Barndominium floor plan and elevation drawings laid out on a drafting table with a scale rule.

Custom Plans in Indiana

We draw custom barndominium plans for Indiana building sites — from a first floor-plan sketch to the construction set your builder and your local building department work from. You can start from one of our stock floor plans and change it, or start from a blank page with the rooms, shop bay and porch you want; either way the first step is a short project survey that tells us the county, the lot and the budget. Indiana shapes the drawings in three specific ways. Every house plan is drawn to the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, the state's single residential code. The footing depth, ground snow load and seismic design category on the sheets come from your county's row of that code's Table R301.2(1), not from a national default. And the state does not review house plans at all: its plan-review system covers Class 1 buildings, while plans for a one- or two-family dwelling go wherever local ordinance sends them. Where a structural element falls outside the code's prescriptive limits, a licensed Indiana professional engineer designs and seals that part.

Drawings prepared for permit review
Designed to your county's design loads
Start your project

Custom Plans: how the work runs

Four stages, in this order. The sequence matters more than it looks: getting structural design and permitting settled before anything is fabricated is what keeps a build from stalling.

1

The plan survey and a first conversation

You tell us the county and parcel, the footprint you are imagining, bedrooms and baths, the shop or garage bay, porches, lofts and the budget you are working to. If you have a stock plan you like, send it — most custom plans start as someone else's plan with the kitchen moved. The county matters from day one because it sets the design row: a Hamilton County lot is drawn to a 30-inch minimum footing depth and 20 psf ground snow load under the state table, a Porter County lot to 36 inches and 30 psf, a Monroe County lot to 24 inches and 20 psf with seismic design category C.

2

Floor plan and elevations, revised until they are right

We draw the floor plan and exterior elevations first and revise them with you before any construction detail is added, because moving a wall on a sketch costs an afternoon and moving it on a construction set costs a week. This is also where the exterior gets settled against local rules. The state bars local building rules stricter than the code, but it expressly leaves a unit's zoning ordinances and architectural design standards alone, so a town or subdivision can still limit metal siding, roof pitch or garage placement. We check your parcel's zoning and any covenants before the elevations are final.

3

The construction set, drawn to your county's row

The construction set adds the foundation plan, framing or frame layout, sections, wall and roof assemblies and the energy details. The foundation follows the footing depth on your county's row of Table R301.2(1) in 675 IAC 14-4.4; the roof follows the ground snow figure; and the walls follow Indiana's amended energy table, which has rows for climate zones 4 and 5 only — R-38 ceilings in both, wood-frame walls at R-15 in zone 4 and R-20 or R-13 plus R-5 continuous in zone 5. Any element outside the code's prescriptive limits, such as a long clear span over the shop, goes to a licensed Indiana professional engineer for design and seal.

4

A permit set for whoever reviews it

Plans for a house are submitted as local ordinance requires, so the permit set is formatted for your city, town or county building department, or for the joint agency that serves your county. Where a unit requires permits for a dwelling, Indiana law lets the applicant choose a private provider — a registered architect, a professional engineer or a certified building official — to carry out the plan review or inspection instead. On land with no local building department, the set is still worth having: it is the document your builder, your lender and your septic designer all work from.

Overhead view of architectural floor plan and structural elevation drawings spread on a workbench with a scale ruler and pencil.
Who may draw a house in Indiana

A plan set is a document, and Indiana is precise about who signs what

Indiana treats house plans differently from commercial ones. The state's plan-review system — the design release — is for Class 1 buildings; for a one- or two-family dwelling, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code says plans are submitted as local ordinance requires. What Indiana does regulate closely is titles. Advertising that indicates someone is entitled to practise as an architect without a certificate of registration is a Class C infraction for each day it continues, and holding out as a professional engineer without registration is a Class B misdemeanor. So be wary of anyone drawing a barndominium who uses those words loosely. We draw floor plans and construction sets; where a part of the building needs structural design beyond the code's prescriptive limits, a licensed Indiana professional engineer designs it and puts a seal on it, and you can see whose seal it is.

Where we deliver custom plans

Across Indiana the code is shared, but the office that applies it is not. Cross a city or county line and what changes is who reviews the drawings, what they charge, how the land is zoned, and the county design figures the work is drawn to. Two parcels twenty miles apart can carry different paperwork and a different structural answer.

Serving clients across the entire region.

