Barndominium Builders in Valparaiso, IN

Barndominium builders in Valparaiso work on ground that gave a glacial landform its name. The Valparaiso Moraine is a band of hilly glacial till and sand that wraps in a big U around the southern end of Lake Michigan, and it is highest at Valparaiso, the city it is named for. Wikipedia describes the city's landscape as hilly, with kettle lakes, knobs and mostly clay soil. The moraine runs about 5 to nearly 20 miles wide and its crest sits roughly 650 to 900 feet above sea level. That is a very different starting point than the flat till plains of central Indiana, and it changes how a barndominium is placed, graded and drained.

Placing the building on a hill

On rolling moraine ground, the first design decision is where the barndo sits on the slope. A few patterns we look at on Porter County parcels:

• Knob tops drain well and catch the wind, so they suit the building but need careful wind detailing and a driveway that is safe in ice.
• Side slopes may call for a cut-and-fill pad, a stepped foundation or a walk-out shop level on the low side.
• Kettle bottoms collect water and often hold wet or organic soils. We keep the building out of them and keep septic fields away from them too.

Every option has to work for drainage. Clay soil sheds water rather than soaking it up, so swales, grading and downspout lines are part of the plan from the first sketch.

Clay soil and spring water

Soils on Wisconsinan till plains across northern Indiana and northern Illinois often carry a perched water table in spring. The USDA's Markham series, for example, is a moderately well drained soil formed in a thin silty cap over silty clay loam glacial till, with a seasonal perched water table about 2 to 3.5 feet below the surface. On soils like that we expect foundation drain tile, a raised slab and a septic design that works around the spring water table rather than through it.

Porter County septic review

In Porter County, plan reviews and soil reports for septic systems go to the Environmental Health division of the Porter County Health Department. The division takes walk-ins only between 8:30 and 10:00 AM on weekdays and otherwise works by appointment. Indiana's residential onsite sewage rule is 410 IAC 6-8.3. The state's program connects landowners with registered soil scientists through the Indiana Registry of Soil Scientists, and where a sanitary sewer is reasonably close a new septic system is not allowed. With Valparaiso still growing, that sewer question is worth asking early on any parcel near the city's edge.

A county with a lake at the top and a river at the bottom

Porter County runs from Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes on its north border to the Kankakee River on its south border. Its lowest ground is about 585 feet at the lakeshore and its highest is an 870-foot hill near Westville. The Kankakee was channelized after the marshes along it were drained, and Wikipedia notes the straightened river became especially prone to flooding. Parcels near the river in the south end of the county call for a flood map check before anything else. Eleven cities and towns share the county, Portage the largest and Valparaiso the county seat, and 23.6 percent of residents lived rural in 2020.

Snow, cold and frost

Valparaiso's 1991-2020 normals list about 40 inches of snow and 40.27 inches of precipitation a year, a record high of 105 F and a record low of -26 F. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code table lists Porter County at a 30 psf ground snow load, 115 mph design wind, a 36-inch minimum footing depth and a 1 F winter design temperature, with ice barrier underlayment required. On a hilltop site, the wind and snow numbers interact: exposed roofs see more wind, and snow drifts into the lee side of a taller shop wall. Our designs carry those loads through every connection down to frost-depth footings.

Growth around the city

Valparaiso reached 34,151 residents in 2020, up 7.6 percent from 2010 after a 15.7 percent jump the decade before. Valparaiso University covers 310 acres on the south side of town, and the city sits on US 30 and State Roads 2, 49 and 130, close to I-65, I-80, I-90 and I-94. Growth makes land near town more expensive and more likely to be annexed or sewered, so it can pay to look a little farther out into the townships.

Have a hilly or wooded parcel near Valparaiso, Chesterton, Hebron or Kouts? Call (317) 893-3806 or

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and we will look at the slope with you.