draw a custom plan that works with your actual property lines instead of fighting them.
Setbacks and the Alley Problem
Most pre-1970s Santa Ana homes were built with detached garages facing alleys, and that layout shapes every ADU plan we draw. The buildable footprint behind the house is often narrower than homeowners expect once rear and side setbacks are applied, which is why we survey and measure before a single line gets put on paper. A plan drawn without respecting those setbacks will bounce back at permit submittal, and you’ll pay for the redesign twice.
Trusted Brands We Service in Santa Ana
Lodgewick installs and services ADUs from manufacturers we trust, and we match the brand to your Santa Ana lot, budget, and timeline. We work with Abodu and Cover for prefab detached units that install in a fraction of site-built time, and we work with Mighty Buildings for panelized construction when your lot access is tight and you want precision off a factory floor. We also handle custom site-built ADUs when the right answer is stick framing and local labor. We stock common components for Santa Ana jobs locally, which means less waiting on a truck from out of state when a change order comes through.
Common ADU Builders Problems We See in Santa Ana Homes
- Outdated wiring behind closed walls. Original knob-and-tube and aluminum wiring in pre-1970s Santa Ana homes won’t pass a Title 24 electrical inspection once walls are open. We contract an electrical allowance from day one so the upgrade is priced, not a surprise.
- Termite damage and dry rot in old garage framing. Decade after decade of Santa Ana’s dry heat and occasional wet winters takes a toll on untreated sill plates and bottom chords. We open and inspect framing during the estimate phase, which most builders won’t do before quoting.
- Alley-loaded setbacks that shrink the buildable area. Detached garages on alleys mean the rear of the property isn’t as deep as the lot line suggests. A plan drawn without measuring setbacks first will fail review and need a costly redraw.
- Skipping the pre-approved plan checklist. Santa Ana maintains pre-approved ADU plan options that drastically shorten design review. Builders who don’t know the city’s ordinance well enough to trigger that checklist put clients through months of waiting they didn’t need.
Pricing for ADU Builders in Santa Ana, CA
Here are honest numbers for Santa Ana’s market, based on the jobs we’ve built in this city. A garage conversion into a JADU or full ADU typically runs $110,000 to $185,000 depending on the condition of the existing structure and the electrical work the permit triggers. A detached backyard ADU on a 5,000 to 7,000 square foot Santa Ana lot usually falls between $185,000 and $290,000 for a unit in the 400 to 800 square foot range. Prefab installations from manufacturers like Abodu or Cover can tighten labor costs but don’t eliminate site work like foundations, utility trenching, and the inevitable electrical service upgrade on older homes. To get an exact number, call (350) 203-6060. The estimate is free, it’s a written line-item price, and it won’t change unless you approve a change order in writing.
We Also Serve Cities Near Santa Ana
Lodgewick ADU Orange County serves homeowners throughout the surrounding area, including Tustin, Costa Mesa, Midway City, and Anaheim. Dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from the brand’s Los Angeles office, and our crews serve Santa Ana locally. If your property sits just outside the city line, we’d still be glad to walk the lot and give you a real number in writing.
Serving Santa Ana, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Santa Ana area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About ADU Builders in Santa Ana
A full electrical service upgrade is needed on most Santa Ana garage conversions because the original 60-amp or 100-amp panel and outdated branch wiring feeding the garage can’t support the added load of a dwelling unit under current Title 24 code. Once the walls are open, any knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring must be replaced, and the panel typically needs to go to 200 amps, which is why we write a rewiring allowance into every Santa Ana garage conversion contract before the first wall comes down. That way the cost is approved in writing, not discovered mid-project. Call (350) 203-6060 for a free estimate that includes this from the start.
Yes, if your detached garage and lot match one of the footprint options Santa Ana keeps on file as pre-approved, you can skip most of the design review process and get to permit far faster. We check your project against the city’s pre-approved plan checklist before we recommend a path, and if you don’t qualify, we tell you upfront and draw a custom plan around your actual setbacks. Call (350) 203-6060 and we’ll measure your garage and lot and tell you which option you qualify for.
We handle termite and dry rot by inspection first and a structural repair allowance written into the contract before work begins, so when we open a 1950s Santa Ana garage and find damaged sill plates or framing, the repair is already budgeted as a line item. You approve the add in writing the same day we find it, and the project timeline absorbs the fix without derailing the permit. That’s the inspection-first approach Russ Delmar has run at Lodgewick since 2010, and it’s why our quotes don’t move the way other Santa Ana builders’ quotes do.
No, adding an alley-facing entrance to your ADU in Washington Square keeps your street frontage completely unchanged, which is one of the reasons that conversion pattern works so well in that neighborhood. The primary house still presents to the street the way it has for sixty or seventy years, while the ADU gets its own private access from the alley. Santa Ana inspectors see this configuration regularly, and it’s a pattern we’ve built successfully multiple times.
The biggest cost variable in a Santa Ana backyard ADU is the condition of what’s underground and behind the walls: electrical panel capacity, sewer line location and condition, and foundation or framing issues in any existing structure you’re tying into. On a 5,000 square foot lot, you’re also paying for every square foot of footprint and the setbacks that constrain it, which is why we survey, inspect, and price all of these factors before we quote rather than after we’ve started digging.
Written by Russ Delmar, Owner at Lodgewick ADU Orange County, serving Santa Ana since the company’s founding in 2010.
Get Your Santa Ana ADU Estimate in Writing
If you live in Santa Ana and you’re serious about building an ADU, a JADU, or converting your garage, call (350) 203-6060 and ask for a free estimate. Russ Delmar and our crew will walk your lot, inspect the structure, check your panel, measure your setbacks, and give you a written line-item price that reflects what’s actually inside your walls. No ballpark ranges without an inspection. No price changes at the door. Just a number in writing, an arrival window, and a guarantee that the work gets done right or we come back and fix it. That’s The Kingswell Way, and it’s how every Lodgewick Santa Ana project works.
