How ADU Build Works Matches You With a Marin ADU Builder

The flow

One door, three steps, no homework

Every guide on this site ends in the same checker, because the checker is the whole service in one form. Here is what happens after you use it.

The roster

How builders earn a roster seat

The roster is a territory roster, capped at a maximum of 3 eligible builders. A seat is earned against published criteria — and it can be lost.

Vetting criteria for a seat

• A current, verifiable California contractor licence — listed with the Contractors State License Board (CSLB), in good standing. No licence in good standing, no seat.
• ADU work actually permitted in Marin — a real permit history of ADU work in Marin, not just general building experience or ADUs built elsewhere.
• Town and type fit — the builder genuinely covers the towns and ADU types their seat claims: detached, garage conversion, above-garage or JADU work, in the towns they say they serve.
• Responsiveness standards — matched homeowners get contacted promptly (see the handoff rules below). A builder who stops answering puts their seat at risk.

The cap is real: maximum 3

Three seats per territory — that is the whole roster. The cap is what makes roster-level exclusivity possible: only roster contractors ever see leads, and with at most three of them competing for your project, a seat is worth holding only if the contractor performs. We would rather run an honest short roster than a long directory nobody is accountable for.

What builders pay — and what pay never buys

Builders pay a seat fee for roster membership. That is the commercial model, stated plainly. Pay never buys ranking, priority, or extra leads: matching order is fit, not money. A builder cannot pay to be matched ahead of a better-fitting builder, cannot pay to receive a lead that fits another seat better, and cannot pay for placement on this page. The seat fee buys membership of the roster and the chance to be the right fit — nothing else.

Matching

How your brief is matched

Your brief is offered to the matched roster for your territory — at most 3 licensed contractors, and only roster contractors ever see leads. Not auctioned, not sold, never blasted to a list.

Matching runs on eligibility first: licence in good standing, Marin ADU permit history, responsiveness in good standing. Then town and type fit: does this contractor cover your town, and do they build the kind of ADU you want? The contractors who fit receive your complete quote brief — your checker answers, verdict, budget and timing — with your quotes consent behind it, so every quote starts from your actual lot instead of a cold call script. You may receive up to 2–3 comparable quotes, each asked to itemise the same four buckets (construction, design & permits, site work, fees), and you choose. No contractor outside the roster sees your brief, ever.

Town guides carry the rules side of fit: the San Rafael guide and the Mill Valley guide show what each town allows, and the Marin cost guide sets the budget context a builder will quote against. Matching sits on top of that homework — already done, by us, before you ever check your lot.

If it goes quiet

Failed-delivery handling, published in advance

An introduction that goes nowhere is the failure mode of every matching service. Here is exactly what we do when it happens — the same rules builders accept when they take a seat.

• The clock starts at delivery. Every handoff timestamp is logged, so “when did the builder get this lead” is a fact, not an argument.
• The nudge. If a matched roster contractor has not contacted you within a couple of business hours, we nudge them.
• Escalation. Continued silence escalates to an owner alert. Your brief never drifts outside the roster: the matched set is at most 3 licensed contractors for your territory, named to you, and any change to that set happens only with your fresh consent. Silence from one contractor never becomes a reason to hand your details to anyone else.
• The check-in. We check in with you on day 1–2 after the introduction, whether or not we have heard anything — so silence surfaces from your side too, not just from our logs.

A builder who repeatedly needs the nudge, or triggers reassignment, is telling us something about their responsiveness standard — and, as the criteria above state, the seat is at risk.

The roster right now

Honest empty state: no builders are listed yet

Enrolment is open — and, in plain words, no builders are listed yet. We will not dress that up.

Quote matching begins territory by territory as the first seats are filled and the first contractors clear the criteria on this page. Until a seat covering your town is filled:

• You can still check your lot and get your plan — your plan is yours in full, whether or not an introduction follows.
• Checked plans are stored, and those homeowners are first in line for their town when its first seat is filled — checked first, introduced first, in that order.
• There is no fake roster on this page: no invented builder names, no borrowed logos, no testimonials, no review counts and no claims that any specific firm has been vetted. When a builder is seated, this page will say who the roster process covers — and your introduction will still name your specific builder and wait for your OK.

If that honesty costs us a lead today, it is still cheaper than the alternative. A matching service that invents its roster will invent other things too — usually at the homeowner's expense.

Check a builder yourself

Do not take our word for any builder — including ours

Two tools let you verify any builder independently, whether they came through us or not.

1. The CSLB licence lookup

Every California contractor's licence can be checked free on the Contractors State License Board's official site: Check a License at cslb.ca.gov. Look up the licence number before you sign anything. Confirm the licence is current and in good standing, and that it belongs to the business you are actually contracting with. If a builder will not give you a licence number to check, that is your answer.

2. The bid checklist

A comparable ADU bid should itemise, line by line:

• Site work
• Foundation
• Structure
• MEP — mechanical, electrical and plumbing
• Finishes
• Permits and fees
• Allowances — what they cover, and what happens when they run over
• Exclusions — what is explicitly not included
• Payment schedule — what is due, and at which milestones
• Timeline — start, milestones and completion

A bid that lumps those into one number cannot be compared with anything. The list above is the checklist — print it, or save this page, before the first bid conversation. Use the Marin cost guide alongside it: your bid should land inside the planning range for your type, and where it does not, the checklist shows you which line to ask about.

For builders

Enquire about a seat

Seats are territory-based, and the cap is real: a maximum of 3 builders on the roster. When a territory's seat is filled, it is filled.

If you build ADUs in Marin and want to enquire about a seat, email adu@adubuildworks.com with two things: your California contractor licence number, and the towns you serve. The licence number comes first because it is checked first — against the CSLB record and against Marin ADU permit history — along with the town and type fit and the responsiveness standards set out on this page. Enquiring does not guarantee a seat, and no payment changes the criteria or the order in which fit is judged.

What a seat involves, so there are no surprises later: a seat fee for roster membership; matched briefs offered to you as one of at most 3 roster contractors for a territory — roster-level exclusivity, meaning only roster contractors ever see leads (matched by eligibility and town/type fit — pay never buys ranking, priority or extra leads); a logged handoff clock with a nudge after a couple of business hours without homeowner contact and escalation if silence continues; and a seat that stays yours only while the standards hold.

Questions, answered

Matching questions

Related guides

Before you meet a builder

Your next step

Start with the checker — quotes come later, and only with your OK

Check your lot free and get your full verdict and plan. If you tick the quotes box, your brief is in line for the matched roster for your territory — contractors named, up to 2–3 comparable quotes, your choice. The roster is enrolling and no builders are listed yet; if no seat covers your town yet, your checked plan puts you first in line for it.