Exploring Barndominiums - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Stacee Lynn of The Barndominium Company. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to the AskARoofer Podcast, where all your roofing questions find their answers. Your hosts, Megan Ellsworth and Lauren White, peel back the layers of the roofing world to reveal the knowledge, tips and FAQs you've been curious about. From shingles to skylights, metal to asphalt, we are here to demystify the system above your head. So get ready to ask, learn and explore the fascinating world of roofing one question at a time on the AskARoofer Podcast.

Hello everyone, my name is Megan Ellsworth.

Lauren White: And I'm Lauren White.

Megan Ellsworth: And you are listening to the AskARoofer Podcast. I'm so excited, Lauren. Today we're talking about barndominiums. I am so excited to learn what that is and everything about them. We have Stacee here. Hi, Stacee.

Stacee Lynn: Well hello, Lauren and Megan. How are you guys doing?

Megan Ellsworth: So good.

Lauren White: Doing well.

Megan Ellsworth: So excited. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and we'll get started.

Stacee Lynn: Okay. Well, I guess you could say I'm an accidental business. I designed a barndominium and I put it on social media to share, and one thing led to another, next thing I know I've got a business designing these all across the country. So it kind of happened by accident, but here we are. The Barndominium Company formed just over four years ago, and we designed barndominiums all across the US and Canada.

Lauren White: That's so cool. Amazing. Very cool. And so for those who aren't familiar, what is a steel frame barndominium and why is it becoming so popular?

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, you know, barndominiums have been around a long time and a lot of people really think that barndominiums came out of Texas and that's not where it came out. It actually came out of Connecticut. Yeah, can you believe that, Connecticut. There was a gentleman back in the nineties who was doing a development, it was a equestrian development in the suburbs of Connecticut in Connecticut and he decided he wanted to coin a term to where people could house their horses in this subdivision. So they could have their houses, but their horses would be housed in the same subdivision. So he called it a barn and then dominium, like a little condominium for the horse, so he coined the term barndominium. And so that's how it came to be back in the 1990s out of Connecticut.

And somehow over the years, Texas has been given, if you will, credit for the term barndominium because we really took that term and really ran with it. And so barndominiums are really a clear span building designed primarily in residential. So all the weight of the roof system is carried along the perimeter. So during construction, you can move that interior wall if you decide you want to make your primary bedroom suite another six inches bigger by taking it from another room, the vast majority of the cases you can do that, you can move that, you don't have to go through engineering and stop your project in order to be able to re-engineer the roof system in order to carry the weight. So that's what's so great about barndominiums.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, that's so cool. I had no idea.

Stacee Lynn: Barndominiums are super cool.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that sounds really cool. So how do you approach that, the engineering of a barndominium, to make sure that it's meeting that functional and also it looks aesthetic and nice?

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, so we do a couple things. First of all, we always try to find out from our client or find out from our clients where they plan to build and whether or not they have a load. So a load would be a snow load, a wind load or a seismic load depending on where you are in the country. In some cases you have a wind and a snow load. There's some places where you can have more than one load. And if you don't, well then that makes it a little bit more flexible for us. But based off of that, we've got a pretty good idea of where the column placement is going to go, the base spacing for the metal buildings and we work within that.

And then we start talking to our clients about what is it that they're looking for the barndo? How do they live? Do you have a kid who's learning to play the drums and they need their own room so Joey can practice his drums in a separate room? Or do you have a spouse that works from home and they need a separate area where they're not disturbed in order to deal with clients? We did something for a radiologist and he needed an office, but his office needs to have no windows because he's using just the computer screens to look at x-rays and images. So there's all kinds of reasons and all kinds of things that people need. If you have some sort of specialty need in your design, we want to do that.

Megan Ellsworth: Very cool. So these started out kind of like condominiums for horses and now they're full-fledged homes and buildings that you're building for people to live in full time.

Stacee Lynn: Yes. You could have told me in a million years that people want to listen to this 60-year-old woman talk about metal buildings. I've got over 600,000 followers on Instagram and over 700,000 followers on TikTok. And who would've ever known that somebody want to listen to this old lady talk about metal buildings?

Megan Ellsworth: I do.

