What a New Detached ADU in Lehigh Acres Actually Costs and How Long It Takes
A new detached ADU in Lehigh Acres runs $90,000 to $220,000, with most falling between $130,000 and $180,000 for a finished one-bedroom unit with a kitchenette and full bath. From the day we break ground to the final walkthrough, you’re looking at five to seven months, with site prep and foundation work eating the first four to six weeks. Call (844) 638-7249 to get a line-item estimate for your specific lot and scope. Free, no surprises, no games.
How We Build a Detached ADU From Raw Lot to Turnkey Unit
Stage 1: Site assessment and permit package (2-4 weeks before ground breaks)
Before a single shovel hits the dirt, we pull a full site survey and dig into your lot’s plat history. In Lehigh Acres, this step matters disproportionately. Many lots in this grid were platted in the 1950s and 60s and never developed, meaning utility stub locations, access easements, and drainage paths are not what a quick drive-by suggests. We coordinate with Lee County on your sewer or septic path, confirm the platted road is actually maintained, and engineer a foundation that accounts for the high seasonal water table here. You’ll choose your floor plan, exterior finish, and rough window and door placement during this phase so the architectural drawings lock in before submission.
Stage 2: Clearing, grading, and foundation (2-4 weeks)
We clear the build footprint, strip any leftover pine scrub, and bring in engineered fill to raise the pad above the standing-water level that flatwoods lots see every summer. The slab is poured with integrated termite pretreatment and moisture barrier, both non-negotiable in Florida’s climate. Rough plumbing sleeves and electrical conduit go in before the concrete sets. You’ll walk the staked-out footprint with our site lead before the pour so the placement feels right relative to the main house and property lines. This is the moment where moving a wall five feet costs nothing. After the pour, doing it costs real money.
Stage 3: Framing, sheathing, and roof (2-3 weeks)
The walls go up fast once the slab cures. We frame with pressure-treated bottom plates and hurricane-rated strapping at every connection point, roof-to-wall and wall-to-slab. Lehigh Acres took sustained Category 4 winds from Ian in 2022, and we build every structure as if the next one is coming. Roof sheathing gets a full ring-shank nailing pattern, not the minimum code spacing, and we install peel-and-stick underlayment across the entire deck before the shingles or metal panels go down. You’ll pick your roofing material earlier in Stage 1; now you see it become a real building. Windows and exterior doors go in next, and the structure gets dried in.
Stage 4: Rough-ins and drywall (3-4 weeks)
With the envelope sealed, our electrical, plumbing, and HVAC crews run everything inside the walls. This is where the choices you made in Stage 1 about fixture locations, outlet counts, mini-split placement, and kitchenette layout become physical reality. We schedule the rough-in inspection with Lee County before any drywall goes up. Once it passes, insulation and drywall follow, typically taking a week to hang, tape, and float. You’ll see the room shapes and ceiling height for the first time as actual space, not plans on paper.
Stage 5: Finishes, trim, fixtures, and final inspection (2-3 weeks)
Flooring, cabinets, countertops, baseboards, doors, plumbing trim, light fixtures, and appliances all come together. We paint, caulk, and punch out every detail. The final county inspection covers electrical, plumbing, structural, and the certificate of occupancy. Once it passes, we do a full walkthrough with you, hand over the keys, and the 730-Day Done Right Promise clock starts. If anything isn’t right, we’re back to make it right.
The Big Choices You’ll Make for Your Detached ADU
- Size and layout. A 400-square-foot studio with a wet-bar kitchenette lands at the lower end of the Lehigh Acres price range. An 800-square-foot one-bedroom with a full kitchen and separate living area pushes toward the top. Every additional square foot adds foundation, framing, roofing, and finishing cost. We’ll help you balance the footprint against how you actually plan to use it, whether for aging parents, rental income, or a guest house that doubles as your own getaway.
- Kitchen depth. A kitchenette with a two-burner cooktop, under-counter fridge, and a single sink costs less than a full galley kitchen with a range, dishwasher, and pantry cabinetry. The plumbing and electrical rough-in differences are significant. We frame the choice in practical terms: if the ADU will house someone who cooks daily, spec the full kitchen. If it’s a weekend guest space, save the money and put it into better windows and insulation.
- Bathroom configuration. A three-piece bath with a shower stall, toilet, and vanity runs roughly $9,000 to $15,000 inside the ADU scope. Adding a tub, double vanity, or separate water closet adds real plumbing and tile cost. The concrete slab dictates drain location, so any bathroom placement decision after the pour gets expensive. We lock this early.
- HVAC approach. Most Lehigh Acres ADUs use a ductless mini-split system. It handles both cooling and heating, it’s efficient, and it doesn’t require ductwork in the attic. For larger units, a small central system with short duct runs may make more sense. We spec the system to the square footage and insulation values so you’re not overpaying for capacity you don’t need or undershooting and sweating through July.
