The absolute worst thing about a barndo if you don’t design it yourself is making someone else’s plan work for you.
If you’re building a barndo, plan carefully!
- Every single place you want water/sewer access is set in stone… the concrete kind. There’s not a crawlspace where you can change your mind later.
- Since you’re living inside a barn, plan where you need windows and doors. If you create space for a bedroom that doesn’t have access to one or the other… it’s not really a bedroom. At least not a safe one.
- Think long and hard about heating and air options. Outside boiler with radiant floor heat — wood, gas, wood pellets — along with mini-split units for A/C? Or maybe you want to run ductwork for a more typical method of inside comfort. If so, you’ll need to think about ceiling height for ductwork or losing living space.
If you buy an existing barndo, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
If you buy a barndo that was built with someone else’s plan in mind, you better be happy with where your washer is and where your sinks and toilets are. Even little things… like moving your dishwasher over a couple feet is a HUGE project that requires a jackhammer.
If you want to change the heating and air type, you better be ready to spend some money — and maybe lose some living space… especially if you have an upstairs.
And if you have an upstairs, you have a whole new challenge. If your purchase has radiant floor heat (like here), you’ll need to run electric heaters or have a radiator installed that warms the space with the same water that’s running through your lower level floors.
My barndo life here in the Ville…
I’m good with everything here with the exception of the heating situation. I don’t HATE it, but I do need to TWEAK it. It’s not likely I’ll pick up a chainsaw and beater pick-up truck — and when you buy wood, the outside boiler route IS NOT CHEAP.
I’m still evaluating options and costs… and I’m sure I’ll have insights and suggestions as we keep chugging along.
