Barndominiums are becoming a more and more popular option for new homeowners. A barndominium is a structure resembling a barn transformed into a living space, storage space, or professional space. You can make barndominiums out of wood or metal. 

Usually, barndominiums sell in kits. The pieces are produced and shipped or brought to your property, and it’s up to you to assemble them using a professional or your skills. The assembly should be shorter than a regular building because the pieces are designed to fit together. Here we’ve assembled the ultimate guide to barndominiums. 

1. Green Building Elements

picture of Green Building Elements Barndominium website

Types of Barndominiums Offered

Green Building Elements offers four barndominium kits. The kits come in sizes 60 x 60, 40 x 75, 40 x 60 and 30 x 40, which are typical sizes for barndominiums. Green Building Elements offers prefabricated metal barndominium kits, which should be fairly easy to assemble once purchased. 

The prefabricated barndominiums from Green Building Elements are simple. The kit includes all the structural pieces you’ll need to assemble your new home, and the parts are shipped to you after they meet production standards which often shortens assembly time. 

Green Building Elements’ four barndominium sizes are large enough for vehicle storage, living space, and a professional space or office. For example, the 40 x 60 barndominium can host four to five bedrooms in its 2,400 square feet while still leaving you plenty of storage or garage space. 

Company Details 

Green Building Elements is an industry leader dedicated to helping consumers, homeowners and landowners compare buildings and find the best steel building for them at an affordable price. The company takes pride in offering comparison and price-finding services for free. 

The company provides how-to articles, explanations, and pros and cons for every type of building they offer. Plus, great insights into how to make your barndominium, professional space, or modular building more sustainable by using solar power, maximizing insulation, and minimizing waste.

Green Building Elements is available online to anyone in the United States, and they have a corporate location in Manchester, Connecticut. The company has a team of five that focus on building, architecture, marketing, managing, and solar power. 

Why We Recommend Green Building Elements

We recommend Green Building Elements because its services are simple and easy to use. Using the website, you can easily see different kits by price, comparisons from other companies, and the average cost of the building you’re considering with or without additional services (like heat). 

Green Building Elements is also committed to living up to its name and is one of the only steel building companies truly focused on sustainability and profit. Every building or kit comes with recommendations for minimizing waste, using solar power, or lowering the impact on the environment. 

We recommend Green Building Elements for all of your steel building needs, especially if you’re conscious about sustainability or live in an area with strict environmental regulations. The company is trustworthy and affordable. 


2. Worldwide Steel Buildings

picture of worldwide steel barndominums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

Worldwide Steel Buildings offers DIY-friendly metal barndominium kits. Each kit comes with a manual, primary framing, secondary framing, exterior sheathing, trim, closures, fasteners, and stamped building plans. You can also add on more floors, overhangs, porches, and more. 

If you’ve found a kit that you like but want to use a different material for the roofing or exterior. Worldwide Steel Buildings also offers a reduced package that doesn’t include roofing or exterior siding. Some homeowners prefer wooden external material and roofing. 

Each kit comes with a flexible floor plan customized to your liking, and a Worldwide Steel Building expert will be available during the design and construction process to help fill in any gaps in your knowledge. 

You can customize barndominiums from Worldwide Steel Buildings any way you’d like, including fitting them with sustainable windows (energy efficient), garage or overhead doors, and custom finishes, or even removing the interior structural walls.  

Company Details  

Worldwide Steel Buildings manufactures its steel building kits in Peculiar, Missouri. There, the different components of your barndominium will be built and tested for quality before being shipped out to you. The company ships its kits and buildings directly to anywhere in the world. 

Worldwide Steel Buildings also has five sales offices in Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, and Oklahoma. The firm is proud to offer 19 different full-time building consultants who advise and help clients decide which steel building is right for them and how to build it. 

Worldwide Steel Buildings also hand delivers its buildings to all 50 states, along with an expert to help you assemble your structure. Every structure or building made by Worldwide Steel Buildings has a 50-year warranty and can be assembled without heavy construction equipment. 

Since the company delivers to all 50 states, they have an extreme weather condition guarantee for all their buildings. Worldwide Steel Buildings guarantees your structure will survive any climate event from blizzards to earthquakes and tornados. 

