ACTON ADU IN SAN JOSE, CA

Who is Acton ADU?

Acton ADU is a Northern California building company founded by Stan Acton. We specialize in designing, navigating, and building high quality, long-lasting, and personalized Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) for homeowners that want to benefit from a long-term family housing and investment plan.

Acton ADU is based out of Campbell, California and has served cities and jurisdictions throughout the South Bay for over 30 years.

Why homeowners partner with us:

PROFESSIONAL

We specialize exclusively
in ADUs – and are very, very good at building them

EXPERIENCED

We are veteran builders with a 30 yr history of success and reputation you can trust.

TRADITIONAL

We are high quality, traditional builders. We don’t build mobile, factory units.

INTEGRITY

Our library houses the most ADU designs pre-approved by the city of San Jose.

UNITED

We design our backyard homes with multigenerational living in mind.

CANDOR

We manage projects end-to-end from evaluation to warranty.

MASTERY

Our company culture is founded in accountability and process.

RESOLVE

We share a clear Vision and Mission which we follow in all aspects of our work.

Our Vision and Mission

Our team is inspired by our mission and vision. We share a common mission to empower California homeowners to build personalized ADUs for their families, long-term financial rewards, and to ultimately impact the communities we love in a positive way.

The state of California is in the midst of a housing shortage that affects thousands, if not millions of Californians every day.

At Acton ADU, we’re active proponents of housing strategies from affordable housing projects to the advancements of accessory dwelling unit regulations that make it easier for homeowners to build ADUs.

As designers, navigators, and builders of ADUs, we have dedicated ourselves to utilizing our 30 years of residential design and construction experience to pursue ADUs as a means for homeowners to create value for their families and properties throughout the Silicon Valley.

At Acton ADU, we are not just designers and navigators, we’re builders – but of more than just homes.

We build inspiration and tackle the inevitable challenges of every project with dedication, professionalism, and expertise – so that every ADU we build accomplishes a specific goal, and is customized with charm to provide value for every homeowner that partners with us.

ACTON ADU’S HISTORY

We’ve been builders for 30 years

Founder Stan Acton has been a builder since he was 10 years old. It began the day he broke his father’s wooden mallet. The mallet was a family heirloom that Stan’s father had crafted himself on his own father’s antique Shopsmith lathe. Stan was devastated and rushed to grab a hunk of old firewood. He carefully took the wood, placed it on the antique Shopsmith–and in that moment, his passion for carpentry was born.

While studying computer science, Stan worked his way through college as an apprentice to John Warren, a local remodeling contractor. Upon graduating, Stan was well on his way to working in SIlicon Valley tech, but he always found himself drawn to his roots as a craftsman. So he made a decision. He would be a builder. A builder who learned from John Warren the satisfaction and pride of quality craftsmanship, and the profound importance of integrity. Values that helped shape the foundation of Acton Construction.

Acton Construction was a design-build company with enthusiasm for crafting beautiful homes that are functional, lasting, and charming. Acton Construction thrived through established processes and utilizing expertise to provide customers with certainty, transparency, and value–always. This is our legacy.

INSPIRATION FROM OUR

FOUNDER, STAN ACTON

I moved to Palo Alto from Boulder, Colorado when I was three years old.

As a kid, I spent every waking hour building forts, chairs, boxes, tables, and all sorts of wooden contraptions with whatever I could get my hands on. I was fortunate. High schools still had wood shop and I was even more fortunate to have an inspiring shop teacher named Bud Jamison. Bud never bothered with curriculum. Instead, he encouraged us with a blank canvas and a heaping load of leeway to chase our creative endeavors. Bud’s the one that really turned me into a designer and a builder.

The experience instilled in me an appreciation for detail and beauty, specifically the beauty of a well-designed form. Take that discovery and couple it with the opportunity to express myself freely? I was inspired. But the greatest artists (not that I’d count myself among them), have parameters too. Whether it’s literally a blank canvas with defined dimensions, or the volume of a slab of marble ready to be chipped into a statue, the opportunity to express myself and create beautiful, functional things within a restrictive set of limits soon became even more inspiring for me. And a good thing too, because California, for all its beauty and wonders, does seem to have a lot of limiting regulations and red tape, orbiting the field of building.

I worked my way through college as a remodeling carpenter. I never could shake my love of woodworking, so I happily framed homes, crafted cabinets and finished carpentry on crown molding to help pay for my degree in computer science. Once I graduated, I was swept up by Texas Instruments and worked as a salesman for four years before my entrepreneurial itch needed to be scratched. So, in the spring of 1990, the pull of building was stronger than the allure of Silicon Valley tech riches, and I became a carpenter again. And, so begins the 30-year story of Acton Construction and Acton ADU.

I remember it vividly. Standing idly in the small, highly personalized walk-in closet of my historic home in Naglee Park in early 2017. You know those moments when you’re suddenly struck by an idea? An epiphany? Well, that’s what happened. It was a bolt of lighting that flashed through me and lit up every neuron in my brain. In that spectacularly ordinary moment, literally under the light of a swinging light bulb, I had a vision. ADUs will make an impact.

ADUs. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). They go by many names. Backyard homes, granny flats, or cottages. But, in the United States regulatory environment, these homes are called ADUs. And for the first time, the State made an effort to make them easier for homeowners to build.

The population in California has been growing exponentially since I was a kid in Palo Alto building forts. And, all around me the hum of innovation has made Silicon Valley explode with opportunity. Heck, even I was in tech for four years! Housing has been a growing issue for years. The costs keep escalating, builders can’t keep up, regulations are tight, and ultimately the families that have been here for decades are feeling the pinch. As these families age and their kids grow up they need to plan for their future in a place that is growing more expensive and unwieldy by the day. But now? Now I can do something about it. Acton Construction will specialize in ADUs.

Sure, Acton Construction had been a successful residential, design-build remodeling company for 30 years. My team is great, we have decades of experience working with local ordinances and have developed processes and best practices that have made us predictably successful. So why ADUs? Two reasons. The first? Acton Construction has all the tools to specialize in ADU design, navigation, and the building of ADUs. We already have. And, we have paid close attention to the real world importance of home customization in the vast, ever-changing landscape of homeowner regulations. The second? I’ve always loved to design and build forts. Well, that and my deep appreciation for the importance of design when you’re building smaller homes. Bud Jamison taught me that in wood shop class.

As Acton Construction moves forward into the future, we’ve adopted our true name: Acton ADU. We thrive in our purpose and vision, and love our role as partners for California homeowners to not just design and build ADUs, but to help guide plans with the people we work with to explore the rewards, security, and family integrity that generational living brings. Every family has different needs, every property has different opportunities and limitations. Therefore, every ADU is unique.

Nothing inspires me more. Nothing inspires our team more. We are making a difference.

What’s it like to work at Acton ADU?

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