One Builder's Common Sense Approach to ADUs
/One Builder’s Basic Common Sense Approach to ADUs
ADUs for senior living can seem such a novel approach, with so much new think about in design, livability and code compliance. Builder Derek Huegel, though, thinks it’s not such big challenge and successful ADUs can be implemented with some basic common sense.
Huegel is owner of Wolf Industries, a Vancouver, Washington-based construction firm now offering detached ADUs (called, in some quarters, granny pods) for homeowners wishing to accommodate senior family members in a home-based supportive environment. Huegel says it isn’t necessary to reinvent the living “box” because the same design features that make life easier for anyone apply here.
For example, the loft bedroom which has become a signature ADU feature isn’t recommended and main-floor bedrooms are preferred. “It’s a matter of being practical. You don’t want to have to be climbing up and down stairs simply because you forgot to bring up something or turn off a light.”
Similarly, appliances, such as washing machines, dryers and refrigerators should be normal-sized and can be if the space is designed to accommodate them. This is better functionally and also avoids not being able to find exotic maintenance or replacement parts for those small-sized machines.
Design space should be provided for full-size showers as well, Huegel says—“they’re just so much easier to use.”
Interestingly, the ADU storage conundrum discussed elsewhere in this blog doesn’t have to be overwhelming, says Huegel, given the ingenious solutions being marketed by IKEA and others. Introducing these custom-designed items into the space provides a whole new “scope of work” for ADU builders (in their lingo).
Huegel also takes in stride incorporating of some of the latest smart home technology emerging on the market, including lights-control and voice-activated Alexa—he’s installing these microchips routinely, he says. He still doesn’t include the personal activity-monitoring, anti-fall devices becoming available in the senior housing realm, only because Huegel hasn’t found much demand for them yet.
Finally, the “elephant in the room”—the code compliance challenge posed by many communities resisting the ADU approach—requires simply, in Huegel’s view, studying each municipality’s code thoroughly and coming up with positive ways to address it. Huegel attacked this head-on in his early engagement with ADUs: “I’ve always been focused not on changing the code but on what might be allowed by that code. Maybe use different language—if an ADU isn’t permitted, what about a guest house? I started by taking a crash course in all the municipal codes we would be encountering in this work, and I’ve tried to extrapolate the problem-solving to the given jurisdiction. Rather than pressure them to change I ask, ‘What will work for you.’”
He focuses on detached ADUs (those granny pods) simply because the attached version costs too much. “There is a great deal more labor involved, and labor is your big-ticket item with this.” His structures run from $85,000 to $130,000, including permitting, construction, set-up and delivery.
As a final matter-of-fact step toward the future, Huegel’s structures are manufactured in their entirety in a factory and trucked to their eventual sites. In short, modular construction—still controversial and experimental in some quarters—makes complete business sense to Huegel and, just as importantly, his banks. He finds that building construction quality and structural design control is much more precise in a factory setting than on a usually unpredictable construction site.
To me, as proprietor of smallhomesforaging.com, Huegel’s common sense take is refreshing, given that this senior housing model still causes so much wonder and worry for many.