Why We Recommend Worldwide Steel Buildings 

We recommend Worldwide Steel Buildings for many reasons. Most importantly, the company manufactures its building materials based on a steel truss design and ships them directly from manufacturing eliminating the chance of your kit getting damaged on its way to you. 

The company has previously won multiple awards for construction, business acumen, and engineering. In 2021, Worldwide Steel Buildings was awarded the Build Award for construction and engineering. Since it manufactures its kits, the firm is also a certified welding fabricator. 

Worldwide Steel Buildings offers a 50-year warranty and extreme weather guarantee, delivers your kit and an expert right to your door, designs its kits to be DIY-able, and ships internationally. This makes them one of the most effortless companies to purchase a barndominium kit from.

We recommend Worldwide Steel Buildings because they take pride in being the strongest and longest-lasting building system available in the industry.


3. General Steel

picture of general steel barndominiums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

General Steel offers barndominiums in multiple popular sizes ranging from small to substantial. You can purchase kits for a 30 x 40, 40 x 60, 40 x 75, 60 x 60, or 60 x 70 barndominium. A 40 x 60 General Steel barndominium kit is large enough for a three-bedroom home with a dining and living room. 

General Steel allows you to customize your barndominium kit from the shell to the interior. After picking out one of its base building kits, decide on what interior and exterior features you’d like and choose your color scheme. Finally, choose from approved additions to add style or function to your kit.

Popular barndominium kit additions from General Steel Buildings include insulation, gutters, sliding windows, or cupolas to allow more light and ventilation. With your kit, General Steel Buildings will include a project coordinator who can help you make decisions about your building and assemble it. 

Company Details  

General Steel Buildings has multiple warranties that come with your kit. They offer a 50-year structural warranty for the constructed pieces of your building, a 40-year paint warranty on whatever color of paint you choose, and a 25-year standing seam roof warranty to ensure the structural integrity of your roof. On top of that, the company offers a 20-year Galvalume roof warranty. 

When choosing the color scheme of your barndominium kit, you’ll choose three colors from General Steel Buildings’ interactive metal building chart. The chart will show you popular color combinations and the colors most often chosen by other homeowners and builders. 

General Steel Buildings’ corporate office is in Littleton, Colorado. However, they ship their buildings and building kits nationally and internationally from fabrication centers all over the United States. On top of designing, fabricating, and shipping its buildings internationally, General Steel Buildings also provides resources for homeowners and first-time builders.

Why We Recommend General Steel 

We recommend General Steel Buildings because of their warranties, international shipping, and dedication to helping clients understand what they want and need before purchasing a building. General Steel Buildings is a safe and reliable place to buy a barndominium kit. 

General Steel Buildings provides visual layouts of every size of their barndominium kits and explains what most buyers use them for, whether it’s a residential home or a medical office. They also supply detailed explanations of how to maximize your space while keeping your barndominium aesthetically pleasing. 

The number one reason we recommend General Steel Buildings is the addition of a project coordinator at no extra cost. Your General Steel project coordinator can walk you through every step of the process, and will also be on hand to help you assemble your structure when it arrives either virtually or in person. 

This is an invaluable resource all homeowners should take advantage of. 


4. Metal Depots

Picture of metal depots barndominiums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

Metal Depots offers three different barndominiums. Each is styled to replicate in-demand architectural styles. The smallest barndominium, and also the most affordable, is the rustic cottage barndominium kit. The cottage kit is 1,250 square feet, measured at 50 x 25 feet. 

The most popular barndominium kit that Metal Depots offers is the Austin kit. This kit is designed to look like homes in the stunning hills of Austin, Texas. The kit is 2,400 square feet, measured at 80 x 30 feet. It’s ideal for someone who wants a home and a garage or workshop. 

Finally, Metal Depot’s largest barndominium kit is the modern farmhouse kit. Styled after modern farmhouse architecture, the kit is 2,800 square feet with an open design that allows you to decide how your home will function. It also comes in fourteen different colors. 

The modern farmhouse barndominium is large enough to be used as an event space, but can also be assembled as a two-story home, or three-bedroom home with a garage. All barndominiums offered at Metal Depots include exterior framing only unless customized. 

