Wicker Park Coach House
A coach house that had been storage since the 1960s, converted to a legal second unit under the Chicago ADU ordinance.
$187,200Contracted and paid
14 weeksOn site
On timeAgainst the contracted date
2025Chicago, IL
-
Survey to close-out, in the owners' own sequence.
The brief
A coach house used as storage since the 1960s, converted into a legal second unit under Chicago's ADU ordinance so the owners could let it.
What the survey found
Seven feet two inches of clear headroom over the required area, which made the project possible at all. The constraint was the panel: it had no capacity for a second kitchen, a second bathroom and a car charger.
What we did about it
New service and a separate meter, rated separation and interlinked detection through both buildings, then a compact fit-out along the party wall with the bathroom stacked over the existing drain run.
“They checked the ordinance before they drew anything. Two other builders quoted a unit that would not have been legal.”
A code project, logged as one.
Half of this file is the ordinance rather than the building. Headroom, egress and the electrical service were settled before the fit-out was drawn.
-
Day 1
Survey
Headroom measured first: 7 feet 2 inches clear over the required area, which made the project possible. The panel was the constraint, not the structure.
-
Week 2
Feasibility
Ordinance check written up in full before design: egress, separation, detection and metering, each with the clause it answers to.
-
Week 5
Services
New service and a separate meter. This is the line that most ADU quotes leave out and then discover in month three.
-
Week 10
Fit-out
Compact kitchen along the party wall, bathroom stacked over the existing drain run. Nothing moved that did not have to move.
-
Week 14
Close-out
Inspected, certified and let within a month. The rent covers the loan on the conversion with about 20% to spare.
A coach house is a code project first.
Headroom and egress decide whether yours can be a legal unit at all, and both are measurable in an hour. We will do that hour before you pay for anything else.