Barndominium Builders in Evansville, IN

Barndominium builders in Evansville are building near the Ohio River, in one of the warmer counties on the Indiana code table and in a part of the state with a higher seismic rating. Evansville is the county seat of Vanderburgh County, with 117,298 residents at the 2020 census and a metro area of 358,676. The county itself is small, about 236 square miles, the smallest in southwestern Indiana, bordered by Gibson County to the north, Posey to the west, Warrick to the east and Henderson County, Kentucky, across the river. It runs on Central time. Whether your land is in Vanderburgh County or a neighboring county, we treat every parcel with the same four-part risk review below.

Risk 1: The river

Evansville sits on a meander of the Ohio, and its southern boundary follows an oxbow. Most of the city lies in a shallow valley, with the west side on rolling hills. The 1937 Ohio River flood covered about 500 city blocks and put the city under martial law. Afterward, the city built higher levees, and today the eastern part of the city is protected by levees that closely follow Interstate 69.

For a barndominium, the questions are:

• Is any of the parcel in a FEMA flood hazard area?
• If so, can the house and shop sit on the higher part of the lot?
• If not, the Indiana Residential Code sets the design flood elevation at base flood elevation plus two feet, requires flood-resistant materials below it, and requires electrical, HVAC and plumbing equipment at or above it

A slab-on-grade barndo can be raised on compacted fill to meet that elevation, but it changes the driveway, the grading and the budget, so it needs to be known early.

Risk 2: Wind

On November 6, 2005, at about 1:39 in the morning, an F3 tornado crossed the Ohio from Kentucky and struck the Evansville area. It killed 20 people at the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park and 24 across the region, and Wikipedia describes it as the deadliest November tornado in Indiana's history. Many people were asleep, and a local NOAA Weather Radio transmitter was malfunctioning. Two design lessons follow for a rural barndominium:

• Structural: continuous uplift and lateral load paths, anchored to a foundation sized for the site's actual wind exposure. The code lists 115 mph design wind for Vanderburgh County.
• Life safety: a reinforced interior room or storm shelter in the plan, and a weather radio or alert system that wakes you up.

Risk 3: Earthquake

The 2020 Indiana Residential Code places Vanderburgh County in seismic design category C. Most counties around Indianapolis are A or B. For a barndominium that mostly shows up in how the frame is braced and how heavy elements, like a mezzanine, a masonry wainscot or a loft over the shop, are tied in. It is a design and engineering question we account for on every plan here.

Risk 4: Heat and humidity

The state code table lists Vanderburgh County's mean annual temperature at 57.0 F, warmer than Knox (53.4 F) or Dubois (53.9 F). Evansville's record high is 111 F, set on July 28, 1930, and average precipitation is close to 48 inches a year. Snow is light, averaging under 11 inches, though it has ranged from half an inch in 2011-12 to 37.9 inches in 1969-70. Long, humid summers are the conditions that make an under-insulated metal building sweat. Closed-cell spray foam or a continuous vapor-controlled assembly, plus a dehumidification plan for the shop, are standard for us here. The code table also rates termite risk as moderate to heavy, which matters for any wood framing near grade.

Foundations

The minimum footing depth listed for Vanderburgh County is 24 inches below finished grade, with a 20 psf ground snow load and a 9 F winter design temperature. Low stream terraces in this part of the Ohio Valley often carry soils like Uniontown, a moderately well drained, moderately slowly permeable soil formed in older alluvium derived from loess, which the USDA maps across southern Indiana and western Kentucky. A site soil test still decides the footing and slab design.

Septic and permits

Inside Evansville most lots are on sewer. Out in the county, Indiana's residential onsite rule (410 IAC 6-8.3) applies, and the state directory lists the Vanderburgh County Health Department on Mulberry Street in Evansville as the local office. Where a sanitary sewer is reasonably available, a new septic system is prohibited and the home must connect.

Have land in Vanderburgh County or nearby? Call (317) 893-3806 or

Get a Free Estimate

and we'll start with the flood map.