Company Details 

Metal Depots supply buildings and roofing for homeowners, farmers, and contractors in multiple industries including commercial. They’re owned by Cornerstone Building Brands which is the single largest provider and manufacturer of metal buildings on the continent. 

The company ships nationally and internationally from its manufacturing stations around the United States and has sales locations in South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Los Angeles. In any of its sales stores, you can find roofing and building kits built and on display, and can talk to an expert about what type of steel building might be right for you. 

The company’s corporate office and headquarters are in Houston, Texas. It offers multiple different warranties to barndominium kit buyers, including fire warranties and other extreme weather condition guarantees. Each barndominium kit is made to withstand 130MPH winds and a heavy load of snow or rain. 

All Metal Depots’ barndominium kits come with exterior framing only, so make sure to purchase interior framing, insulation, HVAC, or any other services you need separately. 

Why We Recommend Metal Depots

We recommend Metal Depots for anyone who is looking for a simple way to purchase a barndominium kit. Metal Depots’ kits are very straightforward, and the company provides you with all of the resources and pieces you need to assemble your kit once it’s shipped to you. 

The company also provides detailed explanations and visual aids for choosing the functionality and aesthetics of your barndominium, from layout to color schemes. The firm offers three different kits that should cater to those on a budget and those looking for something more luxurious. Each kit is also fairly sustainable, lowering your property’s overall carbon footprint. 

Metal Depots guarantee the durability of their barndominiums, which are essentially maintenance-free once assembled. The assembled structure will be fire and termite resistant, and able to take heavy loads of snow, wind, and rain. With a Metal Depots barndominium kit, you can save money on repairs, construction, and maintenance. 


5. Heritage Buildings

picture of heritage building systems barndominium kits

Types of Barndominiums Offered

Heritage Buildings is another business under the CornerStone Building Brands family. Heritage Buildings’ three barndominium kits are also named the rustic cottage, the Austin, and the modern farmhouse, and the company progressively increases the amount of square footage and price with each kit. 

The firm isn’t solely focused on homes and has worked with many commercial clients. Heritage Buildings is dedicated to making every barndominium structurally safe, and aesthetically pleasing. The company’s color visualizer helps clients combine colors and panels to get the look of their structure down perfectly before manufacturing and assembly. 

If you’ve found the perfect color, panel, or trim that isn’t included, you can upload your colors into the visualizer and see them on the walls, roof, or exterior accessories. 

Company Details  

Heritage Buildings was founded in 1979 by concrete masons and crane operators who worked in the construction industry. Since 1979, Heritage Buildings has manufactured and shipped 40,000 metal building kits for everything from warehouses to churches. The company is involved in multiple trustworthy steel building organizations. 

The firm is involved with the Metal Building Manufacturers Association, the International Accreditation Service for Metal Building Systems, and the Self Storage Association. As a member of the Cornerstone Buildings Brands family, Heritage Buildings has access to builders, manufacturers, and other construction professionals throughout the industry. 

The company’s metal building specialists have 150 years of combined experience in the steel building kit industry. 

Why We Recommend Heritage Buildings

We recommend Heritage Buildings if this is your first time building a barndominium kit and need the help of experts. The company employs some of the best in the steel industry to help clients navigate the design and manufacturing process. The firm also does all the manufacturing, so clients don’t need to worry about communicating between Heritage Buildings and a middle man. 

Heritage Buildings also has multiple options for customization that can improve the interior and exterior of your barndominium, and increase its use. Choose from things like gutters and downspouts to cupolas and other ventilation components. Experts at Heritage Buildings can help you find the best options that also fit your budget.


6. Absolute Steel

picture of absolute steel barndominums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

Absolute Steel offers an entire line of barndominium shells that you can customize to design your perfect space. You can choose a pre-designed option, start with frame size and style, or design the entire thing yourself from scratch with the help of an Absolute Steel technician. 

Absolute Steel will build your frame, and the company provides steel paneling and window or door cutouts depending on your design. The company allows you to act as the general contractor, and choose the materials, subcontractors, and products you want for your build. 

