ADU Construction in San Pedro, Footing to Roof
Backyard units and garage conversions in San Pedro, built on engineered footings with roof runoff piped clear of the new slab and the old house.
Every gallon a San Pedro ADU roof collects gets a path on the drawings before we pour, since its worst destination is the soil under the new footing. One slope toward open yard, a gutter along the low edge and solid pipe out past the foundation line keep the ground under the slab at an even moisture. Soil that wets and dries unevenly heaves, and a footing riding on it cracks. On a coastal lot, gutters go up in aluminum and straps in coated steel.
From rafters to anchor bolts
Weight takes its own route down. Rafters or trusses hand the roof load to the walls, plywood shear panels and hold-down straps carry the sideways push of an earthquake to the floor, and anchor bolts tie the bottom plate into concrete. A light roof covering keeps weight off the top of the walls, so those walls have less to resist when the ground moves. Where the footing runs under a shear wall, the engineer may call for a deeper or wider section, and we form it to that drawing. Inspectors look at the bolts, the straps and the nailing before any wall is closed in.
Permit path for a San Pedro lot
Permits here come from LADBS, the building agency of the City of Los Angeles, which takes in San Pedro as one of its communities. A parcel near the water may also fall within the state coastal zone, and when it does, a coastal sign-off may come before the building permit. We look up that status for the lot early. Should the soil prove soft, a soils report sets the footing depth and the structural sheets follow it. Our office prepares the set, answers each plan check comment and books inspections from the open trench through final.
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ADU Construction in San Pedro: questions
A detached unit here typically rests on a concrete slab with a thickened perimeter footing, or on a raised wood floor framed over a concrete stem wall. The engineer picks between them from the soil and the design, then sets the bolt spacing and the hold-down locations that tie the frame to the concrete.
Sometimes, if the old slab edge and its footing measure up to the new load. Converting turns a car shelter into a bedroom, so the walls now need shear capacity and bolts into concrete. When the existing edge is shallow or cracked, we cut in new footing sections under those walls and leave the rest of the slab in place.
San Pedro units qualify when they stay on one floor and come in at 500 square feet or under, and larger or two-story designs get a price once we have seen the lot. In San Pedro we give the site plan and the structural sheets the most drafting time, the first to mark setbacks and coastal status, the second to detail every shear wall.
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Describe the house and what it needs. We look at the structure first and send the quote in writing.