Custom Barndominium Plans in Oregon

We draw custom barndominium plans in Oregon for the land you actually have: the house, the shop, the porch and the loft, laid out around how you live and work. Oregon law lets a non-architect prepare the drawings for a single-family dwelling or a farm building, so the plan set comes from us and the structural design of the frame comes from the frame manufacturer's registered professional engineer. The set is drawn to the Oregon Residential Specialty Code, including its energy chapter, and to the design values for your site.

Frame drawings stamped by the manufacturer's registered professional engineer

Sized to your site's snow, wind and seismic values

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Drawing a Plan for Oregon's Code and Climate

Oregon has one residential code, applied uniformly across the state, and cities and counties may not write their own versions of it. That makes the plan portable in a way it is not everywhere: a set drawn for a lot near Salem answers to the same code as one near Pendleton. What changes from lot to lot is the site data, and the Building Codes Division publishes that through its Design Criteria Hub: ground snow load, design wind speed, Seismic Design Category, frost line depth and decay and weathering potential for the address.

The energy chapter is where a barndominium plan most often goes wrong. Chapter 11 of the Oregon Residential Specialty Code covers the building thermal envelope and the heating, ventilation and cooling systems, and Oregon adds its own additional energy provisions, which the Building Codes Division supports with an additional-measure selection tool. A steel or pole barn shell has to be drawn with the insulation, air sealing and vapor control already solved, not left for the insulator to improvise inside a finished frame.

Custom Plans: how the work runs

Four stages, in this order. The sequence matters more than it looks: settling the land-use question, the septic site evaluation and the building permit before anything is fabricated is what keeps an Oregon build from stalling.

Brief, land and zoning

We start with the parcel: its zoning, whether it sits inside a city's urban growth boundary or out on farm, forest or rural residential land, where the septic area and a well can go, and which way the weather comes from. A plan drawn before the land-use answer is known is a plan you may have to redraw.

Layout and the shop split

Rooms, shop bays, door heights, porch depth and loft. We settle how much of the building is living space and how much is shop before anything is sized, because that split drives the frame, the fire separation between shop and house, and the energy envelope.

Code and site values

The set is drawn to the Oregon Residential Specialty Code, with the ground snow load, wind speed, seismic category and frost depth the state's Design Criteria Hub gives for your address, and the Chapter 11 energy measures chosen and shown on the drawings.

Permit set

Floor plans, elevations, sections, the energy compliance path and the manufacturer's stamped frame drawings, assembled for the building department that serves your land. We revise the drawings in response to plan-review comments.

One code, many sites

Same code across Oregon, different numbers on every lot

Oregon's state building code applies uniformly in every city and county, and local governments may not adopt different requirements without the state's authorization. The site values are another matter. The state's Design Criteria Hub gives ground snow load, wind speed, seismic category and frost depth by address, and a lot on the valley floor and a lot at elevation east of the Cascades can differ a great deal. We draw to your lot's numbers.

Where we deliver custom plans

In Oregon the line that matters is usually an urban growth boundary. Inside one, land is planned for urban development and a city usually handles zoning and permits. Outside one, the land is rural, the county decides what can be built on it, and the county building department serves most unincorporated areas. The residential code is the same on both sides of every line. What changes is the zoning, who evaluates and permits the septic system (the Department of Environmental Quality or the county agency it contracts with), and the snow, wind and seismic values the state's Design Criteria Hub gives for the exact site.

Barndominium builders across Oregon.

Every city and county in Oregon has its own answer on zoning, permits and septic. The service area pages set out what each one publishes.

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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.

Footprint and complexity

A simple rectangle with a gable roof is the cheapest building to draw and to build. Wings, offsets, dormers and changes in roof pitch add sheets to the set and cost to the frame, and each one has to be justified by how you will use it.
Energy compliance path

The energy chapter can be met by following the prescriptive tables with additional measures or by trading off parts of the envelope against each other. The path changes what is drawn, what is specified, and what is tested before occupancy.
Seismic and snow values for the site

A higher Seismic Design Category or a heavier ground snow load adds bracing, hold-downs and heavier roof members to the drawings. The Hub gives the values; the cost follows them.
Shop-to-house separation

Where a shop or garage shares walls with living space, the plan has to show the separation between them. A large attached shop means more separation detail than a small garage.

Custom Plans in Oregon: common questions

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

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Do I need an architect to design a barndominium in Oregon?

Not for a single-family home. Oregon's architect law does not prevent a person who is not an architect from preparing the drawings for a single-family residential dwelling or a farm building. The steel or pole barn structure is designed and stamped by the manufacturer's registered professional engineer, and your building department reviews the whole set.

Which building code do the plans follow?

The Oregon Residential Specialty Code, the state's one code for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses. It is based on the International Residential Code with Oregon amendments, and the state expects a new edition from October 2026, so the plans follow whichever edition your building department applies to your application.

Can my county require something different from the state code?

Generally not. Oregon law makes the state building code uniform throughout the state and bars cities and counties from enforcing different requirements for the same matters unless the state authorizes it. Zoning, setbacks and land use are a separate, local question.

Where do the snow load and seismic values come from?

The Oregon Building Codes Division's Design Criteria Hub, a mapping tool that gives site-specific ground snow load, basic design wind speed, Seismic Design Category, frost line depth and more for projects under the residential code. We use the values for your address and confirm them with your building department.

How does Oregon's energy code affect a steel or pole barn plan?

Residential energy provisions sit in Chapter 11 of the Oregon Residential Specialty Code, which covers the thermal envelope and the heating, ventilation and cooling systems. The plan has to show how the walls, roof and slab meet it and which additional measures were chosen, so the insulation strategy for a metal shell is settled on paper first.

Can I start from one of your floor plans?

Yes. Most custom plans start from a stock layout that is close, then change the footprint, the shop bays or the rooms. It is quicker than starting from a blank page and the changes are still drawn for your site.

Can you draw plans for land zoned for farm use?

We can draw them, but a house on exclusive farm use land has to qualify under state land-use law first, for example as a dwelling in conjunction with farm use or an approved non-farm dwelling. We check that with the county planning office before the design is finished.

Do I own the plans?

You get the permit set for your build. If you want to take the drawings to another builder, say so at the start and the terms go in writing.

Sources

Keep reading

The pages that answer the next question this one raises.

Floor Plans

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

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Are Barndominiums Legal in Oregon?

The statewide residential code, land-use zoning and where farm and forest dwellings stand.

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Permits & Land Use

The order the approvals come in, and what the plan set has to contain.

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

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Tell us about the land

Tell us where the parcel is and what you want on it, and we will come back with who has jurisdiction, what the land needs before it can be built on, and a realistic budget range. Starting the survey costs nothing.

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