CA License #1119373Licensed, Bonded & InsuredPowered by Future Generation ConstructionFuture Generation
Orangevale · Custom ADU
An Orangevale ADU drawn for your acreage, your trees, and the family moving in.
The big semi-rural lots out here have room to spare for a detached unit. The mature trees, the occasional septic system, and the granite out east are why a catalog plan rarely fits — so we draw one that does.
Trusted by homeowners across Sacramento & surrounding areas.
Custom ADU in Orangevale — fast facts
City
Orangevale
ADU type
Custom ADU
Contractor license
CSLB #1119373
Free estimate
(916) 677-9774
Last updated
Why custom in Orangevale
Big rural lots, real room to build
Orangevale is one of the best spots in the county to build custom, and it comes down to land. The lots are big out here — rural-residential zoning, half-acre and acre-plus parcels, horse and chicken properties where a detached unit can sit a genuine distance off the main house instead of jammed against a fence. That changes everything. A stock plan assumes a small flat pad in a tight backyard; that's not the lot you have off Pershing or up toward Sacramento Bar. Those parcels also come loaded with mature trees, and a catalog footprint ignores every one of them. Custom starts from your actual ground — the trees, the grade, the county setbacks — and shapes a unit that belongs on it.
Rural-residential half-acre and acre-plus lots leave real separation room
Designed around mature trees, not dropped on a fixed catalog pad
The answer when no off-the-shelf footprint lands on a semi-rural lot
The design phase
Site walk to permit, drawn in-house
Custom gets won in the drawings. So that's where the hours go. It opens with a site walk and a measure-up, and out here that walk matters more than usual — I've stood in enough Orangevale backyards off Filbert and Main Avenue to know a survey leaves out the things that reshape a plan. It won't tell you the lot runs septic. It won't tell you the soil turns to decomposed granite where you wanted the footings. It won't show you how far that big tree's canopy actually reaches. Then concept sketches. You react, we revise. Most clients run two or three rounds; a few push past five. When the layout locks we draw the full set — structural, Title-24, mechanical, plumbing, the SMUD load calc. Honest part: this front end runs six to ten weeks before anything reaches the county.
Site walk, soil check and tree check before a line gets drawn
Two to five revision rounds until the floor plan is right
Full construction documents drawn in-house, then filed with the county
Matching the main house
Drawn to belong on the property
A custom unit should look like it grew out of your place, not like it got trucked in and parked. Orangevale gives us room to do that well because the properties here aren't cookie-cutter tract homes — they're individual. Ranch houses on acreage, older country places off Hazel and Greenback, the occasional newer build up toward Lake Natoma. Some are full equestrian setups where you're matching fencing, a barn, and outbuildings, not just a roofline. We pull roof pitch off your actual house, match the eave depth, copy the trim, and source siding that reads the same from the driveway. On a semi-rural lot with that much breathing room, a copied stock elevation sticks out worse, not better — there's nothing crowding it to hide behind. A drawn one settles in like it was always there.
Ranch and country detailing matched to individual Orangevale homes
Equestrian properties matched as a whole — barn, fencing and all
Roof pitch, eave depth and trim drawn to your specific house
Multi-gen + finishes
Multi-generational layouts done right
A lot of our Orangevale custom work is families solving one exact problem. Aging parents who want their own front door. An adult kid who isn't beating local rents and isn't leaving either. That reshapes the plan. We draw zero-step entries, 36-inch doorways, curbless showers with grab-bar blocking already set in the walls, and a second primary suite so two generations each keep privacy. The detached state ceiling is 1,200 sq ft, and custom clients tend to push right up against it — at 1,150 or so you fit two real bedrooms, a full kitchen, a proper living room. The big semi-rural lots out here are made for a unit that size; you place it well off the main house and nobody feels crowded. Then finish level. Quartz, real oak floors, a tiled shower instead of a fiberglass insert — the premium package, designed in from day one rather than bolted on.
“Every ADU we build is designed to add long-term value and open new possibilities for your property. Let's build something great together.”
— Tim, ADU Specialist
Custom Designs
Built to fit your property & needs
Turnkey Process
We handle permits, plans & everything
Built to Last
Quality craftsmanship that stands the test
Financing Made Simple
$0 Down Options. Build Now, Pay Over Time.
