Editor, BackyardADU · hello@backyardadu.net
BackyardADU publishes consumer information about California ADUs. We are not licensed general contractors, architects, or financial advisors. We do not provide construction bids, structural engineering, or personal financial advice. Cost figures on this site are based on published 2026 builder pricing aggregated into a regional regression model; real quotes vary. For decisions about your specific property, get at least three written bids from CSLB-licensed B-class general contractors and verify zoning with your city planning department.
I run BackyardADU as an independent California ADU information publisher. I am not a licensed contractor (B-class or otherwise), an architect, a real estate agent, or a financial advisor. My role is editorial: I gather, verify, and present what the authoritative California sources — the CSLB Public Data Portal, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), the UC Berkeley Center for Community Innovation's ADU Scorecard, the Big West Coast ADU Dataset (BuildinganADU.com), and individual city planning department ordinances — say about California's accessory dwelling unit market, in plain English.
The site runs as static HTML. Calculators are vanilla JavaScript that runs in the visitor's browser. No personal information leaves the page.
Per-square-foot ranges in the cost grid on each city page are derived from a regression model calibrated against published 2026 design-build pricing from Maxable, GreatBuildz, Abodu, Angi, CALI ADU, Andalusia Drafting, Maison Remodeling, GatherADU, and VerifiedADU. Regional multipliers (Bay Area 1.30× LA, Central Valley 0.75× LA) reflect observed permit-fee and labour-rate differentials. See the cost methodology page for the full inputs. The model is reviewed quarterly and updated as published builder pricing shifts. Real-quote variance is meaningful — always get three written bids before relying on any figure on this site.
Every builder listed on a city page or in our full directory is sourced from the California State License Board's Public Data Portal (CSLB), filtered to active B-class general contractor licences with ADU-specialist branding in the registered business name. License numbers, classifications, and issue dates are shown so you can independently verify status at the CSLB lookup tool. We do not accept payment for placement, do not edit licence details, and do not allow listed builders to remove their entries while their CSLB licence is active.
State-law minimums on every city page reflect post-2024 California ADU statutes: SB-13 (impact fees), AB-2221 (front-yard ADUs, ministerial review), AB-976 (owner-occupancy preemption extended), and AB-1033 (condo conversion). For 16 of the top 25 California ADU markets, the city page pulls locally-verified data from the city's own planning department page (URL cited in the "City-specific rules" block). The remaining cities show the state-law floor; for those, the linked city planning department is the authoritative source.
City pages are reviewed quarterly. Cost regression baselines are recalibrated every April and October as builder pricing pages publish their seasonal updates. Zoning content is reviewed when the California legislature passes a new ADU bill (typically one or two per year — AB-1033 in 2023, AB-2221 in 2022) and when individual cities adopt updated ordinances. Articles show their published and last-modified dates in structured data. Corrections requested at hello@backyardadu.net are typically actioned within 2 business days; specific page errors usually within 24 hours.
BackyardADU earns no revenue at the time of writing. Planned revenue streams: Google AdSense (in submission queue, May 2026), affiliate links to vetted ADU prefab vendors (with disclosure on the affiliate disclosure page), and in future a paid lead-introduction service for licensed B-class contractors who want to be matched with homeowners actively researching their city. Any current commercial relationship will be disclosed on each page where it applies. We do not currently have any equity, payment, sponsorship, or referral arrangement with any individual builder, lender, prefab vendor, or financial advisor listed or referenced on this site.
The most direct way to verify the editorial identity behind this site is the email address above. A reply with a header to a specific corrections request is direct contact with the editor.
I do not maintain a public LinkedIn or other social profile. Email is the verification
channel, and is the same channel that handles enquiries across the publisher network —
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Email is the best way to reach me — for corrections, suggestions, source-verification questions, or feedback on a specific city page or article: hello@backyardadu.net. Replies usually within 2 business days. Page-specific corrections typically same-day.
Last updated: May 2026