Once the kit is built, Absolute Steel will ship it to your home or worksite, or you can have a contracted installer pick it up at one of the company factories. Absolute Steel provides a simple how-to video guide for assembling your structure and has dedicated customer service agents ready to answer any questions you may have over the phone. 

Company Details 

Absolute Steel is owned by the parent company Absolute Storage LLC. The parent company headquarters is in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona. The headquarters facility showcases assembled buildings, garages, and storage sheds. Absolute Steel has a showroom and storage facility in Guadalupe, Arizona, and another facility in Terrell, Texas. 

All of Absolute Steel’s buildings are installed up to code with the local weather and fire safety measures. The company’s metal barndominium shells can be built to withstand 160 MPH sustained winds with concrete installations, and wall panels have a 20-45 year warranty against peeling or fading. Even the roofs from Absolute Steel are built to withstand heavy snow. 

Absolute Steel is proud to serve the United States Army with buildings that are rot and pest-proof and can promise the same for your barndominium kit. If you choose metal frames and panels, your barndominium will be virtually unbreakable by weather or wildlife. 

Why We Recommend Absolute Steel 

We recommend Absolute Steel for many reasons. They’re a leader in the construction and steel building industry and have great relationships with high-profile clients like the United States military. Absolute Steel often manufactures and constructs buildings for government organizations and NGOs as well as large-scale projects like covered parking garages. 

The company also provides disaster relief housing and safe buildings for gas and oil refineries. Absolute Steel has a fantastic reputation for being reliable and durable and should be able to provide you with a secure and low-maintenance, easily assembled structure that lasts a long time. The firm supplies customers with top-notch video resources and FAQs online as well. 

Absolute Steel is one of the best places to purchase a barndominium kit if you want to customize it. The company even allows you to design the shell yourself and recommends local contractors in your area who are skilled and trustworthy. 


7. Sunward Steel Buildings 

picture of sunward steel barndominiums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

Sunward Steel Buildings offers all the materials you need to build your custom barndominium. Once you purchase a Sunward barndominium kit, the company will manufacture and ship the pre-engineered pieces of your barndominium shell to your home. You’ll receive all the primary and secondary materials you need, roof and wall sheeting, closure and trim packages, and any other specific inclusions you’ve chosen. You can then customize the layout to your needs.

Sunward Steel Buildings engineers your barndominium building for you, and ships it to you. The company also sells major construction components that can increase the functionality of your building, like insulation, foundations, and doors. The firm has put together popular design layouts from previous clients to allow first-time buyers to browse through potential displays. 

When customizing, you can add windows, skylights, overhangs, or even luxury amenities like adding heated floors. Barndominium kits from Sunward Steel Buildings are affordable and uncomplicated to assemble. 

Company Details  

Sunward Steel Buildings has been in the steel manufacturing industry for 50 years. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has manufacturing plants in Jamestown, North Dakota, and Walterboro, South Carolina. The company is led by a female president and CEO and has been operating in Colorado since 1976. 

Sunward Steel Buildings offers a standard 40-year warranty on colored walls, trim, and galvalume canopies. All metal panels, no matter what color, include a 25-40 year paint warranty.

The company offers metal buildings of all kinds and takes out the middleman by selling interior components like metal panels, framing, and bracing. 

The company works with clients all over the United States to create residential homes, storage spaces, equestrian and farming buildings, and public spaces like museums and parking garages. Sunward Steel Buildings does not provide construction, unlike many of its competitors. However, the firm does offer more floor plans at affordable prices.  

Why We Recommend Sunward Steel Buildings 

We recommend Sunward Steel Buildings if you’re looking to have complete control over your barndominium design, or you have some building or construction experience. Since the company doesn’t provide an installer or builder to help with assembly, it’s crucial to work with a local contractor or talk to a project coordinator at Sunward before beginning to build. 

Sunward Steel Buildings is one of the most flexible steel building companies to get a barndominium kit from. Using the company’s services, you can customize the floor plan and layout of your barndominium from the shell up, as well as purchase necessary or luxury elements that you want to add. 

Once the shell of your barndominium is built, it’s all yours. Barndominium kits from Sunward Steel Buildings have gone on to be residential homes, workshops, auto shops, office spaces, aircraft hangers, art studios, even vacation rentals. The company prides itself on affordability and durability.  


