Barndominium Builders in New Albany, IN

Barndominium builders in New Albany look up the hill, not down at the river. New Albany is the county seat of Floyd County, on the Ohio River opposite Louisville, Kentucky, bounded by Interstate 265 on the north and the river on the south. It had 37,841 residents at the 2020 census. Floyd County grew from 74,578 to 80,484 people over the decade, about 8 percent, on just under 149 square miles. Wikipedia describes the county as containing some of the hilliest country in Indiana, which means acreage outside the city, such as around Floyds Knobs and along US 150 near Mount Saint Francis, is usually hilly.

The knobs, explained

Floyd County lies in what Wikipedia calls the Knobs Unit, with part of it on sandstone bedrock and part over limestone. The Indiana Geological and Water Survey traces the Knobstone Escarpment as a winding ridge from northern Brown County to the Ohio River, with steep-sided hills and valleys cut into siltstone-rich Mississippian rock. Wikipedia's article on the escarpment calls the region the most rugged terrain in Indiana, with steep hills called knobs and deep ravines. A flat, open hayfield is the exception here, not the rule.

A slope checklist for a big footprint

A barndominium has a large, flat footprint, often with a long shop at one end. On knob country that raises a set of site questions we work through before design:

• Cut, fill or step? Building into a hillside means deciding how much to cut, how much to fill and whether the slab should step between the shop and living areas.
• Rock. On sandstone- or limestone-underlain ground, a cut may hit bedrock, which changes excavation and footing plans.
• Driveway grade. Delivery trucks carrying steel, trusses and concrete need a drivable approach. A steep drive may need regrading before anything else.
• Runoff. A big metal roof sheds a lot of water quickly. On a slope it has to be carried to a safe outlet, not dumped above a ravine.
• Septic location. On hilly lots the most suitable septic soils and the flattest building pad compete for the same flat ground, so we locate both at once.

Stormwater permits

Floyd County's government website notes that the NPDES Construction General Permit applies to construction activities that disturb one acre or more of land, and that stormwater controls must be inspected by a qualified professional inspector. A barndominium with a long driveway, a large pad and a septic field can approach that acreage. We measure the planned disturbance early so the stormwater requirements, if they apply, are part of the schedule rather than a surprise.

The river below

New Albany's flood history is the reason its riverfront looks the way it does. In January 1937 the Ohio rose to 60.8 feet at New Albany, and most of the town sat under 10 feet of water or more for nearly three weeks. The city was the first in the region to begin building flood walls afterward, and its walls became examples for those around Louisville and Clark County. For an upland barndo the river is rarely the issue, but any parcel near the Ohio or a creek bottom gets a flood map check. If part of the build area is in a flood hazard zone, the Indiana Residential Code puts the design flood elevation at base flood elevation plus two feet.

Wind history

The National Weather Service office in Louisville records an F4 tornado on March 23, 1917 that crossed Floyd, Harrison and Clark counties and Jefferson County, Kentucky. It struck the north side of New Albany, destroyed about 500 homes and killed 46 people. On exposed hilltops, which many knob sites are, we design the frame and anchorage for the site's real wind exposure. The state code lists 115 mph design wind for Floyd County.

Code values and climate

The 2020 Indiana Residential Code county table lists Floyd County at a 24-inch minimum footing depth, a 20 psf ground snow load, seismic design category B, a 9 F winter design temperature and a 54.7 F mean annual temperature. New Albany's average January low is about 25 F and its average July high about 87 F, with a record low of -22 F in January 1994 and a record high of 107 F in July 1936.

Septic

The state's local health department directory lists the Floyd County Health Department on Bono Road in New Albany. Indiana's residential onsite rule, 410 IAC 6-8.3, governs the permit, and where a sanitary sewer is reasonably available the state requires connection instead of a new septic system. Floyd County also has a Planning Commission and a Board of Zoning Appeals, so zoning is part of the early review.

Have land in Floyds Knobs or elsewhere in Floyd County? Call (317) 893-3806 or

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