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These sleek, prefab buildings can add an office or spare bedroom to your backyard from $33,000 — take a look

These sleek, prefab buildings can add an office or spare bedroom to your backyard from $33,000 take a look

Jordan Pandy

The exterior of a small ADU Aux Box.Courtesy of aux box.

Aux Box builds and delivers prefab structures like offices and accessory dwelling units.
Founded in 2018, Aux Box primarily serves Canada but delivers as far as California.

Aux Box is a Canadian company that builds prefab accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and standalone studios.

It was founded in 2018 in British Columbia, Canada, by Morgan Seeber and Landon Sheck.

An Aux Box structure in a backyard. Courtesy of aux box.

At first, the company exclusively made standalone backyard offices. It wasn’t until 2020 that Aux Box ventured into constructing ADUs people could live in.

An Aux Box ADU. Courtesy of aux box.

"It really wasn't clear to us that we were going to get into homes — proper homes or ADUs," Sheck told Business Insider. "That language wasn't even really being used at that time, or we weren't exposed to it."

Now Aux Box offers six units: an office, three studios, one model with a bedroom, and a sauna.

Its smallest model, the “Auxffice,” has around 57 square feet of living space, according to its website. Pricing starts at about $33,000.

A small non-dwelling Aux Box. Courtesy of aux box.

The models that can be used as a spare bedroom or a micro-studio are priced from $41,000.

There are installation and delivery fees on top of the purchase price, as well as an extra fee for hooking up services, Sheck said.

The biggest Aux Box, Model 620, can sleep two people and has a footprint of 620 square feet. Pricing starts at about $232,000.

A larger Aux Box ADU. Courtesy of aux box.

Model 620 has a bedroom, a bathroom, and an open kitchen and living space.

A bathroom in one of the Aux Box ADUs. Courtesy of aux box.

"The 620 square feet is currently the largest offering, but it's not going to ship right far," Sheck said. "It's going to stay on Vancouver Island for the most part."

Aux Box makes about 35 self-contained offices and ADUs a year.

Aux Box's facility in British Columbia. Courtesy of aux box.

Sheck said that a plus of building prefab structures is the ability to work in a controlled environment without worrying if it's going to rain or snow.

"All the materials are in premium condition and then fully protected by the time it goes out," he said. "You've got efficiencies by having different products at different stages of construction in the same building, and you can have all the tradespeople there working on them at the same time."

Aux Box builds all of its structures in-house on Victoria Island in British Columbia and then ships them across North America, as far as Ontario and California.

An Aux Box unit being guided onto a boat. Courtesy of aux box.

According to its website, the entire process, including delivery and installation, takes up to 18 weeks. Once the units are delivered, it takes Aux Box just one day to install them.

Aux Box is limited in what they can transport.

A crane putting an Aux Box into place. Courtesy of aux box.

"The cons are you're limited to what you can transport down the road, in many ways, especially if you're trying to do 100% prefab," Sheck said. "Just because we can ship it across North America doesn't mean we should."

Seeber and Sheck have backgrounds as carpenters and use engineered wood and steel for the bones of the structure.

A woman working inside of an Aux Box. Courtesy of aux box.

The insides have hardwood floors, wood planks on the walls and ceiling, and tile in the bathrooms.

A kitchen inside of one of the ADUs. Courtesy of aux box.

Aux Box’s clientele are normally "higher-net-worth folks" looking for extra office space or trying to maximize the value of their property by renting out an ADU, according to Sheck.

An Aux Box unit inside of a garden. Courtesy of aux box.

Sheck has also seen resorts and campgrounds buy multiple units to provide extra housing for guests during the off-season.

An Aux Box just off of another, larger structure. Courtesy of aux box.

"People that own these sorts of properties recognize, 'Oh, I can just, in the off-season, really rapidly drop off prefab products and immediately turn my RV site that was generating $70 a night into a $400 a night product,'" he said.

While the main purpose of Aux Box units is for added office or living space, Sheck has seen some unique uses.

A woman working inside of an office Aux Box. Courtesy of aux box.

One customer’s wife barred him from setting up a train set in the house — so he bought an Aux Box to run the train in.

An Aux Box deep in the woods. Courtesy of aux box.

Another buyer manufactured a racing rig to simulate a driving experience for a video game in their Aux Box.

An Aux Box amongst the trees. Courtesy of aux box.

"It's because we have a really clean, nice product that you can attract those types of people that can justify doing things like that," Sheck said.

Sheck said that a large majority — about 95% — of their clientele is in Canada, but they have seen more interest lately from people in the US.

An Aux Box in a backyard. Courtesy of aux box.

California, especially, has legislation that makes it easier for Aux Box to drop off a unit without any hassle.

An empty Aux Box in a lot. Courtesy of aux box.

"California actually has developed a path where we can have the product inspected before it arrives," Sheck said. "California would be a monster for us and we would probably put a facility near California before we do anything else."

Some jurisdictions don't allow ADUs on the property by law, and some locations simply can't squeeze in a crane to drop in a unit. It's always best to check in on local ordinances before ordering an ADU.

Aux Box is also exploring setting up a facility in Ontario, about 1,761 miles from British Columbia, and maybe even the Carolinas, to meet growing demand.

A crane dropping an Aux Box into position. Courtesy of aux box.

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