8. DC Builders

picture of dc builders barndominums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

DC Builders offers dozens of barndominium kits that can be customized to your liking. Its prefabricated barndominium kits come with structural materials, sliding, trim, exterior doors and windows, roofing, and connection hardware. Unlike others in the industry, DC Builders is focused primarily on traditional wood-build barndominiums, rather than metal or steel. 

The company engineers heavy timber building kits for everything from animal shelters to wedding venues. DC Builders is a reliable firm to work with in terms of barndominium kits for residential homes. The company has kits for apartment barndominiums, full home barndominiums, timber-framed barndominium homes, and even cabin-style barndominiums. 

DC Builders also has workshop and garage barndominium kits, and kits large enough to hold events in or stable horses on a farm. The barndominium kits are all assembled out of quality wood, and manufactured in the United States. The DC Builders craftsman specially cut, and label each piece in the kit.

Company Details

DC Builders is a team of designers, craftsmen, and customer support specialists who all work together to ensure every DC building is flawless. The firm is dedicated to making high-quality structures in collaboration with the people who need them and promises a streamlined and team-oriented process from design to assembly, plus customer service tailored to your needs. 

The company is proud to offer the most customizable kit options in the industry and can adjust any design to fit your needs and budget. If you’re looking for luxury, DC Builders has a huge amount of premium upgrades including Cedar, Pine, and waterproof decks, Pine and Douglas ceiling upgrades, and heavy timber staircases for inside your new home. 

DC Builders is headquartered in Damascus, Oregon, where the firm also has a manufacturing facility. It also has an ever-growing network of builders across the United States who are trained in DC Builders assembly and manufacturing processes.  

Why We Recommend DC Builders

We recommend DC Builders to anyone who is looking for a beautiful wooden barndominium kit. The company has a kit for everyone, whether you’re assembling your new home or workspace for your career and hobbies. DC Builders is involved in every part of the barndominium kit process, from helping you choose square footage to picking out a floor plan layout. 

As soon as you reach out to DC Builders about a barndominium kit, its dedicated customer service team will set you up with a designer, and a project coordinator. The designer and project coordinator will be there every step of the way to help answer any questions and advise you about types of wood, finishes, layouts, and all the other small but crucial decisions. 

DC Builders uses high-quality Douglas Fir as the primary material in their wooden buildings and structures because it’s one of the strongest woods to use for building.  


9. Maverick Steel Buildings

picture of maverick steel buildings barndominiums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

Maverick Steel Buildings produces metal barndominium kits with steel frames. The company is committed to making building kits that can suitably stand up to water, fire, and pest damage, and uses American-made steel to create easy to assemble barndominium kits. 

Maverick Steel Buildings offers prefabricated steel barndominium kits and custom steel barndominium kits. The company only produces the barndominium shell, like most firms in the industry, and they do not provide additional components for the interior of the home. However, unlike other firms, Maverick Steel Buildings often uses recycled metal and steel for their builds.

Barndominium shells made by Maverick Steel Buildings should be able to withstand wildfire and wildlife or pest damage, water or flooding damage, and even heavy loads of snow or extreme weather like earthquakes and tornados. When you purchase and design your barndominium kit, builders at Maverick Steel Buildings will ensure it’s up to code in your local area. 

Company Details 

Maverick Steel Buildings is devoted to providing first-rate metal buildings to builders, homeowners, ranchers, and landowners across the United States. The company sources, engineers and manufactures all the steel for its buildings in the country. It also ships all materials, kits, and other components directly to anywhere in the USA. 

Once you purchase your barndominium kit or another steel project from Maverick Steel Buildings, the company will engineer your structure to accommodate and meet any building codes or licensures that are applicable in your zip code. The firm can adjust the kit or structure to fit any building code in the US, regardless of the climate or weather patterns in your area.  

Maverick Steel Buildings is headquartered in Jefferson, Georgia. Taylor Satterfield, the owner and founder of the company, grew up in the steel building industry and witnessed every part of the job process, which inspired Maverick Steel Buildings. 

