A finished barndominium at dusk with warm interior lighting glowing through its large windows.
Montgomery County 2018 IRC with Tennessee amendments

Barndominium Builders in Clarksville, TN

Clarksville and Montgomery County are two different building departments divided by the city limit, and both run their own inspectors under the 2018 codes. Between them they do something almost no Tennessee jurisdiction does: publish a filled-in IRC Table R301.2(1), so the wind speed, frost depth and seismic category your frame is engineered to are on the record before anyone draws anything. Outside the city, the Sabre Heliport Overlay adds a sound-attenuation requirement that a metal-skinned building has to be designed for rather than retrofitted.

Clarksville at a glance

County
Montgomery County
Population
188,829
ZIP codes
37040, 37042, 37043
Site visits
About 65 miles north-west of our Franklin office
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Building conditions in Clarksville

What actually changes from one Tennessee jurisdiction to the next: who issues the permit, whether the residential code is enforced there at all, what the structure has to be engineered to, and what the ground is like. These are the numbers your drawings have to satisfy.

Build conditions for Clarksville , Montgomery County, Tennessee: design wind speed 115 mph ultimate design wind speed. BUILD CONDITIONS CLARKSVILLE, TNMontgomery CountyCRITERIA SET LOCALLY DESIGN WIND SPEED 115 mph ultimate design wind speedBoth jurisdictions publish the same figure, along with a 10 psf ground snow load, no topographic…ZONING · AG (AGRICULTURAL)1.5-acre minimumA single-family dwelling is permitted outright in AG in both the city…ADEQUATE FACILITIES TAX$250 per new lot and $250 per unit at…A Montgomery County schools tax, collected at the county Building and…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITCity of Clarksville Building & Codes…Inside the city limit only. Outside it, Montgomery County Building and…
Build conditions for Clarksville, drawn from the sourced facts on this page. Every figure above is cited in the quick-facts panel below, with its source and vintage.
Two permitting authorities, one city limit
The City of Clarksville Building & Codes Department, 100 South Spring Street, 931-645-7426, permits and inspects inside the city. Montgomery County Building and Codes, 350 Pageant Lane Suite 309, 931-648-5718, states that it issues permits for the county jurisdiction only, meaning the area outside any city jurisdiction. Both employ their own inspectors and adopt their own codes, so the answer to almost every question on this page changes at the city line.

City of Clarksville Building & Codes, clarksvilletn.gov/310/Building-Codes, and Montgomery County Building and Codes Department Services, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/department-services, both fetched 31 Aug 2026

Adopted design criteria
Ultimate design wind speed 115 mph, ground snow load 10 psf, seismic design category C, frost line depth 12 inches, weathering severe, termite moderate to heavy, winter design temperature 14 degrees, no ice barrier underlayment required, air freezing index 514, mean annual temperature 59 degrees. Manual J criteria: elevation 550 feet, latitude 36 degrees north, winter heating 12, summer cooling 93, indoor design temperature 70, coincident wet bulb 74, daily range M. The city and the county publish the same table independently of each other.

City of Clarksville Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-801, Table R301.2(1), Municode, library.municode.com/tn/clarksville/codes/code_of_ordinances, Supp. 111 Update 2, codified through Ord. No. 64-2025-26 enacted 7 May 2026; and Montgomery County 2018 IRC Design Criteria Table 301.2, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/forms, both fetched 31 Aug 2026

Codes in force
Both jurisdictions run the 2018 International Residential, Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, Fuel Gas and Fire Codes, effective 1 January 2021. The city adopted them by ordinance under T.C.A. 6-54-501; the county by Resolution 20-10-6, with the 2018 energy code added by Resolution 24-1-2 effective 8 January 2024. The city also adopts the 2017 National Electric Code and runs its own electrical inspector, and its residential adoption takes appendix G only, excluding all other appendices.

Clarksville Current Adopted Codes, clarksvilletn.gov/1242/Current-Adopted-Codes, with Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-201, 4-301 and 4-801 via Municode; Montgomery County Adopted Codes, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/adopted-codes, all fetched 31 Aug 2026

Zoning for an acreage build
AG Agricultural. A single family dwelling is permitted outright. Minimum lot area 1.5 acres in both rulebooks. County AG: 150-foot lot width, 50-foot front yard, 20-foot side yards, 40-foot rear yard, 20 percent maximum lot coverage, 35-foot height. City AG: 120-foot lot width, 40-foot front yard, 20-foot side yards, 40-foot rear yard, 30 percent maximum lot coverage, 35-foot height. Neither sets a minimum heated floor area for AG. The only 480 square foot minimum in the county resolution sits in the mobile home table and does not reach a site-built house.

