2-Story Barndominium in Indiana

A 2-story barndominium puts the bedrooms upstairs and the living space, kitchen and often a shop or garage on the ground floor, doubling the floor area on the same foundation. We build it as a steel-sided or post-frame shell with a framed second floor, a stair designed to Indiana's own amended limits, and wall insulation matched to the climate zone of your county. Going up is usually the cheapest square footage a barndominium can add, because the footings, the slab and most of the roof are already paid for — but a second storey is also where Indiana's amendments to the model code show up most. Start with the project survey and we will work out whether up or out suits your lot, your zoning district and your budget.

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What actually changes with this feature

The look is the easy part. These are the decisions that follow from it.

A steeper, shorter stair than the model code allows

675 IAC 14-4.4-16 and -17 change the first sentence of R311.7.5.1 to allow a riser of up to 8 1/4 inches and the first sentence of R311.7.5.2 to require a tread of not less than 9 inches, against the 2018 IRC's 7 3/4 and 10. Over a typical ten-foot floor-to-floor, that is one or two fewer risers and a noticeably shorter run. We still design most stairs gentler than the maximum — a stair people climb every day with laundry should not be at the limit — but the Indiana figures give room to fit a stair into a narrow gable-end bay that the model code would not.

Wall insulation depends on which of two climate zones your county is in

Indiana substituted its own insulation table, N1102.1.2, with rows for only climate zones 4 and 5. Both require R-38 in the ceiling and a 0.35 window U-factor; the wood-frame wall requirement is R-15 in zone 4 and R-20, or R-13 cavity plus R-5 continuous, in zone 5. The US Department of Energy's county list places thirty southern counties in zone 4A — among them Monroe, Vanderburgh, Clark, Floyd, Lawrence and Dubois — and the other 62, including Marion, Hamilton, Allen, Lake, St. Joseph and Tippecanoe, in zone 5A. A two-storey barndominium has roughly twice the wall area of a single-storey plan of the same footprint, so the wall line of that table matters more here than anywhere else.

Steel framing has its own equivalence table

Where the walls are cold-formed steel rather than wood, Indiana's substituted Table N1102.2.6 converts the wood-frame requirement into steel equivalents that lean on continuous insulation: an R-15 wood-frame wall becomes R-11 plus R-5, R-13 plus R-4, R-21 plus R-3 or R-0 plus R-15 continuous in steel, and an R-21 wall becomes R-13 plus R-10 or its alternatives. On a steel-framed second storey we plan the continuous insulation layer from the start, because it sets the wall thickness, the window bucks and the trim details.

Smoke alarms on every level and in every bedroom

Indiana's R314.3 lists four locations: in the living area remote from the kitchen and cooking appliances; in each room designed for sleeping; on each level, or on the ceiling of the upper level near the top of each stairway other than a basement stairway, in any multistorey dwelling; and on the basement ceiling near the stairway. It adds that the alarm must be placed so smoke rising in the stairway is not blocked by an intervening door. In an open barndominium with a loft landing, that last line decides where the upstairs alarm goes. Fire sprinklers, by contrast, are optional in a Class 2 dwelling under Indiana's R313.

Where Indiana departs from the model code

Indiana rewrote the stair, the smoke-alarm layout and the upstairs-window rule

The 2020 Indiana Residential Code adopts the 2018 International Residential Code with Indiana's own amendments, and several of them land squarely on a two-storey house. The model code limits a stair riser to 7 3/4 inches and requires a 10-inch tread; Indiana's amendment to R311.7.5.1 and R311.7.5.2 allows a riser up to 8 1/4 inches and a tread as shallow as 9 inches, so a stair climbing the same floor-to-floor height needs fewer risers and less run, and takes less floor from both levels. Indiana deletes the model code's window fall-protection section, R312.2, which would otherwise govern low-sill operable windows more than six feet above the ground outside. It deletes R302.13, the model requirement for a gypsum or wood-panel membrane under floor framing. And it rewrites R314.3 so smoke alarms go in each sleeping room, in the living area away from the kitchen, and on each level or at the top of each stairway. We draw to the Indiana text, not the model one, which is why an upstairs plan from a national catalogue often needs redrawing before it will fit.

Common ways to build this

Common configurations we see. Yours does not have to match one exactly — this is a starting point for the conversation, not a catalog.

Bedrooms up, great room and kitchen down

1,500 sq ft main floor / 1,200 sq ft upper floor

The standard two-storey barndominium: great room, kitchen, owner's suite and mudroom on the main floor; two or three bedrooms, a bath and a loft landing upstairs, with part of the great room left open to the roof. Keeping the owner's suite downstairs is what makes a two-storey plan livable for decades. The stair sits against a gable-end wall where Indiana's shorter stair run does the most good.