Why We Recommend Maverick Steel Buildings 

We recommend Maverick Steel Buildings if you’re looking for an all-American company committed to service, quality, and reliability. Maverick Steel Buildings employs knowledgeable customer service agents to assist clients one-on-one and is transparent about the steel building process from start to finish. Every building is proofed against local weather and wildlife.

Maverick Steel Buildings guarantees each building will meet all applicable structural safety standards. The company uses 100% commercial grade red-iron steel, and its entire network of builders are members of the Metal Building Manufacturers Association certified under the American Institute of Steel Construction. 

The company can also supply clients with recommendations as they get ready to assemble their prefabricated steel building kit. Maverick Steel Buildings can recommend local concrete vendors, erection vendors, and other fundamental interior businesses like insulation technicians. 

If you feel comfortable assembling your barndominium on your own, Maverick Steel Buildings also provides numerous online resources.  


10. SteelCo Buildings

picture of steelco barndominiums

Types of Barndominiums Offered

SteelCo Buildings offers steel-framed barndominium kits of any size. If you’re unsure about the layout of square footage for your barndominium, SteelCo Buildings provides display examples and prefabricated buildings in four example sizes. The examples are sized from a single-story two-bedroom home at 2,376 square feet to a two-story three-bed home at 3,928 square feet. 

SteelCo Buildings can custom design your barndominium kit to your specific space needs, whether you’re looking for a small workshop or office space, or a residential home for your family. The company doesn’t do interior build-outs, but you can purchase a set of builder drawings to help you plan the inside of your structure and give your contractor some direction. 

Working with one of SteelCo Buildings’ experts, you can customize the length, width, and height of your barndominium, as well as any foundation elements like basements, or second stories. 

Company Details 

SteelCo Buildings was founded in 2001, and its headquarters are in Oxford, Georgia. The company runs on the values of discipline, trust, integrity, honesty, and community involvement. SteelCo buildings ensure quality customer service and promise clients they can trust them from the design process to assembly. 

The firm guarantees all of their building products are top of the line and includes warranties on many of them. All fasteners used during your barndominium kit build and assembly have lifetime warranties and paint and trim colors chosen for your build have a 20-year warranty against moisture, fading, and peeling. 

SteelCo Buildings operates in Georgia and Virginia, and ships directly anywhere in the United States. If you’re assembling your structure within 30 miles of SteelCo Buildings headquarters, their construction experts can come and assist you during construction. If you’re outside of the company’s area of service, SteelCo Buildings can recommend local building experts. 

Why We Recommend SteelCo Buildings 

We recommend SteelCo Buildings because they’re a safe and trustworthy option for buying a barndominium kit, especially if you live in the southern part of the United States. The company provides building plans for every client, which makes building out the interior of your structure that much easier after assembly. The company also reaches out to local builders for referrals.

SteelCo Buildings only works with manufacturers who are members of the Metal Building Manufacturers Association and are certified by the American Institute of Steel Construction. These organizations confirm that every builder and manufacturer that receives a license has learned and perfected the safety standards necessary to build your barndominium kit. 

Since the manufacturers of your barndominium kit are preapproved to meet safety standards, your construction process won’t be impeded by waiting for permits or having to redesign to meet code specifications. The company is also a positive member of its local community, is personally involved in local charitable organizations, and sponsors civic and cultural events. 


Barndominium FAQs 

What is a barndominium?

A barndominium is a barn-style structure that can be custom designed and prefabricated out of wood or metal. A barndominium can be sized for any type of building, from a residential home to an aircraft hangar. Since barndominiums usually have lower construction times than traditionally built homes or agricultural buildings, the style is becoming more popular with landowners. Barndominiums can be built to replicate any architectural style, and are often a more affordable option for those that want a farmhouse or ranch-style home.

How much does it cost to build a barndominium?  

A barndominium is often a lot cheaper than building a house or building using traditional methods. If you purchase a prefabricated barndominium kit and assemble it yourself, you will almost certainly spend less than if you had a contractor build you a home. A barndominium is usually priced by square foot, and each square foot can cost anywhere between $90-$125.

If you’re building a workshop, animal shelter, garage, or other outdoor space that doesn’t require a full interior build-out, a barndominium is almost guaranteed to be faster and cheaper than a traditional building.

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