Lauren White: Same. I love the style of them and the flexibility that they provide. It's like a fully kind of customizable home with the structure. So on that-

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, and they go up fast. So the shell goes up fast, and time is money. So when you can put up the shell and get dried in, depending on the barndominium design and where you're located and some other things, once your foundation is up and cured, you're probably looking at most shells being able to be dried in within let's say five weeks if not sooner. We've got a barndo builder who's actually up in the Oklahoma area and he can put up a shell typically in about two and a half weeks he's dried in. Windows in, roof on, dried in because his crews are that good. And so time is money and when you can get dried in that quickly, then you can move in, especially if you're in an area where the weather is significant, you're in a cold area and if you're trying to get dried in so your subs could work during the winter, that's a big deal.

Megan Ellsworth: Yep.

Lauren White: Definitely. That's amazing. So what are some of the common styles of barndominiums that you've seen and how are some ways that homeowners can customize the design to reflect their personal style, maybe on the outside versus just the inside?

Stacee Lynn: So really people are attracted to either a simple gable roof line, which is a simpler Barndo, but we tend to raise our roof pitches. So we tend to design on a 6, 7 and 8/12 pitch, depending on the deck of the building. So we're giving you that really that residential look of a traditional home in a barndo style. Typically you would see a lot of designers who design on a 2/12 or 3/12 pitch, and that just means that the slope of the ridge is much more shallow. So we design on a higher pitch, gives you that residential look and then we can talk to folks about other things we can add to that gable barn.

So we can add lean-to porches, or we could extend the end and create a porch on the side, we could add a second gable off the back if you wanted a big back gable porch off the back of your barndo. And then we have a lot of folks who are really attracted to what's called a raised center barndo or a monitor style and that's where the middle of the barndo, the center portion of the barndo, is elevated and you have the clerestory windows up top. So you get lots of height, lots of height in the great room and lots of natural light pouring in from up top.

Lauren White: I love clerestory windows. I have them in my condo right now, and just the amount of light they bring is just so nice.

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, and what's great about clerestory windows is because they're fixed and they tend to be two feet tall and maybe six or seven feet long, they're not as expensive as other windows types could be. They're not operational. So they, from a cost standpoint relative to other windows, if you will, they're more reasonably priced, I think. A lot of bang for the buck.

Lauren White: Seriously.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, a lot of bang for a lot of natural light.

Stacee Lynn: Yes.

Megan Ellsworth: So when you get started building, how do you choose a metal erector that can frame out the barndominium? Do you have trusted people you work with, like you said, the guy in Oklahoma?

Stacee Lynn: Yes. Yeah, so what happens is we do the design work and not in all places in the US, but in a lot of places in the US we've probably worked with a builder that a client of ours has used. So our clients say, hey, look, I'm working with Builder A.B. Smith. I'm just making up a name here. A.B. Smith, and they did a great job on our barndo build, we really liked them and we recommend them. Because now we've got a client of ours who we worked with tell us that they had a good experience with A.B. Smith, then we are putting them on our preferred builder list. And so a lot of our clients will tell us, hey, we've had a great deal with this builder, he's been wonderful.

We reach out, we have a conversation with that builder, find out if they've got some other barndo projects and other clients we could talk to, feel them out a little bit. We tell folks, you still have to do your own due diligence. You still have to vet them, but at least we're pointing you in their direction because one of our clients or multiple of our clients have had a good experience with this particular builder.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. That's great. So you know they're vetted and other people have enjoyed working with them and had a good experience, so when you go to hire the barndominium people, then you know you're getting a good deal.

Stacee Lynn: Yes.

Lauren White: Definitely. So I'm sure this is the question a lot of people are wondering, but how does the cost of building a barndominium compare to more traditional homes?

Stacee Lynn: Yes, so let's talk. Everybody wants to talk about the barndominium. I love social media. Because I'm on social media, I love social media, but the thing I don't like about social media is that it's really easy to pass on not so great information and that's what is happening in the barndo world, unfortunately. People will call and say, oh, I want to build the Creek House. And we have a little conversation about budget, and I had a lady who said I want to build your house and I asked her what her budget was and then I divided that amongst the square footage here and I said, "That's $37 a square foot. Ma'am, you can't build my barndo for $37 a square foot." "No, no, I saw on the internet that I could build your barndo for $37." I said, "I can't get there."

