A barndominium home is a house built with post-frame or steel framing and a steel exterior, usually with a big open interior and, a lot of the time, a shop or garage under the same roof. It’s a home that works as hard as you do.
O’Neil Metal Buildings & Barndominiums designs and builds custom barndominium homes throughout Illinois and Missouri from our base in Belleville in the Metro East. We take the job from bare land to a finished home: permits, concrete, the shell, plumbing, HVAC, electrical and finished interiors.
Get a free quote or call (618) 337-6100.
What Is a Barndominium Home?
The name comes from “barn” plus “condominium,” but today’s barndominium homes are just homes: kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms, finished like any other house. What’s different is how they’re built. Clear-span framing means you don’t need load-bearing walls in the middle of the house, so the layout can go where you want it, and the steel exterior is tough and low-maintenance.
People also call them barndominium houses, barndo homes or pole barn houses. Whatever you call it, the question that matters is how it’s built. See how O’Neil builds barndominiums.
Why Families Choose Barndominium Homes
- Room to live and room to work. Put a shop, oversized garage or equipment bay under the same roof as the house.
- Open interiors. Big great rooms, vaulted ceilings and layouts that aren’t boxed in by bearing walls.
- A low-maintenance exterior. O’Neil builds with 26-gauge steel roof and wall panels with lifetime paint, so there’s no siding to repaint and no shingles to replace down the road.
- Built for country land. Barndominium homes fit acreage, farm ground and rural lots where you want space around you.
- Custom from the start. Every O’Neil barndominium home is designed around your site, your family and your county’s requirements.
Barndominium Home Sizes and Layouts
Barndominium homes come in every size. We’re developing layout ideas around four size options, about 1,800, 3,000, 5,000 and 7,000 square feet, as starting points for your design. They aren’t finished plans, and every home is customized before it’s built. See our barndominium plans page for the size options and floor plan ideas.
Popular layout ideas for barndominium homes:
- Home plus shop under one roof, with a mudroom between the shop and the house
- Split-bedroom layouts with the primary suite on its own side of the house
- Open kitchen and great room with vaulted ceilings
- Covered porches, wraparound porches and lean-tos
- Lofts and second-floor bonus rooms
- Attached garages sized for trucks, trailers or equipment
Tiny Barndominium Homes to Large Home-Plus-Shop Builds
Not everyone needs a big house. If you’re downsizing, building a weekend place or adding a guest home, see our tiny barndominium homes. If you want a hobby space built in, take a look at our golf simulator barndominiums. And if you need the house and a full shop, we build that too.
What It Takes to Build a Barndominium Home
A few things to line up early:
- Land and zoning. Make sure the parcel is zoned for a home and meets your county’s rules. Subdivisions can have covenants on exterior materials or minimum home size.
- Permits. O’Neil handles the building permit on every build.
- Septic and well. On rural land, these approvals usually go through your county or local health department. You arrange them, and we can point you in the right direction.
- Site and utilities. Driveway, site prep and utility runs depend on your property.
- Financing. Barndominium financing can work a little differently from a standard house, so talk to your lender early. Our financing page is a good place to start.
Turnkey Barndominium Homes or a Shell Package
- Turnkey. One builder from permits to move-in: permitting, concrete, the shell, plumbing, HVAC, electrical and finished interiors. You don’t have to be your own general contractor.
- Shell material package. Building it yourself? We can supply the shell materials: posts/columns, trusses and framing, steel, trim, doors, windows and gutters. Concrete and labor aren’t included.
Either way, the frame is built the O’Neil way: laminated columns on steel brackets that never touch dirt, columns 8′ on center, every purlin in a bracket, and engineered trusses that are always bolted. See the details.
How Much Do Barndominium Homes Cost?
It depends on size, how much is living space and how much is shop, post-frame or steel, your site and your finishes. Our barndominium cost guide covers published per-square-foot averages, what they leave out, and how to compare shell and turnkey quotes. For a number on your own home, request a free quote.
Barndominium Homes Across Illinois and Missouri
We build barndominium homes throughout both states, from Southern Illinois and the Metro East to Chicagoland, and from St. Louis to Kansas City and the Ozarks.
Barndominium Homes FAQs
Are barndominium homes the same as pole barn houses?
People often use the names for the same idea: a home built with post-frame or steel framing and a steel exterior. The difference with O’Neil is how it’s built. Our columns sit on steel brackets above the concrete instead of in the ground, our trusses are bolted, and the house is finished turnkey.
How big are barndominium homes?
Any size. We’re developing layout ideas at about 1,800, 3,000, 5,000 and 7,000 square feet, and we also build tiny barndominium homes. Every home is custom.
Can a barndominium home have a shop?
Yes. Home plus shop under one roof is one of the most popular barndominium layouts.
Do you build barndominium homes turnkey?
Yes. O’Neil handles permits, concrete, the shell, plumbing, HVAC, electrical and finished interiors. We also offer shell material packages if you’d rather build it yourself.
Where do you build barndominium homes?
Throughout all of Illinois and Missouri, from our base in Belleville in the Metro East.
Start Your Barndominium Home
Tell us where your land is and how you want to live on it. O’Neil will help you lay out the home and put together a quote, turnkey or shell package.
Get a free quote or call (618) 337-6100.