- Exterior finish and roofing. Cement-board siding, stucco over CBS, and lap siding all hold up in Florida humidity when installed correctly. Roofing splits between architectural shingles and standing-seam metal. Metal costs more upfront but handles hurricane wind uplift better over 30 years. We use GAF and CertainTeed for shingle roofs and can walk you through the cost difference line by line.
What a New Detached ADU Costs in Lehigh Acres
A new detached ADU in Lehigh Acres lands between $90,000 and $220,000. The five variables that push a project to the high or low end are: square footage (the single biggest driver), kitchen depth and appliance count, bathroom count and fixture grade, HVAC system complexity, and site conditions, specifically how much fill, grading, and drainage work your lot demands. A 400-square-foot studio on a high, dry lot with minimal grading can come in under $110,000. An 800-square-foot one-bedroom with a full kitchen, higher-end finishes, and a lot that needs six inches of engineered fill and a retention swale will push past $190,000. Lee County permit fees, impact fees, and school-impact charges add another layer that we spell out in writing before you sign anything. Our estimates are upfront and line-itemed. You see where every dollar goes. No change orders because we guessed wrong in the bid.
What Lehigh Acres Specifically Does to This Project
Lehigh Acres was mass-platted in the 1950s and 60s across flat pine flatwoods, leaving a checkerboard of vacant legacy lots that sat untouched for half a century. Building a detached ADU on one of these lots means we’re not just hooking up to existing utilities. We’re often starting from zero: no sewer lateral, no water tap, sometimes a platted road access that exists only on Lee County’s plat maps and is actually an overgrown dirt two-track. We coordinate with county Public Works on access status and utility stub locations before an engineer draws the foundation. The high seasonal water table here, combined with zero canal drainage like neighboring Cape Coral has, means site grading and stormwater management are not optional add-ons. They’re standard pre-construction requirements that eat real budget. And the post-Ian rebuilding wave hasn’t stopped: the Category 4 inland winds tore through roof decking and screen enclosures across the community in 2022, and contractors who cut corners on strapping and nailing patterns are getting exposed by the next heavy storm. We build every ADU to handle what Lehigh Acres weather actually delivers, sustained wind, pounding summer rain, and flat-land flooding. If you’re already doing a full Home Additions & ADU in Lehigh Acres project, the ADU’s site preparation gets folded into the broader scope, and our Home Additions & ADU crew handles both structures under one permit sequence. Some homeowners tie the ADU build to interior upgrades in the main house, and we regularly see customers pairing this with Kitchen Design & Layout in Lehigh Acres or Backsplash, Tile & Flooring in Lehigh Acres so the whole property comes together at once. Serving all of Lehigh Acres, from the older CBS homes near Joel Boulevard out to the 2000s boom-era tracts east of Homestead Road.
Serving Lehigh Acres, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Lehigh Acres area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
Frequently Asked Questions About New Detached ADUs in Lehigh Acres
Five to seven months from the first shovel to certificate of occupancy. Permitting through Lee County adds two to four weeks before ground breaks, and lots requiring significant fill or drainage work push toward the seven-month end. We give you a week-by-week schedule during the estimate so you know exactly when each phase lands.
Yes. Lee County requires full building permits, including site plan review, structural, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical. You cannot legally build a detached ADU without them, and skipping permits creates a liability mess when you sell or insure the property. We handle the entire permit package from application to final sign-off. Call (844) 638-7249 if you want to understand what your specific lot requires before you commit to anything.
A detached ADU is its own freestanding structure, so the plumbing is new and independent from the main house. There’s no moving of existing plumbing in your primary home. The water and sewer taps happen at the street or at your existing septic system, and we run new lines to the ADU. This is standard and accounted for in our pricing.
Square footage is number one. Every additional hundred square feet adds foundation, framing, roofing, drywall, flooring, and HVAC load. After that, kitchen depth is the next biggest lever, followed by site conditions. A lot that needs six to twelve inches of engineered fill, swale work, and an extended utility trench costs more upfront than a high-and-dry lot with existing stub-outs near the build site. We walk you through a line-by-line breakout so you control where the money goes.
Every ADU we build in Lehigh Acres is covered by our 730-Day Done Right Promise. Two full years. If something isn’t right, we make it right, no foot-dragging, no fine print. On top of that, every material we install carries the manufacturer’s warranty, and we’re a certified installer for the brands we use, which means those warranties actually stick. Call (844) 638-7249 for a free estimate and a written scope that spells out exactly what’s covered.
Get a Free, Line-Item Estimate for Your Lehigh Acres ADU
If you’re serious about building a new detached ADU in Lehigh Acres, start with a real number, not a ballpark guess. Call (844) 638-7249 and we’ll schedule a site visit, walk your lot, discuss floor plans and finishes, and deliver a written estimate that breaks down every dollar. No pressure, no games, just the facts from a builder who’s done this work across Lee County. Our Lehigh Acres team answers live, 24/7, so you’ll talk to a person when you call, not a voicemail.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., and the team that builds ADUs across Lehigh Acres.