Home Additions & ADUs Austin, Texas

Always. Additions change the building footprint or structure, which triggers City of Austin building permits and review against setbacks, impervious cover, and the heritage tree ordinance. We scope all of it in the site study and handle the permit package, so approvals are moving while design finishes rather than after.

Run both as numbers, not feelings. An addition prices out in design, and the comparison is that fixed price plus the disruption of a build against realtor fees, moving costs, and current interest rates on a new mortgage. Many Austin families find keeping a low mortgage rate and adding the suite wins. When it does not, we say so at the planning call.

An addition extends your house: same walls, same systems, more rooms. An ADU is a separate dwelling with its own kitchen, bath, and entry, either detached in the yard or converted from existing structure. Additions add space you live in, ADUs add space that can earn. We build both, and the site study prices the comparison.

Design and permitting run 6–10 weeks, much of it city review time. Construction typically runs 10–14 weeks depending on scope, with a detached ADU at the shorter end and a second story at the longer. You get the dated schedule before ground breaks, and daily photo logs against it in your client portal.

That is a structural engineering question, and it is answered in the site study, not assumed. Pier-and-beam houses often carry a second story with reinforcement, slab foundations depend on the original pour. If the answer is no, you learn it in design for the cost of the study, and usually a ground-level plan gets you the same square footage.

That is the design brief. Rooflines resolve into the original geometry, floor heights align, and siding, brick, and window proportions are sourced to match the era. The renderings show the whole exterior, so you approve how it meets the original before anything is framed.

Almost never. The build lives outside your walls behind a sealed exterior wall for months, then ties in during one scheduled week with containment and HEPA filtration inside. You know that week’s dates before signing, and outside of it your kitchen, baths, and routines run untouched.

You get choices with line-item costs, not an ultimatum. The site study, 3D scan, and engineering happen before pricing, which is why surprise change orders are rare on Enso projects. And if design should have caught it, the Enso Guarantee applies – the cost of fixing it is ours.