What Do Barndominiums Cost and What Are They?

Your first thought when you hear the word barndominium may not be someplace you want to call home. Don’t let the name fool you though, this combo barn and condominium can produce a beautiful house and you’ll like it even more after asking “what do barndominiums cost”.

What are Barndominiums?

Barndominiums are essentially prefab steel building kits that would normally be used for agricultural use as barns and have instead been modified to be used as a primary residence.

By choosing a steel or metal building for the external structure, you are left with a completely-open customizable interior that does not need to provide structural support, unless you add additional floors.

Can You Use an Old Barn?

You may be tempted to use an existing Barn Building for your Barndominium. While this is entirely possible, we don’t recommend it as you can run into many issues along the way. When you choose to work with an existing Barn structure, you may find concerns with crumbling foundations, deteriorating wooden beams, and other structural issues that will make building difficult down the road.

Why Choose a Steel Building for Your Barndominium?

You may be wondering why a steel building is our structure of choice for a barndominium. First off, as you can by our website, we’re slightly biased. This is not without recent, however. Steel buildings provide a level of longevity and durability that be matched by traditional wood pole barns.

Along with creating a home that can for generations, the strength of steel beams also allows for a larger clearspan space than wood beams. This means you can more easily accommodate an open floor plan, and customize the interior of your barndominium without needing to consider any obstructions.

Here are Some Other Reasons we Prefer Steel Buildings:

Affordability

Steel condominium buildings are Factory-manufactured. This efficient system of production saves you money on manufacturing versus structures that are cut on-site. The prefabricated building kits are also shipped directly to your site with instructions. This saves you time and money when it comes to labor costs.

Low Maintenance

One of the things homeowners quickly find is that there is no shortage of maintenance projects around the home. The last thing you want to deal with on your new barndominium home is things like wood rot, mold, and pests. Steel structures are resistant to all of these and are some of the lowest maintenance buildings you could possibly make.

Durability

A home is not only about bringing everyone together but also keeping your family safe. Choosing a steel building kit for your barndominium gives you added peace of mind knowing that your home is surrounded by a 100% durable steel structure.

What are the Most Common Barndominium Sizes?

The size of your barndominium depends entirely upon the number of bedrooms you were looking for along with additional work and living space required. A common size for a 3-bedroom barndominium is a 40 by 60 steel building.

Don’t let your dream home be limited by the size of your building, however. Steel buildings a variety of sizes to fit your needs. If you require a 200 x 200 foot Barn, fear not, it can be provided.

What Type of Steel Building Should I Choose?

There are two main types of steel buildings to consider. They are quonset huts and rigid-frame steel buildings.

Quonset Hut Homes

Quonset hut homes are a popular choice if you love the organic lines of an arch-style quonset building. This type of steel building is made of panels that are bolted together to form arches. These arches are then raised one at a time and bolted to each other in order to form a durable, affordable structure. One of the benefits of an arch style building is that it’s a great do-it-yourself project. A few friends can usually assemble one in under a week without any special training. Barndominiums made with quonsets stand out above the rest in our opinion.

Rigid-Frame Steel Buildings

A rigid-frame steel building gives a more traditional barn-look to your barndominium. It uses a rigid interior framing system which is then clad in thinner steel sheeting. Costs on this type of building are typically lower than quonsets once you get above a certain size.

What do Barndominiums Cost?

There are a couple of different components to the cost of your barndominium. We’ll break them out below to help you get a ballpark idea of what it will cost you in total.

Foundation

Starting with a solid foundation for barndominiums is essential. With a concrete foundation, you should expect to pay around $4 to $6 per square foot. If you decide to use a 40 by 60 steel building, you will require 2,400 square feet. This works out to a cost of about $10,000 for the foundation.

Steel Barn Building

Another major cost of your barndominium home is the steel or metal Barn building itself. The price of a steel building declines on a per-foot basis as you get larger. A 30 by 40 metal building will typically have a cost of around $9.60 per square foot. If you go with a larger 40 by 60 metal building, you will be paying closer to $7.50 per square foot.

Interior Framing and Finishing

The interior Framing and finishing of your barndominium will vary more so than the other two factors. Costs are typically estimated on a per-square-foot basis and will be dependent on the number of rooms you choose to include along with the quality of fixtures and finishings. On a low end, you could likely finish your barndominium for around $40 per square foot. This would be a very basic home however and most people will find a cost of around $75-$120 per square foot is more reasonable for their level of finishes.

The Next Steps

If you’re looking for a beautiful, low-maintenance, affordable building to call home, then consider a barndominium. Get started on your house plans by requesting a free no-obligation steel building quote here.