Montgomery County Zoning Resolution Applicable to the Unincorporated Area, Tables 3.17, 4.1.1 and 4.1.4, as amended through 12 February 2024, cmcrpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/County-Zoning-Resolution-February-2024.pdf; City of Clarksville Zoning Ordinance Table 4.1, Municode product 15452, Supp. 6, codified through Ord. No. 81-2024-25 enacted 5 June 2025, both fetched 31 Aug 2026

The Fort Campbell noise overlay
Outside the city, the Sabre Heliport Overlay District maps five zones around Sabre Army Heliport from the 2003 Joint Land Use Study for Fort Campbell. In Noise Zone II a new dwelling must achieve a 30 decibel noise level reduction, and 35 decibels in Noise Zone III, bringing interior sound to 45 decibels or below. A qualified acoustical professional must certify the design before the building permit is issued, and the applicant signs a noise disclosure statement as a condition of the permit. The prescriptive route calls for exterior walls at laboratory sound transmission class STC-43.

Montgomery County Zoning Resolution, Sections 9.3.5, 9.3.6 and 9.3.11, as amended through 12 February 2024, cmcrpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/County-Zoning-Resolution-February-2024.pdf, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Permit fees and the tax that comes first
The city charges 37 cents per square foot for a single-family permit, expressly applied to total heated and unheated square footage, with a mandatory one cent annual increase posted each January. The county charges 38 cents per square foot of total floor area including bonus rooms, garages and finished basements, a 25 dollar minimum and a 5 dollar archive and records fee on every application. Before either will issue, the Montgomery County Adequate Facilities Tax must be paid in full at the county counter, and that applies even when the permit is being pulled from the city.

Clarksville Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-203, Municode, amended by Ord. No. 52-2025-26 of 5 February 2026; Montgomery County Building Permit Fees, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/fees; Montgomery County Adequate Facilities Tax, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/adequate-facilities-tax, all fetched 31 Aug 2026

Also worth knowing before you build in Clarksville

What seismic category C actually means here
Tennessee replaced the 2018 IRC seismic map with the 2015 IRC Figure R301.2(2) Site Class D map, so a category read off a current national code is the wrong figure. Both Clarksville and Montgomery County publish category C. Under R301.2.2 the prescriptive seismic provisions apply to townhouses in categories C and above, and to detached one- and two-family dwellings only from D0 and above, so a detached house here sits below that threshold. A clear-span frame is still an engineered structure under R301.1.3 either way.

Tennessee Comp. R. & Regs. 0780-02-23-.02; Tennessee Residential Code 2018 R301.2.2 via up.codes/viewer/tennessee/irc-2018/chapter/3/building-planning; Clarksville Sec. 4-801 and Montgomery County design criteria table, all fetched 31 Aug 2026

Septic
Montgomery County does not run its own septic programme. The county directs applicants to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Environment and Groundwater office on 615-687-7000, and requires a copy of the septic permit before a building permit is issued. At final inspection the county needs the certificate of completion for the septic system before it will issue a certificate of occupancy. Inside the city, on an unsewered lot the minimum lot area itself is set by the Division of Ground Water, never below the district minimum.

Montgomery County Permit Types, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/permit-types, Required Inspections, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/required-inspections; City of Clarksville Zoning Ordinance Section 4.1.3 via Municode, all fetched 31 Aug 2026

The structural framing inspection
Montgomery County splits framing into two visits. Framing number one is structural only: no exterior veneer, no house wrap, no electrical or plumbing rough-in and no insulation, and the inspector is looking at wall bracing, all load paths, and the spans of every joist, beam, stud and rafter. Framing number two follows after the electrical rough-in is approved, with insulation, house wrap and cladding on. Footings are inspected before concrete, with the trench open and clear and rebar a minimum of three inches off the trench bottom.

Montgomery County Building and Codes, Required Inspections, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/required-inspections, fetched 31 Aug 2026

What the counter wants before it will issue
The county asks for a recorded minor plat if the parcel is under five acres and not in a platted subdivision, a gold copy of the road damage bond from the Montgomery County Highway Department on 931-648-5740 for the driveway connection, the septic permit, the Adequate Facilities Tax receipt marked paid in full, and square footage split into finished, unfinished and attached garage. The city asks for a current stamped property survey showing boundaries, easements, setbacks and the exact location and dimensions of the proposed structure, and will not accept an incomplete application for review.

