Barndominium Kits in South Carolina

Barndominium kits are the structural shell of the building, shipped as a package: frames or posts and trusses, girts and purlins, roof and wall panels, trim and fasteners, plus engineered drawings. We supply and erect kits in South Carolina for owners who want to finish the interior themselves, or as the first stage of a home we finish for them.

A kit is a shell, not a house

HomeBlue's 2024 Columbia estimate puts shell materials at $20 to $35 per square foot, and HomeGuide prices a kit with on-site assembly at $30 to $50. That number leaves out the slab, insulation, windows and doors in many packages, plumbing, electrical, HVAC and every interior finish. Budgeting from the kit price alone is the most common way a barndo budget goes wrong.

Order for the wind on your permit

South Carolina tells builders to use the Building Codes Council's wind maps and lets the local building official set the wind design category. The map lists York County at 115 mph; Goose Creek's design criteria say 140+ mph; Charleston uses 150 mph. A kit engineered for an inland county may not pass plan review near the coast, so we confirm the number with your building department before anything is ordered.

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Drawings the county will ask for

Some counties want more than a brochure. Horry County, for instance, requires engineering under the 2021 IRC with original seals, a wind design summary sheet and roof details showing load and uplift points for a new house. We make sure the kit's drawings match what your county reviews.

Sand, clay and the slab underneath

The kit sits on a slab sized for its column or post loads. Under the Sandhills, soils like the Blaney series have two feet or more of loose sand over sandy clay; in the Piedmont near Rock Hill and Chester, red clay subsoils drain slowly. The foundation plan has to fit the ground, which is why we see the site before quoting a kit installed.

Septic and site before delivery

On land without sewer, the septic permit comes first: SCDES must approve the system before the county can issue a building permit, and Clemson Extension advises staking the house footprint for the evaluator. In Newberry County a zoning permit is also needed before the building permit. Ordering a kit before those approvals risks a package that does not fit the approved footprint.