If you’re building a new home, a barndo kit can be a great way to save on time and build costs for your project. Barndominiums were originally converted barns or homes built with agricultural spaces inside of them.
Today, the term is more likely to refer to a metal building kit or a home constructed from a pre-engineered building. In other cases, it may refer to a pole barn home, which still uses wood post framing.
In either case, you’ll see savings on time to build, on the foundation, and on the total project. Often, that means spending about $90-$160 per square foot for your barndominium.
However, build costs can sink as low as $70 per square foot as well. And, on average, you’ll pay about $100 per square foot – or about 30% less for a completed home than with traditional stick framing.
So, barndos are a great way to go. Where do you start? With a building kit. And, barndo building kits often start at well under $100k.
However, that will be for the kit itself and not for the completed structure complete with finished interior, unless you’re planning to do a lot of DIY work. Let’s go over the details.
Why Select A Barndo Kit Under $100,000?
$100,000 gets you a lot of barndominium kit. In fact, barndo kits average about $11 per square foot for just the metal building.
They can sink as low as $5 per square foot or go up as high as $40 depending on the materials, build quality, and extras. E.g., if you want a highly reinforced metal building kit to meet very specific high wind loads, you’ll probably pay more.
On the other hand, with a standard ready-to-ship metal building kit, you’ll almost always pay under $25 per square foot. That average cost of $11 per square foot for the building kit means that $100,000 of budget gets you a barndominium kit with up to 9,000 square feet.
If you opt for a 1,200-square-foot barndominium at $12 per square foot, you’ll pay just under $15,000 for the kit. From there, you’ll have to pay for delivery and erection services (usually another $10,000) and you’ll still have about $75 per square foot for insulation, foundation, and interior finishing.
Of course, prices can go up much higher. If you find that same kit at $25 per square foot you’ll pay $30,000 for the kit, leaving you with about $60,000 for the foundation, insulation, and interior finishing. That will be a much tighter budget.
It’s also important to keep in mind that cheaper isn’t always better. If you go for the absolute minimum costs for your kit, you typically get lighter gauge steel with a reduced warranty, which will decrease the longevity of your barndominium.
Pros Of Building A Barndominium
There are a lot of reasons to build a barndominium, whether you’re spending under $100,000 on the barndo kit or more. The following raises some of those pros, which you can consider when deciding if you’re going with a barndominium kit.
Cost Effective
Barndominiums cost an average of 30% less to build than a traditional stick-built home. This means that the average cost to build is about $100 per square foot vs $130+ for stick framing.
That actual rate can vary from about $70 to over $300 depending on where you are and the actual specifics of your build. For example, a custom red iron barndominium in Austin Texas will probably cost you about $300 per square foot.
However, on average, barndominiums are cheaper to build than traditional housing. That’s because the materials are typically fabricated off-site in a factory, where they can be cut, drilled, and sized extremely quickly and efficiently.
Once the building is on your lot, the frame can go up in as little as a few days. That greatly reduces your cost of labor, so you save money.
Reduced Build-Time
The average build-time for a barndominium is 7-9 months from breaking ground.
Of course, barndos can take anywhere from 5-18 months to build depending on factors like people on the job, what you’ve opted to do with the interior, etc.
Durability
Barndominiums are extremely durable. Metal buildings are expected to last 100+ years.
In addition, you can generally expect that you have at least a 20-year warranty on roof panels. That’s a big difference from traditional housing, where you can expect to have to replace the roof about every 15 years.
Low Maintenance
Metal buildings require very little maintenance to the exterior. Of course, you may want to clean the paint on occasion so it continues to look good.
You’ll also want to do inspections and clean the gutters. Otherwise, there’s not much you need to do.
Warranties
Barndominiums often come with 20-30-50-lifetime warranties on the structural framing, the roof, the siding, the connectors, etc. That’s a big advantage over traditional housing where basically nothing but the doors and windows come with a warranty.
If you want peace of mind, barndominiums deliver it.
Charming
Most people like the look of the barn home. That’s why the trend for them has swept the nation.
Not everyone will like the look. However, many kits are beautiful, even by the standards of traditional housing and housing associations.
Open Floor Plans
Open floor plans are increasingly on trend.
Not only do they create the idea of more space, but they also give you more freedom to do whatever you want with your living and dining are, they make food more social, and they allow you to maximize the space you do have – even if you’re going for a relatively small home.
Uses For Barndominium Kits Under $100K
Just because your barndominium kit is cheap doesn’t mean it won’t have all the space you need.
In fact, the following include different uses for a $100,000 barndominium kit.
Primary Residence
$100,000 can buy you 1,200 square feet of space with up to $60 per square foot to pour the slab foundation, insulate, and put in the floors.
It’s a tight budget, but it gives you enough room to build a small 2–3-bedroom home with 1-2 bathrooms. That’s enough space for a primary residence – even for a small family.
At the same time, if you look at your $100,000 building kit budget as being for the kit alone, you can basically afford any size of barndominium that you want.
Home with Shop
Most of the cost of a barndominium is the interior. Therefore, it’s extremely cheap to build in low-finish areas like shops, workshops, and garages.