You shouldn't have to drain your savings to build wealth. We partner with trusted ADU lenders to find financing that fits — many homeowners build with little to nothing out of pocket.
Home Equity (HELOC)
Tap your existing equity at competitive rates — the most popular way to fund an ADU.
Renovation Loans
Finance the build against your home's projected after-completion value.
ADU-Specific Financing
Specialized lenders who underwrite based on the rental income your ADU will produce.
Cash-Out Refinance
Roll the project into a new mortgage and keep one simple monthly payment.
Estimate Your Monthly Payment
See what financing your ADU could look like — and how rental income can help cover it.
$180,000Loan amount
Credit Score
Very good · 700–739
Estimated Monthly Payment
$1,320/mo
At 7.99% APR over 30 years (illustrative)
Often offset by $2,000–$3,500/mo in rental income
No prepayment penalties with most partners
Pre-qualification with no impact to your credit
Illustrative only — not a loan offer. Actual rates and terms are set by third-party lenders based on your qualifications.
Service areas
Where we build
Headquartered in the Greater Sacramento Area and serving homeowners from the Sierra foothills down through the Bay Area. Don't see your city? We probably still get there — just ask.
The most common things Sacramento homeowners ask before starting an ADU project.
Custom is the priciest path and I won't pretend otherwise. For 2025-2026 we're seeing finished custom detached units in Orangevale land roughly $392K to $585K depending on size, finish level and how rough the site is — call it $315 to $488 a square foot. The big local variables are the mature trees, whether the lot runs septic, and the decomposed granite out toward the Folsom edge that can mean rock excavation for footings and trenches. Hit a granite layer and you're paying for harder digging, sometimes a different foundation approach. A 1,150 sq ft premium unit with a septic expansion and some rock to cut through can run past $540K. A catalog plan on flat, sewered, soft-soil ground would cost less. You're paying for the design, the bespoke footprint and the finishes.
A stock plan is pre-drawn and repeated — faster and cheaper, because the design work is already done and it drops onto a flat pad. Custom starts at zero for your parcel. Our designer sizes and shapes the unit around your trees, your grade, the look of your Orangevale home, the septic or soil situation, and exactly how the family plans to live. Custom costs more and takes longer up front. The reason to choose it is a one-off problem — a protected tree, a septic constraint, granite under the footings, an accessible suite, an odd lot — that a rectangle off the shelf can't reach. If your lot is flat, clear, sewered and on good soil, we'll happily steer you to stock and save you money.
Longer than stock — honest answer. Design and construction documents run six to ten weeks. Sacramento County permitting on a clean set is typically four to eight weeks, and a septic review adds a little. The build is usually six to nine months for a custom detached unit, with a septic expansion or rock excavation through decomposed granite stretching it. Door to door you're looking at roughly nine to fourteen months. The design front end is what makes it longer than a stock plan, and it's the part you can't rush without losing what you came out here to build.
That's exactly where custom earns its keep in Orangevale. These semi-rural lots are full of mature trees, and some of them trigger Sacramento County's tree-preservation review, which protects the critical root zone under the whole canopy — not just the trunk. You can't slab over it or trench through it carelessly. We site the unit clear of that root zone, sometimes shift the footprint or the access path, and bring in an arborist when the county wants one. A stock plan ignores the tree and gets kicked back. Custom draws the building to live alongside it, which keeps the tree healthy and keeps your permit moving. The upside out here is space — the lots are big enough that working around a tree rarely boxes you in.
Often yes, but septic is the first thing we check, and on the larger rural lots out here it comes up a lot. Adding an ADU means adding bedroom load to the system, and Sacramento County's septic inspector has to sign off that your existing system can carry that extra bedroom before the ADU gets approved. Sometimes the current system is fine. Sometimes it needs an expansion, a new leach field, or in tighter cases a switch toward sewer if a connection is actually reachable — which out here it often isn't. We pull your septic records and get the county looking early in design, so the answer comes before you've spent money on a plan the system can't support.
It's a real Orangevale wrinkle, and it shows up more the closer you get to the Folsom edge. The ground out there can turn to decomposed granite, and where it does, digging footings and utility trenches stops being a quick afternoon with a backhoe — it can mean rock excavation, harder equipment, more hours, and occasionally a tweak to the foundation approach. We test for it during design rather than discover it mid-dig, because finding granite after we've priced the job is how a budget blows up. Knowing it's there up front lets us draw the foundation and the trenching to suit the ground and put a real number on it before you commit.
