Dos and Don'ts of Barndos

[tigerscowboy]

Research the market if you're depending on a return on your investment. It's less than 1% of the current market interest on dwellings with this and similar designs.

[BC288]

I've lived in mine for two years. I wont ever build another home without spray foam, as most have said, my electric bill has never been over 200 and I heat/ cool 2000 sq ft. Try to get every window under an awning or porch, bcuz they do leak, if not right away, eventually. Most of the time due to clogged pane drain on window. DO put a wood burning stove. You can heat the whole house with this, and you can go simple (1200$) to fancy 6-8000$) on a stove. Do 12' walls. If you have a garage no matter how small use 10' garage doors and make it a pull through garage. Do make a secret safe room/ gun room( they're just too cool)! Do use an ac guy that knows about spray foam bcuz u dont want an oversized unit. Do ask you concrete man to drop your shower pan down 3.5 inches so you step down into your shower. Do NOT put a red roof on it, if your wife wants anything but red! If you arent doing a colored roof go with the natural galv alum color. Its cooler and buying a white one is more expensive than natural and you cant tell the difference in the sunlight. Do, as some have said, make sure you account for the outside square tubing and framed wall, at least 7.5 inches or your rooms will end up that much smaller. Do stained concrete, as its indestructible, but do get some of those foam pads for your babies play area. DO understand that it is harder to resell if you ever decide to, bcuz the market is smaller, but it will sell, eventually. Wrap around porch if you can. Try not to use rubber boots on roof. Let your plumber seal each cut out vent with NP1. It looks cleaner and will last a lifetime. Do use LED lighting. DONT buy your windows from Lowes lol. That's all I got. I can PM pics. Good luck

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[bloodtrailer28]

You can build it in your price range if your willing to do some work yourself. Ours is the same size your wanting 2400 sq ft and we built ours for 150-160k that includes well and septic.

[sasqy]

First thing in any building !
Hire a well recommended experienced contractor .
This is the first important part .
Many people don’t do their homework and only look for a low price .
Lots of goof balls out there claiming knowledge ,quality ,and skills.
There’s more to this than burning a rod and screwing Sheetrock to the walls .
Just my educated experience !

[Codie]

Are you doing this cash? Or with a bank loan? Most Banks won't let you GC yourself or finish things later.

I build houses for a living.
Plumbing underground roughly $3,000, plumbing top out $2,000, plumbing trim $2,500. That's not counting fixtures and tubs/showers.
HVAC rough in $4,000 HVAC trim $1,800
Electric rough in $4,000 Electric trim $2,200.
Those numbers are based off a 1800 sqft house we build all the time.

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This is VERY important for you to take into consideration now instead of being surprised later. If the $150,000 budget is cash and you go over budget and end up having to borrow money from the bank to finish up the chances are REALLY HIGH that you will be required to hire a general contractor for the remainder of your project.

[stingebow]

This is VERY important for you to take into consideration now instead of being surprised later. If the $150,000 budget is cash and you go over budget and end up having to borrow money from the bank to finish up the chances are REALLY HIGH that you will be required to hire a general contractor for the remainder of your project.

Exactly. Ive seen it a number of times. It gets really sticky with the bank sometimes.

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[Mike D]

Sheetrock skills? There's no such thing as sheetrock skills...that's like "walking down the street" skills.

Well apparently I ain’t worth a **** at walking down the street either. [emoji12]

Sheetrock sucks.


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[breederbuck33]

This is VERY important for you to take into consideration now instead of being surprised later. If the $150,000 budget is cash and you go over budget and end up having to borrow money from the bank to finish up the chances are REALLY HIGH that you will be required to hire a general contractor for the remainder of your project.

This is why we're doing all our digging now. I've been going through and making an itemized list of the stuff we need to get this thing livable. If we can get it livable in that budget I can wait and do a bunch of the stuff myself. I just need a kitchen and one complete bathroom. I can wait on cabinets, fans, light fixtures, and stuff like that. I appreciate all of your help! For sure has brought stuff to my attention that I wouldn't have thought of.

[sendit]

I've lived in mine for two years. I wont ever build another home without spray foam, as most have said, my electric bill has never been over 200 and I heat/ cool 2000 sq ft. Try to get every window under an awning or porch, bcuz they do leak, if not right away, eventually. Most of the time due to clogged pane drain on window. DO put a wood burning stove. You can heat the whole house with this, and you can go simple (1200$) to fancy 6-8000$) on a stove. Do 12' walls. If you have a garage no matter how small use 10' garage doors and make it a pull through garage. Do make a secret safe room/ gun room( they're just too cool)! Do use an ac guy that knows about spray foam bcuz u dont want an oversized unit. Do ask you concrete man to drop your shower pan down 3.5 inches so you step down into your shower. Do NOT put a red roof on it, if your wife wants anything but red! If you arent doing a colored roof go with the natural galv alum color. Its cooler and buying a white one is more expensive than natural and you cant tell the difference in the sunlight. Do, as some have said, make sure you account for the outside square tubing and framed wall, at least 7.5 inches or your rooms will end up that much smaller. Do stained concrete, as its indestructible, but do get some of those foam pads for your babies play area. DO understand that it is harder to resell if you ever decide to, bcuz the market is smaller, but it will sell, eventually. Wrap around porch if you can. Try not to use rubber boots on roof. Let your plumber seal each cut out vent with NP1. It looks cleaner and will last a lifetime. Do use LED lighting. DONT buy your windows from Lowes lol. That's all I got. I can PM pics. Good luck

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I agree with most of this. I went with a high end wood stove and cant wait to see what it will do as far as heating the whole house come winter time. Big fans in each room to move alot of air, Added 2' 3" to the slab to account for the exterior walls. Have a safe room, led lighting inside and out, spray foam, 10' ceilings etc. It's on my ranch property which will be left to my daughters so it wont likely be sold. I don't get the wrap around porch that I see on barndos and feel its a waste of money but that's just me. Living space is more important to us.


OP
You should be fine with that budget to get it livable with a kitchen and bath.

[TxStick]

Great thread. Following...

[Dirtymike]

"Add in about 17K for AC, Septic, Electrical, and plumbing?"

I don't see this happening, I would budget double this

agree, our septic quote was 15k in Williamson county

[breederbuck33]

Going to meet with a couple different barndo builders Thursday. The more we dig the more we change. We are now doing a little bigger building, and making a shop/garage area. We're going to do something similar to the "blaze" plan, but I'm going to swing the master setup along side the garage. I'm going to try and keep that 2500 sq ft of living area, have a garage to park in, somewhere to put my junk, and still keep the price where we need it. I'll turn this into a progress thread for people who are looking for help like myself in the future.

https://barndominiumfloorplans.com/

This is all taking place in Beaumont, so if anyone has any recommendations on who to use for anything from plumbing to cabinets and anything in between then let me know!