If you want to have a home with a shop, the cost of doing so with a barndominium kit is relatively low. For example, if you are spending $12 per square foot for the building kit, you can estimate that for the shop area, you’ll only need $8 per square foot for the concrete slab and another $3 for insulation and drywall.
So, if you buy a 2,000-square-foot barndominium kit for $22,000 and $16,000 on the concrete slab, and you reserve 600 square feet of the space for a shop – you can estimate that you’ll spend about $2,000 on insulation and drywall for that space.
You’ll still have $60,000 to do the interior of the rest of the home. That’s not a lot considering you’ll have 1,400 square feet to finish, but it will get you a reasonably finished home if you’re careful with budget.
2-Story Home
It’s cheaper to build up than over. Why? You save on the cost of foundation, which can be as much as the cost of the barndominium kit itself.
It won’t be a direct cost reduction because it also costs to build a taller barndo. However, building a two-story 30 x 30 building gives you the same floor space as a 60 x 30 building, but requires half the foundation.
That will save you on costs, so you can fit more house into your $100,000 barndo budget.
Home with Loft
It’s extremely cost-effective to add a loft or similar space into your barndo kit to add extra space without spending more money.
This means you can generally very easily fit a loft into your $100,000 barndominium kit budget.
Tiny Home
If you’re building anything under 1,200 square feet, you can easily afford it for a $100,000 budget. However, you will have to be careful with your budget.
On the other hand, the smaller you go, the less you’ll have to be careful. A 600-square-foot barndominium kit can cost under $8,000. That gives you plenty of budget for just about anything else you want in the home.
Investment Property
Your $100,000 barndominium kit is a great investment property. That’s true whether you’re looking for an Airbnb, passive income through rental, or you want to sell the home.
Barndominiums are low maintenance, easy to care for, and hard to damage. That makes them ideal for investment property. You can also build them quickly, minimizing the time between breaking ground and getting a return on your investment.
Of course, you’ll need land and good opportunities for this to pay off. However, it can be a great way to start setting up your income portfolio.
Retirement Home
A $100,000 barndominium kit can be a great retirement home.
In fact, smaller homes make very good retirement options, simply because they require less cleaning, less maintenance, and overall less worry than a larger home.
This means that the smaller barndominium is easier to maintain, take care of, and keep up with over your retirement.
Calculating Estimates For Barndominium Kits Under $100K
If you’re planning to build a barndominium, you can do a lot with a budget of $100,000. However, what you get will heavily depend on what approach you take.
For example, if you want the whole thing to come in at under $100,000, you’ll be a lot more limited. On average, you’ll need to spend $70-$200+ per square foot of living space you get out of your barndominium.
That’s $5-$25 per square foot for the kit, $5-$12 per square foot for the foundation, and $50-$200 per square foot for the interior finishing. The basic building kit offers the most cost-effective option, with no custom doors and windows, no gambrels, etc.
In most cases, you can expect the following rates for “just” the barndo kit if you spend under $100,000.
| Barndo Size | Kit Cost |
|---|---|
| 24 x 24 | $5,760-$8,640 |
| 30 x 40 | $8,400-$14,400 |
| 40 x 60 | $16,800-$28,800 |
| 50 x 50 | $17,500-$30,000 |
| 60 x 80 | $33,600-$57,600 |
On the other hand, if you consider other aspects of the home, like the foundation, interior, insulation, HVAC, electricity, labor, etc., your full home build costs are going to look more like this:
| Size | 24 x 24 | 30 x 40 | 40 x 50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kit Cost | $5,550-$8,250 | $8,400-$14,400 | $14,011-$24,019 |
| Foundation | $2,200-$4,950 | $4,800-$12,000 | $8,006-$10,675 |
| Interior | $8,250-$19,250 | $18,000-$42,000 | $30,000-$70,056 |
| Insulation | $1,650-$2,200 | $3,600-$4,800 | $6,004-$8,000 |
| Systems | $9,950-$19,775 | $15,800-$29,400 | $22,184-$39,041 |
| Labor | $2,750-$8,250 | $6,000-$18,000 | $10,500-$30,000 |
| Total | $30,300-$62,675 | $55,600-$120,600 | $90,700-$181,800 |
And, as you can see, the actual range of costs can allow you to get up to a 2,000-square-foot home, finished within the $100,000 budget. However, doing so will require being extremely careful with costs, doing a lot of work yourself, budgeting materials, and otherwise taking significant steps to control costs.
At the same time, you could do the same with a tiny home without any of that budgeting and may even come in well under budget. So, the barndominium kit you get for $100,000 or less will depend on how you spend your money.
Most importantly, location and local building costs will play a large role in what’s feasible inside of your budget.
Next Steps
Buying a barndominium is a great way to go if you’re looking for a cost-effective and durable home. Those kits can be extremely cost-effective, with many running between $5 and $25 per square foot.
On average, you can expect to pay about $11 per square foot for the kit alone. That means you can easily build a 1,200-square-foot barndominium for $100,000 or less – providing you’re careful with budget.
On the other hand, the smaller you go with your home, the less you’ll have to worry about costs. And, if you’re up for DIY and shopping around for deals, you can go much larger and still finish your home under budget.
Good luck with your barndominium.
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