State law caps a detached ADU at 1,200 sq ft, and most of our custom clients build right up near that ceiling — at 1,100 to 1,200 sq ft you fit two genuine bedrooms, a full kitchen and a real living room, which is usually the whole point of going custom. Orangevale is genuinely good for this. The big rural-residential lots give you room to site a unit that size and still keep real separation from the main house, the trees and the setbacks. Smaller is allowed; we just rarely see custom clients want it. Attached ADUs follow a different size rule tied to the main house, so if you're attaching, we'll run those numbers for your specific parcel.
In-house. Our designer does concept, floor plans, elevations and the full construction document set, and that same drawing carries straight into the build with no handoff gap. You're not coordinating a separate architect, a separate engineer and a separate builder who all point fingers when the septic line or the granite shows up where nobody expected. One team owns the design and owns the result — a big part of why custom stays on track once it leaves the Sacramento County counter.
SMUD. Orangevale is unincorporated Sacramento County and power runs through SMUD, not PG&E, so a custom unit's electrical service, any panel upgrade, the load calc and the meter set all coordinate through SMUD. The building permit, water and any septic review go through Sacramento County — there's no city counter, since Orangevale isn't an incorporated city. Larger custom units with premium kitchens, heat pumps and maybe an EV charger pull more load, so we size the service and line up SMUD early in design. That way the meter isn't the thing holding up your final inspection. We're about 20 minutes northeast of our Sacramento base.
Yes — it's one of the most common reasons Orangevale families go custom. We design zero-step entries, 36-inch doorways for walkers and wheelchairs, curbless roll-in showers with grab-bar blocking already in the walls, lever handles, and a layout that keeps the bedroom and bath on one easy path. A stock plan rarely nails all of that at once. Drawing it in from the start costs far less than retrofitting later — tearing out tile to add grab bars after the fact is brutal. The big lots out here also make it easy to give parents real separation while keeping them close, which is half the reason families pick Orangevale for this in the first place.
Yes — we've built right next door in Fair Oaks and Citrus Heights and across the Sacramento area, so the big lots, the county tree rules, the septic homes and the granite out east aren't new to us. Orangevale is about 20 minutes northeast of our Sacramento base, close enough that I can be on your lot for the site walk and back during the build whenever the foundation or the framing needs a real set of eyes. That matters more on custom than on stock, because the field decisions never stop — and a tree root, a septic line or a granite layer you didn't expect is exactly the kind of thing you want a decision-maker on site for.
Other services
Not quite the right fit?
Every Sacramento ADU project is different. Here are the other paths we build under one roof — and we're happy to talk through which one fits your lot best.
We treat every home like it's our own — quality work, clear communication, and happy homeowners.
PaulOwner · Future Generation
9 min read1,905 words8 sections
Custom ADU design and construction in Orangevale
Orangevale is one of the easier places in the region to build a detached ADU — the lots are big and semi-rural, with half-acre and acre-plus parcels, horse and chicken properties, and rural-residential zoning all over. But that same setting is why a stock plan rarely fits: mature trees the county protects, homes still on septic, decomposed granite toward the Folsom edge, and families who need a unit drawn around aging parents. That's when you build custom. We're a Sacramento design-build crew 20 minutes southwest (CA license #1119373) that draws a bespoke ADU for your exact Orangevale lot and builds it — design through final inspection, one team the whole way. Call (916) 677-9774.
01Section
What actually makes an ADU custom
People throw "custom" around loosely, so let me draw the line. A stock or model ADU is a plan we've already drawn and built before — pick a size, maybe swap a finish, and it drops onto a flat pad. Quickest route, cheapest route, and for a clean rectangular backyard with no protected trees and good soil, it's often right. We build those gladly. It just isn't custom.
Custom means the design starts at zero, on your parcel, for your situation. Our designer takes the survey, the Sacramento County setbacks, the mature trees and their drip lines, the septic system if there is one, the soil — including the decomposed granite that shows up on the east side — and how your family actually plans to live. Then a unit gets drawn that didn't exist until your lot called for it. The footprint bends to the constraints. The roofline answers your house. Nobody else has this plan.
