ADU Construction in Burbank
Burbank backyard units and garage conversions planned from the footing up, with each braced wall and anchor drawn before framing. Aspenwell Construction.
"Will the new unit move differently from our house in an earthquake?" On a first Burbank visit that question gets a plain yes. A detached ADU is its own building, with its own footings and its own braced walls, and it is designed to ride out the shaking alone. What protects it is a complete load path, roof sheathing to rafter ties to studs to sill to anchor bolt, drawn on paper and then built exactly as drawn.
Standing apart or joined to the house
A freestanding unit keeps a gap from the house so the two can sway without striking each other. An attached unit is different. Its new footing meets the old one, and the engineer decides whether the two are doweled together or left free with a flexible joint at the wall line. Where they are tied, the older foundation has to be sound enough to share the work, so we look at it from the crawlspace or the slab edge before that detail is drawn. The City of Burbank reviews the connection along with the rest of the structure.
Ground that stays put under the slab
Soil that swings between soaked and parched swells and shrinks, and a slab riding on it can crack at the corners. On an inland valley lot we pay attention to what keeps the ground under a unit even: irrigation lines rerouted away from the footprint, downspouts carried past the slab edge, and planting beds set back from the concrete. If tree roots run under the area, we find out how far before the layout is fixed, because a footing poured across a large root can be lifted by it later.
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ADU Construction in Burbank: questions
Usually a reinforced slab whose thickened edges carry the walls, sized by the engineer to what the ground can hold. A raised floor on short concrete walls is the other route, used when plumbing access matters or the soil calls for it. Either way the anchor bolts and hold-down rods go in with the concrete.
It depends on what the old garage stands on. Some have a proper footing under the walls, others only a slab edge a few inches thick. Living space needs braced walls, and braced walls need concrete deep enough to hold their anchors, so any stretch that falls short gets a new footing section.
Any ADU on one level that stays within 500 square feet: a backyard cottage, an addition joined to the house, or a converted garage. On a Burbank submittal the structural sheets hold the shear walls and anchors the unit depends on. Construction is quoted in writing once we have walked the lot.
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Describe the house and what it needs. We look at the structure first and send the quote in writing.