HomeBarndominiums
Design-Build
Barndominiums, Finished, Not Just Framed
A post-frame house, designed and built through to the last coat of paint by one company. Plenty of outfits hand over a shell. We would rather answer for the whole thing.
A House Built The Way A Barn Is
A barndominium puts living space and a workshop or storage under one post-frame roof, on one slab, inside one set of walls. You can lay it out almost any way you like, it goes up faster than a stick-built house, and the shell costs less. Ours are designed and built for the snow and wind loads at your site.
A barndominium is a post-frame building finished as a home. Columns and trusses carry the roof, so the walls inside are dividers rather than structure, and the plan is decided by how you want to live rather than by where a bearing wall has to land.
Once the doors are closed it is a house, and it is held to a house standard. Permits, septic, well, insulation, mechanicals and finish work are all part of it. The frame is the cheap part. Everything after the frame costs what it costs in any home.
People put a shop on one end and living on the other, or wrap a porch across the front, or run a two-story great room down the middle. The building does not argue with any of it.
Shell Or Finished
This is the first real decision, and it is worth making on purpose. We will build either one. Only one of them means you get a house at the end of it without becoming a general contractor.
The Shell
Frame, roof, siding, doors and windows. A dry, closed building standing on your ground, with the inside left open for you.
- Columns, trusses, roof purlins and wall girts
- Roof and wall steel, trim and flashing
- Overhead, walk and window openings
- Openings framed for whatever comes later
The right choice when you are finishing it yourself, or on your own schedule, and you already know who is doing the mechanicals.
The Finished House
Everything above, plus the house inside it: plans, permits, insulation, mechanicals, interior finish and the last coat of paint.
- Plans and elevations drawn before anything is ordered
- Insulation, vapor barrier and ventilation designed together
- Plumbing, electrical and heating, coordinated by us
- Kitchens, baths, floors, trim, paint and the walk-through
The right choice when you want one company answering for the whole building, which is what we are set up to do.
Plans And Elevations First
Plan and elevations come before the order goes in. It is far cheaper to move a wall on a drawing than to move it once the steel is on, and it is the only way to know what you are agreeing to.
Floor plan
Front elevation
Side elevation
How The Build Runs
Seven stages, in this order. You will know which one your house is in at any point, and who to call about it.
The Ground
We come and look at the site. Access, drainage, where the water goes, where the drive comes in and which way the building should face. All of it is cheaper to settle now.
Plans And Elevations
The layout, the roof, the porches and the openings are drawn and agreed. This is where changes are free, and where the quote gets its line items.
Permits And Site Work
County permits, then excavation, septic, well and the slab. These are subcontracted to people we choose and use again, and we run the schedule.
Frame And Dry-In
Our carpenters set the columns and trusses, and our own metal crew puts the roof and walls on. From the day it is closed in, the weather stops being a problem.
Mechanicals And Insulation
Plumbing, wiring and heating go in, then the wall and ceiling assembly with its vapor control and ventilation. This is the stage that decides whether the house stays warm and dry in January.
Interior Finish
Ceilings, walls, floors, cabinets, trim and paint. The longest stage, and the one where a written selection list keeps everybody honest about cost.
The Walk-Through
We walk the finished house with you and write the list. The same name you have had since the site visit is the one standing there with the clipboard.
Built To Live In
A building somebody lives in has to manage moisture, or it will tell you about it on the first cold morning. The walls and ceiling, the vapor barrier and the ventilation are designed together, before the metal goes on, not patched afterward.
- Walls and ceiling built for a heated, lived-in building
- A vapor barrier and ventilation planned together, so the walls stay dry in winter
- Ceiling height and loft framing settled at the truss order
- In-floor heat, floor drains and slab thickness before the pour
- Pine, drywall, steel liner or a mix, room by room
The finishes are yours. What we will not do is let a cheaper assembly go in without telling you what it gives up.
What Moves The Price
Two barndominiums of the same size can cost very different amounts. Most of the difference is in what goes inside the shell, and it shows up as its own line in the quote.
Finished Area
What share of the building is heated, finished living space against shop or storage. This moves the number more than the footprint does.
Kitchens And Baths
The most expensive rooms in any house, barndominium or not. Fixture and cabinet selections belong in the quote in writing, not in a lump allowance.
Windows And Doors
Glass costs money and post-frame walls make it easy to want more of it. Worth deciding at the plan stage, when the headers are still on paper.
Porches And Lean-Tos
A covered porch across the front is what makes most of these buildings look like a home. It is also roof, columns and footings, so it is not free.
Mechanical Systems
In-floor heat, forced air, water heating and ventilation. The right answer depends on the wall and ceiling assembly around them, which is why they are decided together.
Site, Septic And Well
Subcontracted, coordinated by us, and priced as their own lines. If your ground needs more site work than average, it shows up as its own line instead of being buried in the total.
Progress You Can Follow
A build looks like this for months. Wrap on the walls, windows set, concrete curing, and a list of things happening in an order that is not obvious from the outside.
You get one name and one number, and it stays the same name from the site visit to the final walk-through. When something changes, it is priced and agreed in writing before anybody picks up a tool.
Questions We Get
Do you build the whole house or just the shell?
The whole house. We design and build through to completion, which means the same company that sets the columns is the one that hangs the last door. We will put up a shell for somebody who wants to finish it themselves, but the finished build is what we are set up for.
Is a barndominium cheaper than a regular house?
The shell usually is. The finish is not. Cabinets, flooring, windows, plumbing and mechanicals cost what they cost in any house, so the savings are real but smaller than the internet suggests. We would rather tell you that now than at drywall.
Can I get a mortgage on one?
Lenders differ, and some are more used to post-frame homes than others. Talk to yours early, before the plan is drawn, because what the lender needs to see often shapes the drawings and the draw schedule.
How open can the floor plan be?
Very. The roof is carried by the columns and the trusses, so interior walls are dividers rather than structure. That is the real advantage of building a house this way, and it is worth using deliberately rather than by accident.
What about condensation and insulation?
A building that is lived in has to manage moisture properly, and this is the part that gets skipped in a cheap build. The walls and ceiling, the vapor barrier and the ventilation are designed together, on paper, before the metal goes on.
Do you handle the septic, the well and the driveway?
We coordinate them. Site work, excavation, concrete, septic and well are subcontracted to people we choose and use again, and your quote says which parts of the job are ours and which are theirs.
Tell Us What You Want To Put Up
A size and a use are enough to start. If you have a location, we will come and look at the ground.
Call the office
Hiring
We are hiring carpenters and metal crews. Same number, ask for Nick.