So sometimes it's a snap back to reality about things. Your shell is where you save the money on the barndo. So you save it because metal is already painted so that when you put it on, that's it, it's done. You don't have to put up board and batten and then turn around and put a sealer and then put on the paint, caulk it, then put on the paint. You don't have all those different processes. The paint is already on the metal panel. It goes up super quick. Time is money, like I said before. So it goes on quick so you save money there. And same thing with the roof, where you're putting on those metal roof panels much quicker, much faster than any other roofing material that's out there. And so you save money there. But once you move on the inside, once you move on the inside, for the most part, it's a dollar for dollar.

You can't show up at Lowe's and say, oh my gosh, I love this faucet. And you say, great, how much is that faucet? And they say it's $450. And you say, oh, $450, but I'm building a barndo. How much is that faucet? There's not a barndo discount. There's just not a barndo discount. It doesn't work like that. So really, once you move on the inside, it is what it is. It's a dollar for dollar for the most part. I will say one other thing though that I will add, there are some finishes that are in a barndo that tend to be less expensive to do that work perfectly in a barndo. Let me give you an example.

Polished concrete floors work perfect in a barndo. It meets the aesthetic, it just works great and you can do that for relatively little money. Whereas if you tried to do that in a traditional home, it might look like you're trying to be a little cheap on there, but in a barndo, it works out great. We don't put crown molding in a barndo. So, I mean, if you don't do crown molding in a traditional home, people might look at it that you didn't add crown molding to your house, but in a barndo. So there are some things in a barndo where you can save money and it looks beautiful.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. So what if someone wanted to build a barndominium themselves? What would you say to that person?

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, so we've got a lot of folks, particularly, we've got a lot of folks and particularly in California and New York that are moving to Texas. They've sold homes, they've got a chunk of money and they say, you know what? I am retiring and I can go ahead and general contract this myself, save all of that money and put it into my home. And we say that's wonderful. So if you are, this is a first time build of this nature, we say, unless you're a welder, you're in the metal business, we recommend that you get and hire an erector crew. Someone that comes in, handles your foundation, handles your metal and puts up your metal.

So they engineer your building or weld it and they put it together and get you dried in. They put all the windows, they put all the doors and when you look at it, it looks like it's completely done from the outside, but when you walk in, it's empty, right? It's just a big shell. And so we recommend that you hire an erector crew to handle your foundation, put up your shell and then you take over the general contracting from that point on.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay, awesome. So it's definitely doable.

Stacee Lynn: Definitely doable. I did it. I acted as general contractor here for the Creek House. Yeah, so I hired an erector crew. I did just that. I hired an erector crew, I had them put up the shell and then I took over from there.

Megan Ellsworth: Nice.

Stacee Lynn: Yes. And so it ends up working out just fine. And I have to tell you that the fellas that were the subcontractors, they would say sometimes, "Well, do you want to talk to your husband?" I said, "No, I'm making the decision."

Megan Ellsworth: I love that. As you should.

Stacee Lynn: I don't need to talk to him, I'm making the decision, yeah.

Lauren White: Well, perfect. So what types of roofing materials do you recommend for barndominiums that enhance their energy efficiency? I know we already touched on metal just a little bit.

Stacee Lynn: Yes. So I love, of course metal roofs is the way I think everybody should go. And we also, we prefer a higher gauge on the roof, particularly if you have problems with hail in your area. We really prefer a minimum of a 26 gauge on a roof. Definitely not anything lower than that on the thickness. 24 is even better, depending on your budget. You're starting to get up there but I prefer 24 because insurance companies, if you get hail damage that's cosmetic, they're not going to fix that. So you want a higher gauge so that if you get a hail storm, you have less chances for that denting of the metal. If you're on the sidewall, we prefer a 26 gauge. You could go to a 29 gauge, but we prefer a 26 gauge on the sidewall. And the other thing is, depending on budget, we like to recommend that folks do a standing seam roof, particularly if this is your forever home or if this is your retirement home, we prefer you to do a standing seam. It's a lifetime roof. It's just great.

We do have folks that do say, I want to add some skylights. If you're wanting to add skylights, then we say let's do the skylights on the lean-to. Let's do a lean-to and change that to an asphalt roof and add skylights there because it's much easier to do that, residential skylights in an asphalt roof than it is on a metal roof because of the flashing and everything. So we just shared a barndo, as a matter of fact, that's up in Montana that did just that. We changed the lean-to porches to asphalt. So it's got a metal roof, but the lean-to porches are asphalt so they could add those skylights, which are beautiful, by the way.

