National cost guide
Barndominium Cost
A turnkey barndominium runs $115–$200 per square foot, all-in nationally — the move-in-ready price about 90% of our buyers choose. Prefer to build it out yourself? The engineered shell kit starts at $28/sqft. Both are custom-designed around your land and your life, not pulled from a stock plan. Below: cost by size, by build path, and why your state moves the number more than anything else.
The short answer
How Much Does a Barndominium Cost?
A turnkey barndominium — fully built, move-in ready — runs $115 to $200 per square foot all-in across the country, which is the path roughly 90% of buyers take because they can’t erect a steel shell themselves. If you can manage the build, the engineered shell kit alone starts at $28 per square foot, and you arrange the slab, erection, and finish from there.
That turnkey range is wide on purpose, and the spread comes from two things: where you build and how much of the building is finished living space versus open shop. Every figure on this page is quoted per total under-roof square foot — living, shop or garage, and covered porch combined — and all-in, from bare site to finished building. Everything that follows breaks the number down the four ways that actually move it: by build path, by what’s under the roof, by size, and by location.
By build path
Shell Kit vs. Turnkey: What You’re Paying For
The single biggest cost decision is how much of the build you take on. Here is exactly where the kit ends and the finished home begins.
The gap between $28/sqft and $115–$200/sqft is everything turnkey adds: the slab, professional erection of the steel, all the trades, and full interior finish — coordinated through our qualified contractor network where coverage exists, so you manage one process instead of a dozen subcontractors. Most buyers take turnkey because a shell kit is a building, not a home.
Under roof
What “Cost Per Square Foot” Really Means
A per-square-foot price is only meaningful once you know which square feet it counts — and that single distinction is where most barndominium budgets go wrong. “Under roof” is the total area your roof covers: heated living space, the garage or shop, and any covered porches. It is the honest denominator for a whole-building price, and it is what every figure on this page uses. But not all of that area costs the same to build.
Finished living space is the expensive part — roughly $150 to $275 per living square foot — because it carries the insulation, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cabinetry, and flooring. Garage and shop space costs far less: it is open, usually unconditioned, and essentially slab plus shell. A covered porch costs less still — a roof and a slab on columns, no walls or finish. A patio or other open flatwork is cheapest of all, because it is not under roof at all and prices as site work, not building.
Because most barndominiums mix these, the all-in figure spread across the full under-roof footprint lands at $115–$200/sqft — lower than the living-only rate, because the shop, garage, and porch area pull the average down. It is also why two buildings of identical size can be priced far apart: a mostly-living home costs more per foot than a shop-house with the same footprint, and porches and patios — routinely overlooked in early budgets — add real area and cost that a living-only estimate misses.
How to read a quote. The same building produces very different “per square foot” figures depending on whether it is divided by heated square footage (smaller area, higher number) or total under-roof square footage (larger area, lower number) — so a quote can look cheap simply by using the larger denominator. Before comparing two quotes, ask each builder the same two questions: is this per heated square foot or per total under-roof square foot, and does it include site work and the finish level I actually want? Get the scope in writing. Every figure on this page is all-in across the full under-roof footprint, scoped to your actual plan.
By size
Barndominium Cost by Size
Cost scales with footprint. These are national figures — shell at $28/sqft, turnkey at the blended $115–$200/sqft, all-in — for the eight most-built sizes. Each links to its own page for layouts and detail.
Turnkey totals are all-in across the full under-roof footprint. Where your build lands inside that band depends on your state and on how much of the footprint is finished living space versus open shop — the levers covered above and below.
By location
Why Your State Moves the Price More Than Anything Else
Location is the largest single variable in a barndominium’s cost — larger than size, finish, or build path. The same building that lands near $115/sqft all-in in a low-cost inland state can reach $200/sqft in a high-wind coastal market or a premium-labor region, because the engineering and the trades both scale with where you build.
What changes state to state: wind and seismic requirements, snow load, coastal corrosion-resistant materials, safe-room inclusion, foundation and soil conditions, and local labor and land costs. We sort all 50 states into five cost tiers, T1 (lowest) through T5 (premium), and each state page carries its own tier and the specific drivers behind it.
By state
Barndominium Cost by State
Turnkey runs from about $276,000 for a typical 40×60 (2,400 sq ft) build in the lowest-cost states to $480,000 in premium markets — the same building, moved by local land, labor, and hazard engineering. We rank all 48 states we serve into five cost tiers. Find yours for its tier and the local drivers behind the number.
Alabama · Georgia · Illinois · Kentucky · Tennessee
Arkansas · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Louisiana · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · South Carolina · South Dakota · Texas · West Virginia · Wisconsin
Florida · Maryland · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · Vermont · Wyoming
Colorado · Idaho · Oregon · Utah · Virginia
Arizona · California · Connecticut · Delaware · Maine · Massachusetts · Washington
Shell kits are flat from $28/sq ft in every state. Prefer the hazard and wind-design view? See the full state directory.
What moves the number
What Drives Barndominium Cost?
Five things decide where your build lands in the range, roughly in order of impact.
1. Location. The biggest lever, covered above — your state’s engineering requirements and labor market set the baseline, which is why we route you to your state page for a real figure.
2. Size. More footprint, more cost — but bigger buildings often cost slightly less per square foot, because the fixed costs of erection and site work spread across more area. The cost-by-size table above shows the totals.
3. Build path. Shell kit ($28/sqft) versus turnkey ($115–$200/sqft) is the largest single choice you control. The difference is the slab, erection, trades, and finish — the work turnkey coordinates for you.
4. What’s under the roof. How the footprint splits between finished living space and open shop, garage, or porch is a major lever — living space costs far more per foot than the rest.
5. Site work. Grading, the foundation slab, and running utilities to the site vary with your land. We design every plan custom, so these are scoped to your actual site rather than assumed.
What turnkey covers
What Your Turnkey Dollar Buys
Turnkey delivery runs in four coordinated stages — the work that separates the $28/sqft shell from the move-in-ready price. We manage the qualified contractors at each one.
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