What It Actually Takes to Convert a Garage Into an ADU in Tice
Converting an existing garage into a legal accessory dwelling unit in Tice typically costs $45,000 to $130,000 and takes 14 to 22 weeks from permit application to certificate of occupancy. The wide range reflects what we find once walls come open: a 1960s concrete block garage with no insulation and a slab that predates current flood-elevation rules is a very different starting point than a newer, partially finished structure. In Tice specifically, the biggest wildcard is what Lee County’s post-Ian code-compliance reviewers will require beyond the scope you originally planned. Call (844) 638-7249 for a free on-site estimate based on your actual garage, not a guess.
How We Turn a Tice Garage Into a Legal, Livable ADU
The sequence matters here because Lee County inspections gate every phase. You cannot close a wall until rough-in plumbing, electrical, and mechanical have each been signed off separately, and missing an inspection window means days added to the schedule. Here is how a typical garage conversion moves from slab to finished unit.
Stage 1 - Plans, permits, and what the county wants (Weeks 1-4). We measure everything, document existing conditions, and prepare architectural and structural drawings. For a Home Additions & ADU in Tice project, the permit package also includes a site plan showing setbacks, flood-zone elevation, and tie-in to your existing home’s utilities. Lee County’s building department in Fort Myers processes garage conversion permits, and post-Ian plan-review queues are real. We submit the package and pre-schedule the rough inspection dates at the same time so your job never idles waiting on a county inspector. You are making decisions during this stage: floor plan layout, kitchenette or full kitchen, bathroom location, window and door sizes, and whether you want a mini-split or tie into your main HVAC.
Stage 2 - Demo, slab work, and what’s hiding in the walls (Days 1-8). The garage door and track come out, along with any drywall, pegboard, or old paneling. In Tice’s older CBS homes, we almost always find moisture intrusion along the bottom plate where the slab meets block walls - decades of wet-season standing water wicks up and rots framing that looked fine from the outside. If we find termite damage or mold, we stop and bring you photos before proceeding. The slab gets ground and prepped for plumbing trenches, and any required flood-vent or elevation adjustments get engineered at this point. We install hurricane straps and any structural upgrades the county reviewer flagged during plan check, which on a pre-Ian garage often means new roof-to-wall ties and impact-rated window bucks.
Stage 3 - Rough-in: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and insulation (Days 8-20). Trenches get cut, drain lines run, supply lines stubbed up for the bathroom and kitchen. We pull new circuits from your main panel or install a subpanel if load calculations demand it. Ductless mini-splits are our default recommendation for Tice ADUs because they handle humidity year-round without punching big holes in an older block structure. Closed-cell spray foam goes into the ceiling and block walls - the R-value per inch is the highest you can get, and it acts as a secondary moisture barrier in Tice’s humid climate. Rough-in inspections happen here; nothing gets covered until the county signs off.
Stage 4 - Drywall, finishes, and the things you touch every day (Weeks 4-6). Once the walls are closed, the space starts looking like a home. Flooring, trim, doors, paint. Kitchenette or full-kitchen cabinets and countertops get installed. The bathroom gets tile, vanity, and fixtures. At this stage you are choosing finish materials: LVP versus tile for a slab that might see occasional dampness, quartz versus laminate countertops, and whether you want standard hollow-core interior doors or something that blocks sound more effectively between the main house and the ADU.
Stage 5 - Final inspections, punch list, and keys (Weeks 6-8 after finishes). The county does a final building, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical inspection. We walk the unit with you, note anything that needs adjusting, and resolve it before we consider the job done. You receive a certificate of occupancy from Lee County, which matters for insurance, rental licensing, and resale value. Every garage conversion we complete is covered by our 730-Day Done Right Promise: if something was not built right, we come back and make it right.
The Choices That Shape Your ADU
These are the real decisions our home additions & adu team walks through with Tice homeowners. Each one moves the budget and changes how the unit lives day-to-day.
- Bathroom: half-bath versus full bath. A powder room with a toilet and sink keeps plumbing simple and cost lower. Adding a shower or tub means a larger drain line, more tile, waterproofing, and an exhaust fan that vents to the exterior - roughly $6,000 to $15,000 in added scope depending on fixture grade and whether we are tying into existing drain lines or cutting new ones through slab.