Montgomery County Steps to Pull a Single Family Residential Permit, montgomerytn.gov/storage/departments/building-codes/Steps to a Permit.pdf, and Permit Types, montgomerytn.gov/building-codes/permit-types; City of Clarksville Building Permit Requirements memorandum from Building Official Will Kosnitch dated 20 April 2026, clarksvilletn.gov/1454/Permitting, all fetched 31 Aug 2026

Growth, and who is building
Clarksville grew 13.2 percent between April 2020 and July 2025 to an estimated 188,829 people, and Montgomery County 13.6 percent to 249,935. The county issued 2,723 building permits in 2025 against a stock of 102,547 housing units. There are 30,166 veterans in the county and 22,758 inside the city, roughly one city resident in eight. Only 9.6 percent of Clarksville residents are 65 or over, and owner occupancy runs 55.6 percent in the city against 61.9 percent countywide.

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Clarksville city and Montgomery County, Tennessee, V2025 vintage, census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/clarksvillecitytennessee,montgomerycountytennessee, fetched 31 Aug 2026

An exterior wall rule that outranks the building code
Inside the city, any residential exterior wall within eight feet of a property line must carry water and fire resistant gypsum wall board of at least five-eighths inch Type X on the outside of the wall, as an underlayment beneath the siding. Homes with continuous soffits must run that board to the roof deck with fire blocking, and gable end vents are prohibited. The ordinance states these requirements apply notwithstanding any provision of the adopted building code to the contrary, and that the Board of Zoning Appeals cannot grant a variance from them.

City of Clarksville Zoning Ordinance Section 4.3, Fire Rating for Exterior Walls, Municode product 15452, Supp. 6, library.municode.com/tn/clarksville/codes/zoning_ordinance, fetched 31 Aug 2026

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Below the slab

The expensive surprises are in the ground, not the building

What moves a Tennessee budget is usually below grade: limestone sitting shallow, karst voids and sinkholes, and slope. Those are the same conditions that decide whether a septic field passes its soil and site evaluation, so the grading plan, the footing depth and the drainfield get resolved together rather than one at a time. We price the dirt before we price the building.

What we build in Clarksville

All nine services are available across Montgomery County. What a build costs depends far more on the parcel than on square footage, so we price against your land rather than publishing a rate card.

Barndominium Kits

Engineered barndominium shell packages delivered to your Tennessee lot, stamped for the criteria your county adopted.

Turnkey Builds

Start to finish barndominium construction: we handle permits, slab, shell, and full interior finish.

Custom Plans

Barndominium floor plans drawn to your land, your family, and the residential code your county actually enforces.

Post-Frame Homes

Pole barn construction adapted into full residences, with wide clear spans and fast dry-in.

Steel Construction

Red-iron and light-gauge steel framing: no rot, no termites, engineered to your county’s adopted wind criteria.

Shouses

Shop and house in one building: workspace and living space under a single roof and a single permit.

Metal Homes

Full metal-clad residences: low maintenance envelopes specified to your Tennessee climate zone.

Site Preparation

Clearing, grading, pad, drainage, and utilities: the work that decides whether the build goes smoothly.

Permitting & Engineering

Sealed structural engineering and the permit that depends on it, from submittal through final inspection.

What a build looks like

Three stages every Clarksville project passes through, from a raw parcel to a finished home. Site work first, because that is where the budget is decided.

Aerial view of an undeveloped rural lot with cleared grass, a cedar and hardwood treeline, and a pale gravel access track.
Stage one

The parcel

Zoning, setbacks, flood zone and utility access get checked before anything is drawn.

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Stage two

Pad and permit

Clearing, grading and a compacted pad, while the submittal works through Montgomery County.

A finished barndominium at dusk with warm interior lighting glowing through its large windows.
Stage three

Frame to finish

Shell erected and dried in, then systems, insulation and interior finish through to CO.

Those are the rules for Montgomery County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Clarksville

Montgomery County and the rural land around it. The buildable acreage for a project this size usually sits outside the city limits, which is frequently what changes who issues your permit.