Garage and shop below, living above

1,600 sq ft garage and shop / 1,600 sq ft apartment-style living above

The whole ground floor is vehicle and workshop space and the home is upstairs. Because people sleep over the garage, the Indiana code's dwelling-garage separation applies to the floor between them — 5/8-inch Type X gypsum board under habitable rooms above a garage — and no door may open from the garage directly into a bedroom. It is a strong plan for a sloping lot where the upper floor can have its own grade-level entrance.

Full two-storey on a smaller footprint

1,200 sq ft main floor / 1,200 sq ft upper floor (30x40 shell)

Twenty-four hundred square feet of living on a 30x40 slab. This is the plan for a tight parcel, a lot with a narrow buildable area between setbacks, or a district whose multistorey minimum floor area is lower than its single-storey one — Boone County's Table 3 sets 1,200 square feet for a one-storey home and 900 for a multistorey home in its AG, RE, R1 and R2 districts. Height limits still apply: Johnson County's UDO allows 50 feet in AG and 35 feet in AR and SR.

Ways to build this size

A footprint can go together several ways. These are the service lines most relevant to it.

Post-Frame Homes

Post-frame and pole barn homes for Indiana land — posts, trusses and girts designed to your county's frost and snow row. Start with a free project survey.

Custom Plans

Custom barndominium floor plans drawn for your Indiana lot, county and budget — shop bays, lofts and porches included. Start with a free plan survey.

Steel Construction

Red-iron clear-span frames designed to your county's own snow, wind and seismic row in the Indiana code, on drawings sealed by an Indiana-registered PE.

2-Story Barndominium: common questions

7 questions we get asked most often about this footprint. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.

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Is a two-storey barndominium cheaper per square foot than a single storey?

Usually, because the foundation and most of the roof serve both floors, and in a 36-inch footing county such as Allen, Elkhart or Lake — 675 IAC 14-4.4 Table R301.2(1) sets that depth there — the foundation is a large share of the cost. What you add is floor framing, a stair, more wall and more insulation. We do not quote our own per-square-foot figures; the project survey is where your actual numbers start.

How steep can the stairs be in Indiana?

Indiana amended both stair sections of the model code, R311.7.5.1 and R311.7.5.2, in 675 IAC 14-4.4-16 and -17. Under those amendments a riser may be up to 8 1/4 inches and a tread must be at least 9 inches. The 2018 International Residential Code that Indiana adopts otherwise sets 7 3/4 and 10. Indiana also says a landing is not required at the top of an interior flight, including stairs in an enclosed garage, provided a door does not swing over the stairs. We usually design a gentler stair than the maximum, but the Indiana limits give more freedom in a tight bay.

Do upstairs windows need fall-protection devices?

Not by code in Indiana. The 2018 International Residential Code's R312.2 requires window fall protection where an operable sill is less than 24 inches above the floor and more than 72 inches above the ground outside, but Indiana's 675 IAC 14-4.4-20 deletes R312.2 in its entirety. With children upstairs we still recommend sills at 24 inches or limiters on low windows, and every bedroom still needs a compliant emergency escape opening.

Which climate zone is my county in?

Zone 4A or zone 5A, the only two rows in Indiana's substituted insulation table. The US Department of Energy's county list puts thirty southern counties in zone 4A — Brown, Clark, Crawford, Daviess, Dearborn, Dubois, Floyd, Gibson, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings County, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Ohio, Orange, Perry, Pike, Posey, Ripley, Scott, Spencer, Sullivan, Switzerland, Vanderburgh, Warrick and Washington — and the remaining 62 in zone 5A. The practical difference is wood-frame wall insulation: R-15 in zone 4 against R-20, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous, in zone 5.

Can I have bedrooms over the garage?

Yes, with the separation the code requires. Table R302.6 of the 2018 IRC, which Indiana did not amend, calls for at least 5/8-inch Type X gypsum board or equivalent between the garage and habitable rooms above it, and half-inch gypsum on the structure supporting that floor. Indiana's own R302.5.1 prohibits any opening from a garage directly into a room used for sleeping and requires any other door into the house to be solid wood or solid or honeycomb-core steel at least 1 3/8 inches thick, or 20-minute fire-rated.

How tall can a two-storey barndominium be?

That is a zoning limit, set locally. Johnson County's UDO sets a maximum building height of 50 feet in its AG district and 35 feet in its AR and SR districts; Boone County's Table 3 lists 35 feet for single-family homes across its residential and agricultural districts. The Indiana Residential Code itself applies to detached one- and two-family dwellings of not more than three storeys. A two-storey barndominium with a 12-foot ground floor and a steep roof can approach 35 feet at the ridge, so the elevation is checked against the district before the truss profile is fixed.

Do I need fire sprinklers in a two-storey home?

No. Indiana's R313.1 says that in Class 2 structures automatic fire sprinkler systems are optional, and if installed they follow Section P2904 or NFPA 13D. A sprinkler system does not buy an exemption from emergency escape openings in Indiana: the state deleted the model code's exception that let sprinklered basements skip them.

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