Unless you happen to be an actual builder yourself or you lucked out and you are best friends with a builder. I mean really best friends with a builder, not I work with a guy every other year on a crab boat and his uncle can fly a crew in and build a barndominium in a weekend in any state in the US. Let’s be honest you probably wouldn’t be interested in reading my informative article on how to find a reputable barndominium builder if that was the case. For the average guy or girl that’s building their first ever barndominium even if you’re interested in doing some of the less labor-intensive aspects of the build yourself like finishing out the basement, building the decks on your own to save some extra money, maybe you’re a whizz at drywall and you can knock it out in a few days versus waiting for a crew of people to finish up their other 2 jobs just to get around to doing it. Things like these are great ideas if you are able to do the work, What if you are too busy with life to do all that D.I.Y money-saving jazz and you just want a guy who can take charge, who knows his stuff, and can build your barndominium to spec and do it quickly. Isn’t that what we all want and it rarely works out that way. Especially in 2022 with crews walking off of jobsites never finishing to job, overcharging for the minimal amount of work it’s all out there, and through the years I’ve managed to pick up a few tips and tricks along the way so hopefully you can avoid some of the craziness that I didn’t see right out the gate.
References shouldn’t be hard to come by if you are a well-known builder of quality barndominium homes, you should have customers who can vouch for your work going back to the first week of operation you would think. If you picture references falling outa their pockets you’d be surprised I think. You wouldn’t imagine how many jobs are started without seeing any kind of proof of concept. At the very least ask for a simple portfolio of up-to-date current jobs that you could maybe drive by, and take a look at some actual handy work before you commit to a builder. Not everyone out there is trying to scam you but keep your guard up when hiring a builder because there are crooks out there looking for their next sucker. A lot of it starts with where you find the builder, to begin with, craigslist for instance might net results but they just may not be the results your after. Aside from asking for solid references my second word of advice is going to really serve you well if you take it to heart.
Finding Quality builders locally can be extremely difficult depending on the area of the country you are building your barndominium in, one thing you can generally bet on is having a least one if not more solid lumber yards in a relatively short driving distance, Home Depot, Lowes, local yards the types of places that Barndominium contractors are going to buy their lumber and maintain accounts. First of all, let me get this out of the way early on, do NOT! go and hound the workers at lumber yards for contact information that’s not what I’m proposing. However, if you approach the situation in the right way you can probably walk away with more than enough information to get you started on the right path. Many times it’s all in how you treat people and approach a conversation that determines the outcome of that conversation, just a little extra tidbit to think about. I would approach the conversation like explain what you’re trying to do and simply ask if they can provide you with a phone # to a reliable builder who always pays their bills and keeps their account in good standing your goal is to come out with a couple of contacts, if you happen to ask 6 different workers odds are you will find at least one or two through the course of a few hours that honestly do have solid reputations for building custom homes. Then you can rest easy at night knowing you did your diligence and your build will be better off because of it.
Bardominium Kits can be a fantastic option, look at it like an all-inclusive kind of deal, many people find they can get everything they want and more out of a barndominium kit, it’s almost like the buffet option you can customize your build a little more precise, you will usually pay a set price for the material package, delivery, and a crew to setup the shell everything is wrapped up in a nice package for a nice price. Typically you would hire contractors to come in later & finish up after the initial framing is complete depending on the style of framing, traditional wood or stronger longer lasting cold form steel. Companies like Buildmax have some amazing barndominium house plans online you can purchase, they also have kit offerings through a cold form steel company so any barndominium on the Buildmax website can be framed up in rigid steel with a package shipped straight to your build site on a flatbed and erected in a matter of days not weeks, it really is an amazing process to witness if you’ve never seen it happen. It’s nothing short of spectacular to watch something go from an empty graded lot to a framed up barndominium practically overnight with only a 4-man crew versus a wood frame barndo along with 10 guys swinging hammers around, dropping nails everywhere, holding boards up over and over, all while trying to yell over one another trying to get the next instructions out.
Google believe it or not can be a great resource when searching for a builder near you. Google has a feature where it will automatically search local business listings for whatever is closest to your search query for instance if I was looking for a builder in or around Atlanta Georgia I’d type Barndominium builders near me, the beauty of it is you can be anywhere in the country and it will find the listings based upon your IP address so if your happen to run a VPN you may have to enter your actual city. Results that show up towards the top are going to be the companies that are paying the most in advertising and potentially have the best ranking for what you’re looking for. I always look at the comments and evaluate others’ experiences you can weed out a lot of unreliable crews simply by taking the extra time to read through some reviews from previous dealings the public has had with a specific builder or company if nothing more than to gain a little more insight, you can’t always trust reviews either there are a lot of super picky customers out there who you can never truly satisfy.at the end of the day trust your gut and take your time searching out a company that you trust.