- Kitchenette versus full kitchen. A kitchenette - compact refrigerator, microwave, sink, no cooktop or oven - qualifies as an efficiency unit under Lee County’s ADU rules and avoids the need for a full Type I hood and dedicated gas or 240V lines. A full kitchen with a range, hood, and dishwasher adds $8,000 to $20,000 depending on cabinetry, countertop material, and appliance selection. Homeowners often pair this with Cabinets & Countertops in Tice work we can bundle into the same project.
- HVAC: mini-split versus tied to the main system. A ductless mini-split gives the ADU independent temperature and humidity control and avoids the static-pressure headaches of extending ductwork through an older home. Tying into an existing central system is possible but rarely the right call for Tice garages - the existing unit is rarely oversized enough to handle the additional conditioned square footage. Mini-splits run $3,500 to $7,000 installed depending on BTUs and whether you choose a single-zone or multi-zone unit.
- Windows and doors: impact-rated or standard. Lee County requires impact-rated openings or shutters on new residential construction. We install impact-rated windows and sliding glass doors as standard on every garage conversion. Andersen and Pella both make hurricane-rated product lines that meet Florida Product Approval code, and the cost difference from standard units is roughly 30 to 50 percent - but skipping this is not an option on a permitted Tice ADU.
- Flooring: tile versus LVP versus polished slab. A garage slab sits on grade. In Tice’s high-water-table conditions, even a slab with a vapor barrier can transmit moisture during heavy summer rain cycles. Luxury vinyl plank with an attached underlayment handles occasional dampness without warping. Porcelain tile is bulletproof but cold underfoot and costs more to install. Polished concrete is the most durable but requires sealing every few years. LVP lands around $4 to $8 per square foot installed; tile runs $8 to $15. Homeowners often extend the same flooring into the ADU that they picked for a recent Backsplash, Tile & Flooring in Tice renovation in the main house.
What a Garage Conversion ADU Costs in Tice, FL
As stated above, the range is $45,000 to $130,000. Most single-car garage conversions in Tice’s 1950s-to-1970s housing stock land between $65,000 and $95,000 when built to current Florida Building Code with a full bathroom and kitchenette. Two-car garages converted to one-bedroom ADUs with full kitchens push toward the upper end.
Here is what moves the number:
- Garage size and layout. A 240-square-foot single-car garage costs less to convert than a 480-square-foot two-car, but the cost per square foot drops as the space gets larger because the expensive rooms (kitchen, bathroom) are fixed costs.
- Existing slab condition. If the slab has settled, cracked, or lacks a vapor barrier, we may need to pour a new topping slab, add a moisture barrier, or cut and patch for plumbing - any of which can add $3,000 to $8,000 before framing starts.
- Plumbing reach. A bathroom located on the wall nearest the main house’s sewer line costs far less than one on the far side of the garage that requires a long sewer trench run, a pump-up system, or cutting through thick 1960s slab for dozens of feet. In Tice, where septic tanks are common on larger lots away from the old grid, we also need to verify your existing system can handle the additional bedroom’s calculated daily flow before the county will issue permits.
- Electrical service capacity. Many Tice homes still have 100-amp panels that were adequate when the house was built. Adding a full ADU with a kitchen, mini-split, and bathroom often pushes the load calculation past that rating, triggering a panel upgrade to 200 amps - roughly $3,000 to $5,000.
- Finish level. Quartz countertops, soft-close cabinetry, floor-to-ceiling tile in the shower, and impact-rated French doors cost more than laminate counters, stock cabinets, a fiberglass shower pan, and a standard sliding door. We write fixed-price estimates with line-item finish allowances so you control where the dollars go.
Every estimate we give in Tice is a written, line-item price - the number you see is the number you pay. No change orders because we guessed wrong during the walkthrough. Call (844) 638-7249 to schedule a free on-site estimate and we will measure your garage, check your panel, and give you a real number.