Megan Ellsworth: Cool. Interesting. It's crazy you can do whatever you want. It's like building a virtual house online. I'll pick this and pick this.

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, we actually have something that is coming out this fall. I'm making the announcement here because nobody knows it. I've not announced it anywhere on our social media platform yet. Yeah, we have some new software that's coming out. We've loaded up 50 of our models, of our barndominium models and you're literally going to be able to take one of those models, pick your favorite design, say the Lauren and you can actually play with the model. So you'll be able to click on the model and say let me see it in red with a black roof. No, let me see it in white with a charcoal gray roof. Oh, let me add flooring. Let me add wood flooring. Oh, let me make that eight inches. Let me make that a dark wood. Let me make the knobs on the... So you'll be able to pick out the cabinet, the cabinet color, the cabinet style. You'll be able to pick out the backsplash, the lighting fixtures, the countertops. You'll be able to pick out everything in the barndo, including the furniture and the lighting [inaudible 00:18:55]. And you can literally design your own model with everything right there.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh my gosh. You know what that reminds me of? The Barbie website from when I was a kid but better.

Stacee Lynn: I was going to say that or Sims. Yeah, but better because now you're designing your own home, so you can take our plan and just have a field day with it.

Megan Ellsworth: That is so cool. Oh my gosh.

Lauren White: My goodness. Very cool.

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, it's rolling out this fall.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. Well, you heard it here first, folks. That's huge.

Lauren White: Seriously.

Stacee Lynn: Yes. It's going to be great because it's really going to help out barndo builders, because now the homeowner can show you exactly what they're looking for in their design. I'm looking for a wood ceiling this color, I want a herringbone pattern in my laundry room. You'll actually be able to go out and pick all of those things, show that to your builder and your builder can say, okay, you want a clawfoot tub here. You want a 60-inch sink here versus a 30-inch sink. They'll be able to go and really look at what you're wanting to do and you don't have to describe it because you'll be able to show it.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. Game changer.

Lauren White: Wow. Very exciting.

Stacee Lynn: It is a game changer.

Megan Ellsworth: Total game changer. That's exciting. Well, I'd love to know what kind of maintenance goes into owning a barndominium, especially for the roof system?

Stacee Lynn: Yeah. Let me say, if you are at the standing seam roof, it really is a lifetime roof. Unless you have some wind damage that's done there, you shouldn't have to worry about anything on the roof. And the great thing about metal is that my husband power washes it one time a year after pollen season because we live in a forest. So we live in Sam Houston National Forest, which is just north of Houston and we're surrounded by 75 and 85 foot tall trees all around us. And so we're in the piney woods of Texas. And so we have a lot of pine pollen. So after pine pollen, Oliver goes around and he power washes the house once a year and that's all the maintenance we really have to do on our barndo. If you are in a place where you get a lot of snow, there may be, if you've got a stone skirting, there may be some caulking every few years potentially with that. But other than that, there's really very little maintenance on a barndo, which makes them so appealing. And you may get a discount with your insurance company.

Lauren White: Oh, how so?

Stacee Lynn: Because metal is fire resistant. It's a great product to have on your home. It doesn't mean that if there was a forest fire in Sam Houston National Forest, God forbid, that we couldn't burn, but it would take a bit. It would take a bit to burn.

Lauren White: Yeah, that's a great point.

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, so it's really great. I'd rather take a metal roof than any other roof out there.

Lauren White: Yeah, I agree.

Megan Ellsworth: And you said it's a metal structure too?

Stacee Lynn: It's a metal structure. Yeah, so the metal structure is, if one of the trees were, when like I said, we're surrounded by 75 and 85 foot tall trees. Let's say one of the trees were to snap and come down on the Creek House, which is the name of our barndo, the Creek House. The chances of that tree coming into the house is not likely. It'll get caught by the metal rafters. The chances are, I don't know that there's enough force for it to take down the building and it probably would not come through those metal rafters on the roof. So I don't have to worry about that kind of collapse coming in in my house. They say if there's a storm in our neighborhood, all of our neighbor says we're going to your house because we know it's not going anywhere. We saw it being built, it's not going anywhere.

Lauren White: So kind of continuing on that trend of forest fires and kind of extreme weather conditions, how do barndominiums perform in some of those other weather conditions?

