Learn the cost of constructing a barndominium, the building process, and the final cost of these energy-efficient alternative homes.
Forget condominiums. If you have the room to spread out and construct a large home, a barndominium affords you a vast amount of space in a down-home design. From the exterior, it looks like an oversized barn with little extras like a full-size home built-in.
Depending on the size, you can purchase a barndominium or barn home at a starting price of about $12,500 for a tiny house design. A full-fledged mansion-sized barn home typically costs about $43,000. You’ll still need to finish out the interior of either with insulation, a wallboard, and a ceiling.
Depending on the size of the home, finishing out the interior costs about $2.08 to $2.61 per square foot including labor costs. According to HomeGuide.com, the actual wallboard costs $10 to $20 per $’ by 8’ sheet or #0 to 50 cents per square foot. Read on to learn more about the average cost of a barndominium and how to save money building one.
Besides traditional red and flat white, barndominiums come in a variety of colors, such as this black barn with gray tones. Its oversized window admits lots of light and reduces electrical costs.
What Is the Average Total Cost of A Barndominium?
The cost of building these homes varies by location and home size, plus whether you do the work yourself or you hire a general contractor. Opulent versions of these homes cost $100,000 to $180,000. This assumes a steel framing with brick and siding exterior. On these homes, construction costs about $120 per square foot.
You do not have to spend that much to purchase a barn home. When you skip the purchase of customized plans and purchase a kit instead, you obtain the materials and design to construct a barndominium. With these options, you choose where to place the bathroom and must either handle the plumbing yourself or hire a plumber. The same goes for electricity.
Some barn homes also include an actual barn. In these cases, it typically offers a workshop space or farm operations area. A design like this could also provide ample space for a small business such as a potter, t-shirt screen printer, or photographer.
For example, Best Barns offers the Ravenna design, a two-story 16’ by 32’ barn with dormers for less than $19,000. You must lay the foundation yourself since those materials do not come with it. The barndominium kit comes with four insulated windows with screens. You supply the insulation and interior wallboard, then paint each room to suit your tastes.
Larger options exist and you can purchase them on eBay. The US Tall Barndominium Kit affords you a total of 720 square feet of space in two stories with a lofted mezzanine and a covered front porch. The kit design also includes two covered side patios, so you can enjoy the views of your building site from three directions.
Constructed of galvanized steel, this 24’ by 30’ two-story home offers versatility in interior configuration. You decide how to divide the rooms and the ceiling types. The kit offers options for ultra-modern interiors or country home designs. The full barndominium kit costs $37,015 and comes delivered to your door via free economy shipping. You construct it on your building site.
Some barn homes take on an industrial feel, but you can alter that by adding windows and moving the garage bays to the side of the home design instead of the front.
Can You Build a Barndominium for 100k?
You can most certainly build a barndominium for $100,000 or much less. For about 100K, if you do the labor yourself, you could build a 2,100 square foot, two-story home using a kit design. The kits provide all necessary materials unless they specify a need, such as the Ravenna requiring the builder to lay a cement foundation. Assuming you own the tools and the open land, and your area will issue a permit, you could construct one of these kits in days with a few friends.
With a large enough lot, you can build a massive barn home of two stories.
Paint your barn home a different color for a picturesque setting.
Barndominium Average Cost Per Square Foot
By now, you understand why such a diverse range exists in the cost of building a barndominium. You could construct an opulent barn home in a tiny house design for much less than $20,000. You could also build a 3000 square feet barndominium with a veranda and second story that would cost at least $180,000 using builders.
Typically, the shell of a barndominium costs about $20 per square foot to construct. Compare that to new traditional homes that cost $103 per square foot and you see the savings. However, you do still have the interior to construct. The barn home comes with a warehouse-style interior without dividing walls if you use a kit. If you hire builders, you tell them how to divide it and they do the work, but you pay a lot of extra for labor. The entire home costs you less than building traditional homes though.
The finished product of a turnkey build of a barn home costs between $95 to $125. Turnkey projects mean that the builder handles the electrical and plumbing, too, so you obtain a home you unlock and live in comfortably.
Because barndominium kits or construction plans offer so much latitude in the interior’s design and living space, the interior can seem opulent while the exterior offers a down-home feel.
3000 Sq Ft Barndominium Cost
A 3,000 square feet metal building barn home costs about $90,000 to $120,000 to build. At that size, the per-square-foot cost does go up a bit to about $30 to $40 per square foot. Using a pole barn design reduces costs to $10 to $30 per square foot.
2000 Sq Ft Barndominium Cost
Oddly, barn homes tend to cost a little more for smaller designs the size of a traditional house. Of course, the complexity of design influences the cost. The Fremont Barn Home Kit offers a roomy two-bedroom, two-bathroom design of post and beam construction. For a 2,000-square-foot design, the kit costs $160,894.
Buy Barndominium Plans with Cost Estimates Included
You don’t have to wonder how much building will cost you if you use a barndominium cost calculator. This calculator lets you enter important information like the total square footage desired and the level of work you want to do, described as grades one through four.
Grade 1: Ready-to-assemble barndo kit
Grade 2: Stock barn home
Grade 3: Semi-custom barn home
Grade 4: Custom barn home with countertops and cabinets you chose
The advantage of using this calculator comes from its pre-sets. The calculator uses national averages to weight costs, so you either get a bottom-of-the-barrel price or a top-of-the-line price. It offers what it typically costs to build the square footage you desire. You can also add a separate garage or shop area of your desired square footage, a covered porch, and an uncovered porch.
The barndominium offers two answers for its calculations. One addresses the median cost if you do all of the work yourself, the other provides the cost of using a general contractor. You also need to factor in the cost to purchase land.