Barndominium with Shop Floor Plans in Minnesota

The shop is the reason many Minnesotans want a barndominium in the first place: a heated bay for the truck, the sled, the boat and the workbench, under the same roof as the house. In a cold climate the shop is not an unheated shed tacked onto a home. It is usually heated, often with in-floor heat, and it is where the family comes and goes all winter. That makes the connection between shop and house the most important line on the plan: the fire separation, the air seal, the door between them, and which way the roof drops its snow.

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What actually changes with this feature

The look is the easy part. These are the decisions that follow from it.

Heating the shop is a mechanical-room decision

A shop heated with in-floor heat puts tubing in the shop slab and a boiler or water heater, pumps and manifolds somewhere central. In the plans we draw, that mechanical room sits on the house side of the common wall, next to the shop, so one room serves both floors. Minnesota's residential energy code treats a heated slab differently from an unheated one: the slab insulation entry for heated slabs runs down to the depth the table sets or to the top of the footing, whichever is less.

Radon rules reach the attached shop

Minnesota Rules part 1303.2400 lists attached and tuck-under garages among the design features that trigger passive radon control, unless the floor, wall and ceiling assemblies separating the garage from the dwelling are sealed. In practice the common wall between shop and house is built and sealed as an air barrier from slab to roof deck, which also keeps exhaust and fuel smells out of the house.

Put the big doors where the snow is not

A steel roof sheds snow off its eaves in slabs. An overhead door under the eave collects that snow in front of it, and a walk door under the eave collects it on whoever is walking through. The shop plans we draw put overhead doors on a gable end where the layout allows, or add a covered apron. Minnesota's amended design table in Minnesota Rules part 1309.0301 also requires ice barrier underlayment at the eaves, a sign of how seriously the code takes ice damming.

A farm shop and a house are different buildings to the law

Minnesota Statutes section 326B.121 exempts agricultural buildings from the State Building Code, and section 326B.103 defines them as structures on agricultural land designed and used to house farm implements, livestock or agricultural products. Living space is not that. A shop under the same roof as a house is designed as part of a dwelling. A detached machine shed may qualify on its own; ask the county assessor and the building office.

Where the shop stops and the house starts

An attached shop that parks vehicles is drawn to the garage separation rules

Minnesota Rules part 1309.0302 carries the garage separation rules the plan has to show. No opening from the garage directly into a room used for sleeping; any other door between garage and house is solid wood or steel at least 1-3/8 inches thick, or a 20-minute fire-rated door. The house side and its attic are separated by at least 1/2-inch gypsum board on the garage side, carried up to the roof sheathing, and any habitable room above the shop needs at least 5/8-inch Type X gypsum board. Drawing a loft office over the shop is common; it changes the ceiling assembly, so decide it early.

Common ways to build this

Three common ways to lay this out. Yours does not have to match one exactly — this is a starting point for the conversation, not a catalog.

House beside a two-bay heated shop

40' x 60' building / 1,400 sq ft living / 1,000 sq ft two-bay shop

Two bedrooms and an open living area at one end, a two-bay heated shop at the other, with the mechanical room and a mudroom with laundry between them. Overhead doors sit on the far gable end, and the walk door into the house comes through the mudroom.

Shouse with an office over the shop

36' x 72' / 1,600 sq ft living / 1,000 sq ft shop / 400 sq ft office above

A three-bedroom house with the shop at one end and a loft office above the shop reached from the house side. The office floor needs Type X gypsum on the shop ceiling below it, and its stair lands in the house, not the shop.

Detached heated shop and a small house

28' x 40' house / 32' x 40' shop, separate buildings

Two buildings instead of one: a small house and a separate shop. Separating them removes the garage fire separation from the house plan, and a detached one-story garage or shed of 1,000 square feet or less may sit on a slab on any soil except peat or muck under Minnesota Rules part 1303.1600. Larger shops follow the frost rules for your county.

Ways to build this

This layout can go together several ways. These are the service lines most relevant to it.

Shouses

Shouses in Minnesota: a heated shop and a home under one roof, laid out for big doors, winter work and the separation a house needs from its shop.

Pole Barn Homes

Pole barn homes in Minnesota: pole barn house kits and plans sized to your county's snow load, with posts and footings set below the state frost depth.

Steel & Metal Building Construction

Red-iron steel frames for Minnesota barndominiums and shops: wide clear spans, roofs sized to your county's snow load, columns on frost-depth footings.

Barndominium with a Shop: common questions

6 questions worth settling before this plan is drawn. If yours is not on the list, put it in the survey.

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Can the shop floor be gravel?

Under the Minnesota Residential Code, yes: Minnesota Rules part 1309.0309 allows garage floor surfaces of concrete, asphalt, sand, gravel, crushed rock or natural earth. For a heated shop, a concrete slab is still the practical choice, because in-floor heat needs a slab and a gravel floor is hard to keep clean and warm.

Can I have a door from the shop into a bedroom?

No. Minnesota Rules part 1309.0302 does not permit openings from a private garage directly into a room used for sleeping. Other doors between the shop and the house must be solid wood or steel at least 1-3/8 inches thick, or 20-minute fire-rated.

Do I need radon control if the shop is attached?

A new house needs passive radon control anyway if it has a basement slab or slab on grade. The attached shop is named separately in Minnesota Rules part 1303.2400: it triggers radon control unless the assemblies between shop and house are sealed, so plan the shared wall as a sealed air barrier.

Is my shop exempt from the building code if I farm?

A building on agricultural land that is designed and used to house farm implements, livestock or agricultural products fits the agricultural building definition in Minnesota Statutes section 326B.103, and section 326B.121 exempts those from the State Building Code. A shop attached to a house does not become exempt, and living quarters never do.

How far does the well need to be from a horse stall in the shop?

Minnesota Rules part 4725.4450 keeps a water-supply well at least 50 feet from an animal or poultry building holding more than one animal unit, and at least 50 feet from a septic tank and from the soil treatment area. Put stalls, well and septic on the site plan together before you fix the building's position.

Which way should the shop face?

Overhead doors facing south or east dry out and clear faster after a storm, and doors on a gable end stay clear of the snow a steel roof drops off its eaves. Your driveway, the prevailing winter wind and where drifts form on your site matter more than any rule of thumb.

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Sources

Code references on this page are to the 2020 Minnesota State Building Code, in effect since March 31, 2020, and to Minnesota Rules as published by the Revisor of Statutes. The code applies statewide, but whether a building permit is issued and inspected where you build depends on whether your city, township or county enforces it. The edition your permit is reviewed under governs.

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Tell us what you want to build and we will draw this for your program, then confirm what it looks like on your parcel, which office permits it, and a realistic budget range. That conversation costs nothing.

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