Add a detached garage, ADU or shed next to the house
Build → Detached unit, tap an outside wall of the house, and a unit appears in front of it with open ground between. Drag it, drag its corners or type its width, depth and distance from the house, tap Done, then add a garage door, doors, windows and furniture.
Not everything on a property is attached to the house. A detached garage, an ADU or granny flat, a backyard cottage, a home-office shed, a greenhouse or a pool house stands on its own, with ground between it and the house. Detached unit draws exactly that: a separate building at the distance you choose, that you can fill with doors, windows, rooms and furniture like the house.
To grow the house itself (a new bedroom, an attached garage, a wing), use Add Room instead: that room shares a wall with the house. A detached unit never touches the house.
What you'll need
- •A design with an outline (a house) on its ground floor
Step by step
- 1
Choose Detached unit
Open the Build panel on the left (on a phone, tap Structural & Interior). Detached unit is the last tile under Structural, after Fireplace. Tap it. A note at the top of the plan says Tap an outside wall of the house. The detached unit stands in front of it, with open ground between. The outside walls light up blue as you point at them. The tile only works on the ground floor. On any other floor it shows greyed out (point at it on a computer and it says A detached unit can only be added on the ground floor.).
Build → Structural → Detached unit (last tile). - 2
Tap the outside wall it faces
Tap the outside wall of the house the new building will face. A 20 × 20 ft unit appears 8 ft out from that wall, centred on it (narrower on a short wall), with a handle on each corner. Three values sit on it: its width along the wall, its depth away from the house, and its distance from the house on the short line between the two. The note reads Drag the unit to place it or its corners to size it, or type its width, depth and distance from the house. Then tap Done.
The unit appears in front of the wall you tapped. - 3
Place and size it
- Drag the middle of the unit to slide it along the wall or closer to / further from the house. - Drag a corner to change its width and depth. - Tap a value to type it exactly: feet and inches (or metres and centimetres), then the check mark or Enter. Typing the width keeps the unit centred where it is. As you drag, the unit's sides snap in line with the house's corners (a dashed green line shows it), so a garage can line up with the end of the house. The unit is at least 2 ft wide and deep and at least 1 ft from the house.
Tap a value to type it: here, 10 ft from the house. - 4
If it turns red
Red means the unit can't go there yet, and Done stays greyed out until it can. The note says why: - Keep the unit in front of the wall you tapped. At least a foot of the unit has to face that wall. Slide it back. - The unit is over the floor plan. Move it clear. - The unit is outside the lot. Move it inside the fence line. (only when your design has a yard) - The link to the house would cut through a door or window (shown in red). Slide the unit along the wall. - The unit would overlap a balcony or bay window (shown in red). Move it.
Slid past the end of the wall: red, and Done is off. - 5
Tap Done, then add doors, windows and furniture
Tap Done and the unit becomes part of your plan, with its own room colour. Its walls are ordinary outside walls, so everything you do on the house works on it: add a Garage Door, a Door or a Window from the Doors & Windows tiles, draw interior walls inside it, give it more rooms with Add Room, paint its walls, and furnish it. Undo right after Done takes the whole unit away again. On the plan, the outside dimensions now include the unit, and the house wall it faces is measured in two parts, split where the unit is linked to it (see the FAQ below).
A 20 × 20 garage with a garage door, a side door and a window. - 6
Move it closer or further away later
Tap any wall of the unit. Its panel shows From house with the current distance. Tap the value, type a new distance and press Enter: the whole unit slides straight towards or away from the house, with its doors, windows, interior walls and furniture. It can't come closer than 1 ft or touch the house; if you try, the panel says The unit can't move there: it would touch the house, or be less than 1 ft from it. To change its size afterwards, select one of its walls and type the length, or drag the wall, as with any outside wall (see Set an exact wall length).
Any wall of the unit: From house moves the whole unit. - 7
See it in 2D and 3D
In 3D the unit stands on its own with open ground all around it: no floor, wall or ceiling joins it to the house. If your design has a yard, the lawn runs between the two buildings. Walk around it, look inside, render it, or print and export it with the rest of the plan.
The same design on the plan and in 3D. - 8
On a phone
Tap Structural & Interior and pick Detached unit at the end of the Structural tiles. The sheet closes so you can tap the house wall. The unit, its larger corner handles and the values work the same way with your finger; tap Done in the note at the top.
Phone: Structural & Interior → Detached unit.
Tips
Measure from the wall lines
The width, depth and distance you type are measured on the outline the walls are drawn on, not on their outside faces. On the sample plan (walls centred on the outline, 6½″ thick) a 20 × 20 unit reads 20′ 6½″ on the plan's outside dimensions, and the clear ground between the two buildings is about one wall thickness less than the distance typed. Check the plan's dimensions after Done if the exact gap matters.
Line it up with the house
Drag the unit along the wall until the dashed green line appears: its side is then exactly in line with a corner of the house, which is how most garages and ADUs are set out.
A garage door needs the right wall
Pick the far wall or a side wall for the garage door and leave room in front of it for the driveway. See Garage door sizes and the Garage layout guide for sizes and clearances.
Common mistakes
Using Add Room for a detached building
Add Room builds a room that shares a wall with the house. For a building with ground between, use Detached unit.
Looking for the tile on an upper floor
A detached unit is one storey and lives on the ground floor. Switch to the ground floor in the floor picker; on any other floor the tile is greyed out.
Expecting Done to work while the unit is red
Done stays off while the unit is red. Read the note at the top: usually the unit has slid past the end of the wall you tapped, or the link would cut through a door or window.
Frequently asked questions
Can I draw a detached garage, ADU, granny flat or shed?
Yes. Open Build, tap Detached unit (last Structural tile), tap the outside wall of the house it faces, size it and tap Done. Use it for any separate single-storey building: a garage, ADU, backyard cottage, guest house, shed, greenhouse, studio or pool house.
What is the ground between the house and the unit?
Open ground. On the plan it's left empty, like everything outside the house, and in 3D there's no floor, wall or ceiling between the two buildings. If your design has a yard, the lawn shows there.
Why is the house wall measured in two parts after I added a unit?
The house and the unit stay in one floor outline, tied together by a hidden 1-foot-wide link at one corner of the unit. The link has no wall, you can't select it, and it stays clear of doors and windows. Where it meets the house wall, the plan's outside dimension along that wall is shown as two pieces instead of one.
Does the unit count in the plan's area?
Yes. Gross area and Usable area at the bottom of Plan Settings → Layout count the house and the unit together. The unit is its own room on the plan, with its own colour and label.
Can the unit have two storeys, or go on an upper floor?
No. A detached unit is one storey on the ground floor. If you add a floor above by copying the ground floor, the copy covers the house only and leaves the unit out.
Can I put rooms, interior walls and furniture inside it?
Yes. Its walls are ordinary outside walls, so interior walls, Add Room, doors, windows, a garage door, wall paint and furniture all work on it just as on the house.
Can I add more than one detached building?
Yes. Tap Detached unit again and tap another outside wall of the house, for example a garage on one side and a shed on the other.
How do I remove a detached unit?
Tap Undo straight after Done to take it away completely. There is no single button that removes a unit later on.
Does it work on a phone and tablet?
Yes. On a phone the tile is in Structural & Interior; dragging, the corner handles and the typed values work by touch.
Start designing your room
Put this into practice in the floor planner: draw it, furnish it, walk through it in 3D — on web, iOS, and Android.
Open RoomSketch3DOne-time purchase · No subscription · Web, iOS & Android