The ADUscale methodology — Decide, Verify, Protect, Build

The five things to know before reading the rest of the page.

Build-side ADU advisory is a process-driven role. Process-driven roles fail or succeed on process, not on personality. An advisor who is "good at construction" without a documented framework is indistinguishable from a contractor with a sales pitch.

The methodology below exists so the homeowner can answer three questions before signing anything:

• What does ADUscale actually do at each stage of a project?
• How is each stage verifiable from the outside?
• What does ADUscale refuse to do, by design?

If you can answer those three questions after reading this page, the methodology is doing its job. If you cannot, write to us — we will rewrite the page.

Decide is the feasibility stage. We determine whether an ADU makes sense at all on a specific lot, and at what cost range. Verify is the contractor-validation stage. We run six independent data sources and eight disqualifying screens on every bidder before the homeowner sees a name. Protect is the payment-structure stage. We set up Verified Milestone Payouts so funds release only after inspections pass. Build is the project-oversight stage. We coordinate the homeowner's contractor, lender, building department, and inspectors as the single point of contact through certificate of occupancy.

Hire us for one stage, or for all four. Most homeowners start with Decide. Some bring us in at Verify because they already have bids in hand. A small number bring us in mid-project, after a contractor has failed.

The Decide stage answers a single question: should this ADU happen on this lot?

There are two products at this stage. Both are priced flat. Both credit toward later stages if the homeowner continues.

This is the stage where ADUscale earns the right to keep working with the homeowner. If we do this stage well and the answer is "yes, this is buildable, here is the plan," the homeowner has every reason to continue to Verify. If the answer is "this isn't worth doing on this lot," the homeowner has saved months. They have also saved the tens of thousands of dollars they would have spent finding that out the hard way.

Verify is the stage that prevents the failure pattern documented across 2024–2025. Anchored Tiny Homes abandoned 450+ ADU projects with $12.8M in liabilities; Multitaskr Construction collected $15–48M from 100+ Southern California homeowners before CSLB revoked the license in June 2025.

The legal floor of homeowner protection in California — the CSLB license bond — caps recovery at $25,000 total for all claims combined. On a $300K ADU, that is under 10% recovery. Verify exists because that floor is structurally inadequate.

The six independent data sources

Every contractor we consider is run through six sources before a name reaches the homeowner.

The first five sources are public records and public data. The sixth requires direct outreach. None of them require asking the contractor for documentation; if the public record disagrees with what the contractor says about themselves, the public record wins.

The eight disqualifying screens

A contractor failing any one of these eight screens does not enter the bid pool. There are no exceptions, no overrides, no founder-discretion waivers.

The output of Verify is a written verification memo per contractor. The homeowner sees the memo before any bid is solicited or considered. If the homeowner already has bids in hand, ADUscale runs the same eight screens on those bidders and produces the same memos.

Why we publish the framework

A verification framework that is not publicly described is not verifiable. Anyone offering "vetted contractor" services without saying what "vetted" means is selling a feeling, not a fact. ADUscale publishes the framework because the homeowner needs to be able to ask "did you actually run screen #7 on this contractor?" — and have the answer be checkable.

Protect is the payment-structure stage. It exists because most catastrophic ADU outcomes do not come from a contractor doing bad work. They come from money moving faster than work moves.

Verified Milestone Payouts

ADUscale operates a milestone-anchored payment structure called Verified Milestone Payouts. Funds release only after two conditions are met:

1. The relevant inspection passes, recorded in the local building department system (LADBS, San Diego DSD, SF DBI, or the equivalent for the jurisdiction).
2. ADUscale completes independent on-site verification that the work behind the milestone matches what was contracted.

A standard ADU contract uses five to seven inspection-anchored milestones. The typical sequence:

The exact sequence is set per project and written into the contract before construction starts.

The two payment rails

Verified Milestone Payouts run on one of two rails. The homeowner chooses.

Why this structure changes the failure math

Without Verified Milestone Payouts, the homeowner pays the contractor on an ad-hoc draw schedule, often by personal check or wire. If the contractor walks off or fails, the homeowner's recovery is the CSLB license bond, capped at $25K total across all claims. Beyond that bond, the only remaining path is civil court. On a $300K ADU, this is structurally inadequate.

With Verified Milestone Payouts, funds released to date are limited to milestones already inspected and verified. The remaining budget stays in the rail. If the contractor fails, ADUscale runs six-source verification on replacement candidates and re-bids the unfinished scope. The homeowner's exposure is the work-in-progress at the moment of failure, not the full project value.

Build is the project-oversight stage. It runs from the start of construction through certificate of occupancy. ADUscale is the single point of contact for the homeowner across the entire project.

What we do at this stage

• Coordinate the contractor, the lender, the building department, and the inspectors.
• Review every change order before it is signed. Change orders are where most ADU budgets balloon. A change order that goes unreviewed is a change order that is priced by the contractor alone.
• Anticipate the predictable surprises. Most California ADU projects encounter at least one site-condition surprise: a $15K–$30K sewer-lateral upgrade, a $20K–$60K hillside soils correction, a $5K–$25K structural retrofit on a pre-1970 garage. We see these coming and we price them into the cost model before they hit the project.
• Trigger the Verified Milestone Payouts at each milestone, after both the local-jurisdiction inspection and our independent on-site verification have cleared.
• Maintain a written project log the homeowner can read at any point.

A methodology that lists everything it does without listing what it refuses to do is incomplete. These are the boundaries.