What Tice Homes Specifically Do to This Job
Tice is an older, working-class unincorporated community along the Caloosahatchee’s eastern edge where the housing stock tells you exactly what era it was built: modest CBS homes from the 1950s through the 1970s, many with the original wood-truss roofs, single-pane jalousie windows, and slabs poured long before anyone worried about flood-zone elevation or modern tie-down requirements. When Hurricane Ian’s eyewall passed directly over Lee County in September 2022, these houses took a beating. What we regularly see now, walking into a Tice garage for a conversion estimate, is a structure where the roof sheathing was patched after the storm but the underlying truss-to-wall connections were never upgraded, and the block walls show moisture staining from months of post-storm humidity before repairs were completed.
That reality changes the job. A garage conversion permit in unincorporated Tice triggers a full Florida Building Code compliance review, which means the county reviewer will flag missing hurricane straps, non-impact-rated openings, and any roof decking that does not meet current nail-pattern requirements - even if you did not budget for those upgrades. We factor this into our estimates from the start because we work here regularly and know the pre-Ian building stock. Out-of-area contractors who do not pre-schedule Lee County inspections at the point of permit application routinely learn the hard way that post-Ian inspection queues stretch weeks, stalling jobs mid-phase while subcontracted crews move on to other work. We pre-book every inspection when we submit the plans so your conversion never sits idle waiting on the county.
Serving Tice, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Tice 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 Garage Conversion ADUs in Tice
From the day we submit plans to Lee County to the day you receive your certificate of occupancy, expect 14 to 22 weeks. The plan-review queue at the county’s Fort Myers office accounts for roughly 3 to 5 weeks of that. Physical construction runs 8 to 12 weeks for a typical single-car garage conversion. Pre-scheduling inspections at permit submission prevents much of the mid-job delay that other contractors experience. The finish-selection process (flooring, cabinets, countertops, tile, paint colors) runs in parallel during plan review and early construction, so it rarely adds to the timeline as long as decisions are made when we ask for them.
Yes. Lee County requires a building permit, and depending on scope, separate electrical, plumbing, and mechanical permits. Because Tice is unincorporated, all permits flow through the county, not a municipal building department. The county will review your plans for Florida Building Code compliance, flood-zone requirements, and zoning setbacks. Skipping permits on a garage conversion creates problems when you sell the property, file an insurance claim, or try to rent the unit legally - unpermitted square footage is not recognized by appraisers or insurers. We pull every permit the job requires and the finished ADU gets a certificate of occupancy.
Almost never. A legal ADU requires a bathroom and at minimum a kitchenette with a sink, which means running water supply and drain lines. Electrical demand increases with the addition of a mini-split, bathroom exhaust fan, kitchen appliances, and lighting circuits - nearly always pushing past what the existing garage subpanel or branch circuit can handle. Tapping into the main house’s plumbing and electrical is standard; the question is how far the run is, not whether it happens. The shortest, most cost-effective conversions locate the bathroom on the wall shared with the main house’s existing plumbing stack.
The range is $45,000 to $130,000, with most single-car conversions on Tice’s 1950s-to-1970s lots falling between $65,000 and $95,000. That includes permits, architectural drawings, demolition, structural upgrades the county requires, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, insulation, drywall, flooring, a full bathroom, a kitchenette or full kitchen, impact-rated windows and doors, paint, trim, and final inspections. The biggest single variable is what the county reviewer requires for hurricane compliance once they see the existing structure. Call (844) 638-7249 for an exact quote on your garage - the estimate is free and the number we give you is the number you pay.
Every garage conversion ADU we build in Tice is covered by our 730-Day Done Right Promise: if something is not built right within two full years, we return and make it right at no charge. That is one of the longest workmanship guarantees in residential construction. Manufacturer warranties on windows, doors, HVAC equipment, appliances, roofing materials, and flooring run separately and vary by brand. You receive all warranty documentation at project close, organized by trade and duration.
Get a Free, No-Obligation Estimate on Your Tice Garage Conversion
If you have a garage in Tice you are thinking about converting into an ADU, let us walk it with you. We will measure the space, check your panel, assess the slab and roof structure, and give you a written estimate that accounts for Lee County’s real permitting and inspection timelines, not a generic number pulled from a formula. Our team is led by Derek Hollenbeck, and every technician who shows up is background-checked and in uniform. Calls are answered by a live person 24/7 - no voicemail black holes. Call (844) 638-7249 today to schedule your free estimate and design consult.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., serving Tice and Lee County since 2014.