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, so let's talk about that. So I always say Mother Nature is a bear in when she's mad, she's mad. And when she's mad, and if she hits your home on the right corner, she can twist any frame. Be it wood or steel, she can twist any frame. But having said that, it's got to be at the right angle, that the wind has to be coming and twisting at right angle. There was a mega yacht that just went down that was all in the news a couple days ago, and it was a water spout on a mega yacht that ordinarily could just about withstand anything. But this water spout actually hit the boat and it went collapsed and some people lost their lives on that.

So Mother Nature can hit anything and take something down is the point of this. So having said that, there's a reason why we build skyscrapers in steel. There's a reason why we build schools in steel. There's a reason why we build strip centers and shopping malls in steel. It's because of their longevity. It's a clean, 100% recycled material that can come over and over again and it's there forever. It's going to long outlive all of us here.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely.

Lauren White: True.

Stacee Lynn: I don't have to worry about termites. Don't have to worry about bugs.

Lauren White: Huge bonus.

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, well, trust me, in Texas, we have big termites. They're like the size of this water bottle right here.

Lauren White: Oh, no thank you.

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, they're big.

Megan Ellsworth: No thanks. Well, that's good to know too, like if you are building a barndominium, you know if you have children, you'll be able to pass it down to them and they won't have much to take care of. So I can't believe it, but we've come to our last question, which is crazy. This has been absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much, Stacee. But what are some trends that you foresee emerging in the barndominium market?

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, there's several trends that we're seeing. We're actually getting more and more calls from big developers who are interested in testing barndominium enclaves in their developments, which is something that's really super interesting to us. We like that because there's so much flexibility with a barndo design versus a traditional wood frame design. And right now with steel prices the way they are, they could be a good buy in the marketplace. And it goes back and forth between what's better, wood or steel, from a price standpoint, but right now, I'm all about the steel. I love steel. I think steel is sexy. I've got a T-shirt that says that, "Steel is sexy." I think steel is sexy.

And so we see that trend. The other trend we're seeing is that people are willing to go to try different things. So instead of just the sheet metal on the outside, they're looking at adding some stone or some brick and kind of giving that a more modern flair to their barndos. We see a lot of black trending. Probably of our barndo designs, and we design hundreds of them a year we prop for clients, so we are probably at about 45% black barndos right now, which is huge. Everybody wants a black barndo with a black roof. I'm currently building a barndo on our compound, so this will be the third barndo on our property and it's all black. Black sides, black roof, it's gorgeous.

And so we see that black trend. We get white, we get some other colors, a dark green or charcoal gray, but black is trending big time. And we see the use of other exterior materials that are complementing the steel, like I said, either stone or brick, some stucco. Very little stucco, but some stucco.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. Well, I want a barndominium now.

Stacee Lynn: Got another barndo lover, yes.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, I'm sold.

Stacee Lynn: Another [inaudible 00:27:27] in the house, yay.

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. Thank you so, so much, Stacee. This has been so informative. How can people reach out to you and learn more about barndominiums?

Stacee Lynn: Yeah, you can reach us on Instagram at The Barndominium Company and also on TikTok, Facebook, we're all at The Barndominium Company. And then we're also on the web at The Barndominium Company. And we like to give good information out about what's really going on in the barndo world, what's happening in the metal market so that you know what to look out for. And we are happy to help folks locate builders. And we have plenty of banks. We have a list of banks that we can supply to help you if you're looking for financing.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, wow. We didn't even touch that. That's a great thing to add.

Stacee Lynn: They can contact us and we'll email them over the bank list for the US.

Megan Ellsworth: Amazing. Well, thank you again. Everyone out there listening can also go to askaroofer.com to learn more. Stacee, this has been amazing. Thank you.

Stacee Lynn: Oh, Megan and Lauren, this has been wonderful. I really enjoyed this, and hopefully everybody walked away and they're saying they want a barndo too.

Lauren White: I hope so.

Megan Ellsworth: I think so.

Lauren White: Yep.

Stacee Lynn: Get barndo inspired.

Megan Ellsworth: Love it.

Stacee Lynn: Yes.

Outro: Everyone out there listening, thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on the AskARoofer Podcast. If your roof needs answers, subscribe now to the AskARoofer Podcast. We've got your questions covered, one episode at a time. Go to askaroofer.com to submit your questions and learn more. Stay tuned and keep those questions coming.