The best in affordable and sustainable housing, Keen’s barndominiums help you get back to budget-friendly living in a home you can call your own.
Our barndominiums for sale in Florida and Georgia are the most popular selection in our lineup of habitable structures. Providing durability, customizability, and affordability all in one, these homes are the latest in the tiny home housing trend. Choose from single-story or two-story barndominiums. All of our metal buildings are pre-engineered with certified plans for habitable in-use unless otherwise specified.
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Do Barndominiums Last Longer?
Due to their metal framework, barndominiums offer a much longer lifespan with less maintenance than a traditional sitebuilt home. Most traditional homes are made from a combination of wood, stucco, or brick, which are prone to cracks, weathering, and more. Furthermore, with these traditional materials, the settling of the structure is more likely to cause exterior cracks – especially on stucco finish homes.
Wood’s tendency to rot and attract pests, such as termites, can cause slow damage to your home’s overall framework and foundation over an extended period of time. What’s more, maintaining the exterior of homes constructed from the materials mentioned above can be a labor
intensive – and sometimes even impossible – process.
Metal is extremely resilient and the exterior of your metal structure can easily be cleaned. Additionally, the structural integrity of a metal barndominium is far less susceptible to natural disasters. For example, while flooding can cause severe waterlog damage in sheetrock and promote wood rot, it won’t have nearly as detrimental an effect on a metal structure.
One consideration for your metal barndominium is its tendency to fade over the course of many years due to sun exposure – an occurrence otherwise known as UV fade. This natural breakdown of UV rays on paint can impact even highend cars, which is why paint choice is crucial in the customization of your barndominium. To combat fading over an extended period of time, opt for lighter colors such as White or Light Tan as opposed to darker colors that draw in more heat (Dark Green, Brown, Black).
The same goes for your roofing as well. The most popular roofing material for metal barndominiums is Galvalume. This silver reflective roof will bounce the heat off the structure and will never fade. Alternatively, DuPont offers metal panels that are also among the highestrated in the industry. Using metal trusses as opposed to wood will also extend the lifespan of your barndominium.
Flat roofs also tend to fade faster as the lack of angles allows for broader heat distribution – which also keeps the interior of your barndominium warmer as well. By avoiding a shingled roof for your metal barndominium, it will be far less prone to damage from debris and rot – another facet that only further adds to the longevity of your new home.
We do recommend designing your barndominium with a 24inch overhang around the perimeter, as this will prevent rain from running down your sidewall and leaving streaks in your exterior paint.
How to Maintain Your Barndominium
Cleaning and maintaining your barndominium is an incredibly simple process due to the incredible stability and simplicity of this structure. To keep the exterior clean, a simple solution consisting of bleach and water can be added to your pressure washer for a quick spraydown.
During the construction process, it’s also critical that you opt for Lifetime Painted Screws. These invaluable screws are designed specifically for the barndominium and roofing community, as they are resistant to the rusting that occurs in salt or damp air. Once your screw heads rust or the primer comes off your screw head, you’ll start noticing streaks down the exterior of your metal building from deterioration of that protective coating.
It is important NOT to cut costs when it comes to the screws you use for your structure. Many competitors will try to sell you on cheap screws, but it can be damaging in the longrun. Another benefit of Lifetime Painted Screws is that they can be colormatched to your exterior metal panels for a clean-finished look.
Permitting for Your Barndominium
Permitting any habitable structure is a process that varies from one municipality to another. Make sure to consult any HOA regulations or local ordinances that may limit or restrict the construction of a barndominium, particularly in restrictive covenant communities.
Learn More about permitting considerations for your habitable structure.
Interior of Your Barndominium
Barndominiums provide an empty shell for you to work off of and create any space you imagine. These versatile structures can be used as:
✔ Primary residences
✔ Vacation rentals or weekend cabins
✔ Workshops
✔ Backyard guest houses
✔ Mother-in-law suites
✔ Home office
You can configure the interior of your barndominium to your needs. Just like with a traditional site-built house, everything attaches to the framework, so you can erect wall studs and drywall to lay the space out differently.
“Keens building are super solid and the process is seamless start to finish!”
