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Barndominium combines the words “barn” and “condominium.” The origin of barndominiums (also called a Barndo or Shouse) comes from folks converting former agricultural buildings like barns into residential living spaces. However, in a more modern context, a barndominimum is a catch-all term for a residential building that uses a large, open structure as a starting point; often, they’re a combination of living and working spaces, typically in the form of a large shop or garage opposing the living space.
Barndominiums make phenomenal vacation homes, primary residences, and combination properties for artists, mechanics, or folks who have an RV, ATVs, motorcycles, or trailers to store. Their simple building design makes them phenomenally cost-effective and can be erected and finished quickly when using a pre-engineered metal building as a starting point.
What is a barndominium? Simply put, it’s the perfect mix of usable space for living, recreation, and work under one roof.
Starting your Barndominium project with a pre-engineered metal building from Great Western Buildings is guaranteed to make your dreams come true with peace of mind. Our buildings are backed by a lifetime structural warranty and are designed and engineered to conform perfectly to your preferences and local coding requirements. In addition, we design our buildings for quick erection with DIY-ers and first-time builders in mind. We provide an industry-leading erection manual and a 24/7 customer support hotline to ensure your building goes up with ease. That way, you can focus more on building out the interior to your heart’s content.
Great Western buildings are nearly infinitely customizable in size and shape. You can even use our 3D Building Designer to perfect and visualize your custom building design, down to the placement of doors and windows. Our team is here to help perfect your design. We can add elements like mezzanines for two-story construction, reinforcements for industrial cranes, and so much more. The sky is the limit, and we’re here to help you reach for it.
Are you looking to build in a neighborhood with HOA restrictions or just prefer a more traditional residential appearance? Our buildings can support traditional siding and roof systems like Stucco, brick veneer, tile, and vinyl siding.
Looking for more info? Feel free to contact our team below. We’re happy to help!
“Shouse” is interchangeable with “barndominium.” It is a combination of the words “shop” and “house.”
Not at all! Great Western’s metal house and shop kits are designed with DIYers and first-time builders in mind. Our precision-engineered buildings and industry-leading erection manual make it an intuitive process for anyone with basic construction experience. So long as the building is erected correctly, no structural modifications are made to the design, and no building materials are subjected to any damage from misuse, abuse, or improper storage, your warranties are applicable. We provide complete warranty documents with each of our buildings at the time of delivery, and, of course, customers may contact us via our 24/7 support hotline for any clarification or assistance.
We’ve designed buildings for a wide variety of sides and roofing materials to comply with HOA requirements or simply to fulfill customer requests. Our team can engineer your building for wood lap, log, or vinyl siding. In addition, we’ve designed buildings for use with masonry, stucco, and even T1-11. In most cases, HOA restrictions do not restrict roofing materials, but we can engineer buildings to use tile roofs and more. However, it’s worth noting that, in many cases, a simple wainscot or vertical color break is all that is necessary to meet HOA requirements. Simply let our team know what you want or need, and we’ll do our best to accommodate.
In most cases, lenders providing a loan for this kind of project need a cost breakdown of the project. This includes a material list and building plans that can be appraised. For this purpose, Great Western will provide you with engineered building drawings. You can use these drawings to obtain estimates for your concrete and dirt work, overall costs for doors and windows, interior architecture, contractor pricing, and more. From there, you’ll be able to provide the overall project cost to your lender for financing approval.
A simpler structure will always result in cost savings. Complex design features like hipped dormers, multi-level roofs, and extensive overhangs can increase your prices. Of course, the team at Great Western is happy to include these features if they are what you’d like. Simplicity is the key if you’re looking for the most cost-effective solution. Similarly, a great practice to keep overall project costs down is to present your Great Western building design to your architect (if you are using one) before the interior design begins. This way, you’re working within the confines of your already-designed building to prevent costly design additions to your steel building. Ultimately, this practice can save thousands by eliminating extra building materials.
Installing a stud wall of light steel or timber studs does not require any modification to your Great Western building’s design. Simply installing the walls between the building’s girts and purlins within the wall or roof system allows sufficient interior buildout without additional materials from your standard design. Our designers can also outfit your building with girts spaced at either two or four feet with hat channels placed on 16-inch centers for a more straightforward interior finishing experience. This requires us to adjust the roof and wall design to support the extra material, but it’s a simple process that our designers have no problem accommodating. Do keep in mind, though, that this addition will raise the cost of your building.
