For twenty-seven years, Stan Acton had run a general-contracting business out of a yard in Campbell. Then, one morning in early 2017, he read the new state ADU rules and stopped.
He had founded the shop, called Acton Construction at the time, in 1990. It specialized in custom remodels. That January the state of California had loosened a set of restrictions on accessory dwelling units, the backyard cottages that state law now permits on nearly any single-family lot.
"In a matter of about 20 seconds, my vision just crystallized, and I realized this is what I want to do for the rest of my career."
He spent 2017 studying the shift. By March 2019 the company had rebranded to Acton ADU.
Every California session since has widened the statute further. SB 897, signed in 2022, raised the minimum height limits California cities must allow for backyard homes. AB 1033 in 2023 let cities open ADUs for separate sale as condominiums. Demand across the Bay Area has followed, and Acton now works in more than ninety cities and jurisdictions in the region.
The company's signature product is a line called Build-Ready. The catalog carries a growing library of pre-designed elevations, all site-built to California residential code, drawn to fit different lots and different neighborhoods. In April 2026, Acton added a Spanish Style elevation to accompany its first move outside the Bay Area, a launch into Los Angeles County.
The Build-Ready line comes in two tiers, an Investor Series priced for rental yield and a Signature Series with premium architectural details and designer-chosen finishes.
Acton's own favorite project is smaller than either. Some years ago the company replaced a hundred-year-old standalone garage in one of San Jose's historic districts with a 540-square-foot carriage-house ADU.
"We wanted it to feel like the carriage house had been there all along."
— Stan Acton, to Blueprint magazine
Adult children priced out of the neighborhoods they grew up in are common tenants. A parent who wants to stay close to grandchildren without moving in with them is another. The backyard is often what makes those arrangements possible.