Every locality we build in has its own reviewer, its own fee schedule and its own filled-in design criteria. The service area pages set out what each one publishes.

View our full service area →
Before you commit

What actually decides the price

Square footage is the number everyone leads with, and it is rarely the one that moves a barndominium budget. These four do.

  • Size and complexity of the floor plan

    A simple rectangle with one roofline draws quickly. Every change of wall line, every roof intersection, a loft, a wraparound porch or a second living wing adds sheets and adds coordination between the plan, the elevations and the frame. Starting from one of our stock floor plans and adjusting it is usually the fastest route to a finished set; starting from a blank page is the right call when the lot or the brief does not fit anything stock.

  • Spans and heights beyond the prescriptive tables

    Long clear spans over a shop, tall eaves for an RV bay, big door openings in a bearing wall and open-truss great rooms are where a barndominium leaves the code's prescriptive tables. The 2018 IRC, as Indiana adopted it, requires elements that exceed those limits to be designed to accepted engineering practice, which means a licensed Indiana professional engineer designs and seals that part of the set. It is a separate cost, and it is worth knowing about before the floor plan is fixed.

  • Your county's foundation row, and whether there is a basement

    The foundation plan follows the minimum footing depth on your county's row of the state residential code table. That table has three depth bands: the 27 northern counties are at 36 inches, the 29 central counties at 30 and the 36 southern counties at 24. A slab-on-grade barndominium in Vanderburgh County and one in LaGrange County have different frost walls. A basement or walkout changes the set far more than either — and in the karst country of south-central Indiana, where INDOT notes sinkholes are common, a basement is a site question before it is a floor-plan question.

  • The energy chapter and the wall you choose

    Indiana amended the IRC's insulation table to two climate zones. Both call for an R-38 ceiling; wood-frame walls need R-15 in zone 4 and R-20, or R-13 plus R-5 continuous insulation, in zone 5. That difference changes wall thickness, window jambs and how a steel or post-frame wall is detailed, so the zone for your county is settled before the wall sections are drawn rather than after.

Barndominium floor plan and elevation drawings laid out on a drafting table with a scale rule.

Custom Plans in Indiana: common questions

8 questions we get asked most often about building in Indiana. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.

