ADU over Garage - Ferndale

This project is in Ferndale, very near Puget Sound. Owners only wanted to build a garage for their boats to sit in the off season. Local zoning codes required some sort of residence on the property. So they decided to build an apartment above to rent out. As they really only wanted to build the garage, they want to build it just nice enough to rent out, but not add too many frills. The property is in both a flood hazard area and tsunami zone. So some special construction details needed to be included to meet the flood and tsunami mitigation criteria. Oh, and add an endangered species provision for a wetland on the back of the property. This is another example of the building permit portion of the project being fairly easy to secure, but the steps to address all of the site and water issues took many months and special consultants to eventually meet those parts of the code.

ADU over Garage - Ferndale

Below, ready for boats. Above, ready for tenants.

Exterior elevation, pretty plain jane. Yes, the deck is cantilevered.

First floor, 30' wide, 40' deep.

Apartment above, a residence is required by code.

The few walls on the first floor have to be stout. As there is very little wall at the garage face, special concrete panels are built for lateral seismic strength.

After all of the flood analysis, it was determined that the 4-foot tall concrete wall along the sides and back was not required. So regular wood framing from the floor on up.

Roof trusses being set, you can see these are "scissor trusses" with a slope in the bottom chord. To the left you can see the deck which will cantilever with no posts below.

Trusses are set in place

Testing the cantilevered deck with a dead load of plywood. No deflection.

Standing at the kitchen, view to the inlet.

Lots of progress up North at our Garage for Boats. Siding going on, one side at a time.

Lots of steps in this stair run.

Inside the main room is taking shape. Entry door in the middle of the picture, a little half wall being built.

This hallway opening leads to the bedrooms. You can see where the ceiling vault ends at the hallway. The hallway ceiling is 8-feet, so we got around 36" of vaulting at the peak.