If you don’t want to spend a good chunk of your budget on paying a designer to develop a floor plan for your unit, you don’t have to. Thanks to a variety of cities taking action against the homelessness crisis, there are now free ADU floor plans for you to choose from.
Where To Find Free Floor Plans
In states like California, the homelessness crisis is a major concern. To combat it, many states are starting to encourage ADU development as an affordable housing option for low-income families. To encourage this development, grants like the CalHFA grant have been developed, along with a number of special programs. As a part of these programs, pre-approved ADU floor plans have been created, and some of them are free.
Many cities have created free ADU floor plans, and many of them are pre-approved for use in that city. Cities like San Diego and Santa Cruz offer free floor plans you can find easily with a simple Google search. You need to be careful though, not all floor plans can be used outside of the city that created them. Also, not all free floor plans are pre-approved to expedite the permitting process.
Talk with your local government to see if they offer free ADU floor plans, or consult an ADU expert in your local area.
Should You Use Free Floor Plans?
There are benefits and drawbacks to using free ADU floor plans. The main benefit is that they save you time and money during the design phase. You won’t need to hire an expensive designer to create a floor plan for you and you can instantly download it to move onto the planning phase.
However, there are not many options when it comes to free ADU floor plans. You are severely limited and have no control over the design aspects. Your ADU will be very basic.
However, you can buy ADU floor plans. There are a lot more options to choose from and most are customizable to an extent. You have to pay for them, but they are much more affordable than paying a designer to design from scratch.