Start your project
How much do custom barndominium plans cost in Indiana?
We quote plans after the survey rather than publish a fee table, because the price follows the work: the size and complexity of the plan, whether you start from one of our stock floor plans or from a blank page, how many revision rounds the layout needs, and whether any part of the structure needs a licensed Indiana professional engineer's design and seal. What we can say is where the money goes afterwards. The U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Construction puts the 2025 median contract price for contractor-built houses on the owner's land in the Midwest at $194.09 per square foot, excluding the lot — so a plan that saves 150 square feet of hallway usually saves more than the plans cost. Start with the plan survey and we will send a fixed quote for the drawing work.
Can you modify one of your stock barndominium floor plans instead of starting from scratch?
Yes, and it is often the quickest route. Pick a plan from our floor plans collection and tell us what to change — an extra bedroom, a bigger shop bay, a porch on the other side, a loft over the garage. We redraw it as your plan and then carry it through the same steps as a fully custom set: elevations checked against your local zoning and covenants, a foundation drawn to your county's row of the state residential code table, and energy details for your county's climate zone. Send the plan name with the survey.
Do barndominium plans need an architect's stamp in Indiana?
Not as a state rule for a house. The state's plan-review system, the design release, is written for Class 1 buildings; for a one- or two-family dwelling the 2020 Indiana Residential Code says plans are submitted as local ordinance requires, and the architects' registration law does not apply to plans for buildings exempted from the state's requirement that registered architects or engineers prepare them. What can apply is structural: where part of the building exceeds the code's prescriptive limits, it has to be designed to accepted engineering practice, and a licensed Indiana professional engineer seals that part. Your local building department may also have its own submission requirements, which we confirm before the set is drawn.
What do I need to submit for a barndominium building permit in Indiana?
It depends on who issues the permit, because Indiana leaves house permits to local government. A city, town or county building department sets its own submission list under local ordinance; typically that means a site plan, the floor plans and elevations, foundation and framing details, and the energy compliance details. Most counties and towns with a zoning ordinance also require an improvement location permit, which is a separate approval, and the county health department issues the septic construction permit that has to exist before construction of the house starts. Where a unit requires permits for a dwelling, you may choose a private provider — a registered architect, professional engineer or certified building official — to carry out the plan review. Our plan sets are formatted for whichever office reviews them, and the permitting page covers the order of approvals.
Can I plan a basement under a barndominium in Indiana?
Often, yes, and the plan has to be drawn to your county's row of Table R301.2(1) in 675 IAC 14-4.4 from the start. That table sets the minimum footing depth for a slab or crawlspace home — 36, 30 or 24 inches depending on the county — and a basement goes well below that anyway, so for a basement the questions are soils, water and rock rather than frost. Indiana's energy table sets basement-wall insulation too. In the south-central karst belt, INDOT describes sinkholes and caves as common, and Lawrence County sits largely on the Mitchell Plateau, so a basement there starts with a look at the ground. Tell us in the survey that you want one and we will sequence the site questions before the layout.
Can my town or county stop a metal-sided barndominium?
It can, through zoning or design standards, and it is worth checking before the elevations are drawn. Since 2023, Indiana has barred cities, towns and counties from adopting building rules that conflict with the state code or are stricter than it — but the same law expressly does not apply to a unit's zoning ordinances or its architectural design standards. There is no Indiana statute that stops a town from regulating exterior materials or roof pitch on a site-built house; the one statutory limit on residential aesthetics is written for manufactured homes. Subdivision covenants can restrict you too. A 2026 law does require every county, city and town to hold a public hearing by 1 January 2027 to review its development rules with a view to more housing, including whether to waive design standards that restrict code-compliant products — so the answer in your area may be changing. We check the ordinance and covenants for your parcel as part of the plan.
I want to run a business out of the shop half. Does that change the plans?
It can, so tell us early. Indiana's definition of a Class 2 structure — the category a house falls in — covers a building with one or two dwelling units unless any part of it is regularly used as a Class 1 structure, and Class 1 is the commercial category with state plan review. A home shop where you work on your own projects is one thing; a shop where employees or customers come and go regularly is a question to settle with your local building department and zoning office before the layout is fixed, because the answer can change fire separation, exits and the permit path. We draw the shop and the house so that decision can be made cleanly.
How do I get started on a custom barndominium plan?
Fill in the plan survey: county and parcel, rough footprint, rooms, shop and porch wishes, and your budget. If you already like one of our floor plans, name it. We come back with questions and a quote for the drawing work, then draw the floor plan and elevations for you to mark up. Once the layout is settled, the construction set is drawn to your county's row of the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, and if you want us to build it too, the same plan carries straight into a turnkey build or a barndominium kit.

Keep reading

The pages that answer the next question this one raises.

Is It Legal in Indiana?

Which local office issues your permit, and what it reviews on the drawings.

Read it

Floor Plans

Starting points by footprint and by feature, before anything is drawn from scratch.

Read it

Permitting

What the finished set has to contain for a complete submittal.

Read it

Ready to put custom plans against a real plan? Start there and the rest follows.

Start your project

Sources

  1. Adoption and Implementation of the 2020 Indiana Residential Code — Indiana Department of Homeland Security
  2. Code Enforcement — Indiana Department of Homeland Security
  3. 675 IAC 14-4.4-2 (Indiana Residential Code, R101–R106 scope and administration) — Cornell LII
  4. 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 (Indiana Residential Code, Table R301.2(1) county design criteria) — Cornell LII
  5. 675 IAC 14-4.4-91 (Indiana Residential Code, Table N1102.1.2 insulation by climate zone) — Cornell LII
  6. Indiana Residential Code, chapter 3 Building Planning — UpCodes
  7. Indiana Code Title 22 (2026) — Indiana General Assembly
  8. Indiana Code Title 25 (2026) — Indiana General Assembly
  9. Indiana Code Title 36 (2026) — Indiana General Assembly
  10. 410 IAC 6-8.3 Residential On-Site Sewage Systems (rev. 28 Mar 2024) — Indiana Department of Health
  11. U.S. Census Bureau — Characteristics of New Housing: contract price per sq ft (2025)
  12. Karst Geological Resources and INDOT Construction (rev. 2017) — Indiana Department of Transportation
  13. Karst features in Lawrence County (Maier, 2003) — Indiana DNR Division of Water

Tell us about the land

Send the parcel ID or an address and we will come back with what can be built on it, which office permits it, and a realistic budget range. That conversation costs nothing.

Start your project