Our Clarksville service area, covering Montgomery County and the surrounding rural acreage. We build across this area from our office in Franklin, TN — this map marks the territory we serve, not a branch location.

Keep reading

The questions that usually come next once you know what Clarksville allows.

Barndominium Cost Guide

Sourced per-square-foot ranges by tier and by size, with a calculator built on the same figures.

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Is It Legal in Tennessee?

Classification, zoning, the HOA gate, and why "nonresidential farm building" does not cover a home.

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How Long Does It Take?

Census build-duration data, and what actually sets the permit clock where you are building.

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Sources for this page

The primary documents behind the Clarksville figures above. We would rather you checked them than took our word for it.

Nearby areas we build in

Others we cover in this part of Tennessee. The permitting authority, the adopted design criteria and the zoning can all differ from one to the next.

Robertson County

Robertson County
Sumner County

Sumner County
Nashville

Davidson County

Building in Clarksville: common questions

7 questions we get asked most often about building in Clarksville. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.

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Do I deal with the City of Clarksville or Montgomery County?
Whichever side of the city limit the parcel sits on, and it is a hard line. Inside the city, the City of Clarksville Building & Codes Department at 100 South Spring Street issues the permit and does the inspections, on 931-645-7426. Outside it, Montgomery County Building and Codes at 350 Pageant Lane Suite 309 does, on 931-648-5718, and the county states plainly that it issues permits for the county jurisdiction only. They are separate departments with separate fee schedules, separate inspection sequences and separate overlay rules. One thing crosses the line in both directions: the county's Adequate Facilities Tax is collected at the county counter and has to be paid before the city will issue a permit either. Zoning is drafted for both by a single body, the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission on 931-645-7448, which is why the two rulebooks look alike and why it is easy to quote the wrong one at the wrong parcel.
What will the frame be engineered to?
An ultimate design wind speed of 115 mph, a ground snow load of 10 psf, seismic design category C and a frost line depth of 12 inches. Those are published figures, not estimates, and Clarksville is unusual in Tennessee for publishing them at all. Tennessee leaves IRC Table R301.2 as a fill-in table for each jurisdiction, and most leave it blank. Here the city writes the completed table into its adopting ordinance at Sec. 4-801 and the county publishes the same table as a standalone document, arriving at identical numbers. The table also gives weathering severe, termite exposure moderate to heavy, a winter design temperature of 14 degrees, no ice barrier underlayment requirement, an air freezing index of 514 and a mean annual temperature of 59 degrees, along with Manual J criteria at 550 feet elevation and 36 degrees north. Separately, a clear-span or post-frame building exceeds the prescriptive tables in IRC Section R301, so those elements are designed to accepted engineering practice under R301.1.3 whatever the wind figure is.
Can I build a barndominium on acreage outside Clarksville?
Yes, and the zoning route is clean. In the AG Agricultural district a single family dwelling is permitted outright in both the county resolution and the city ordinance, alongside customary agricultural uses, and a hobby or work shop is an accessory use. The minimum lot area for a dwelling is 1.5 acres in both. In county AG you need 150 feet of lot width at the front setback line, a 50-foot front yard, 20-foot side yards, a 40-foot rear yard, and no more than 20 percent lot coverage across all combined uses. Height is capped at 35 feet. Neither rulebook sets a minimum heated floor area in AG. Two things to watch. If the parcel is under five acres and not in a platted subdivision, a minor plat has to be recorded at the Register of Deeds before a permit will issue. And the height exemption for agricultural buildings says barns, silos and windmills but not dwellings, so a barn has no height cap and a barndominium has a 35-foot one.
Does Fort Campbell change what I can build?
Outside the city, on some parcels, yes, and it is the single most expensive thing to discover late. The Montgomery County zoning resolution carries a Sabre Heliport Overlay District built from the 2003 Joint Land Use Study for Fort Campbell, mapping Noise Zone II, Noise Zone III, a Military Noise Disclosure Area, an Aircraft Light Sensitive Area and an Approach Departure Surface Area. A dwelling in Noise Zone II has to achieve a 30 decibel noise level reduction and one in Noise Zone III 35 decibels, bringing the interior to 45 decibels or below, and a qualified acoustical professional has to certify the design before the permit is issued. The prescriptive route in the resolution asks for exterior walls at laboratory sound transmission class STC-43, with the interior gypsum on resilient channels where the exterior is siding rather than brick veneer, and laboratory-tested ratings for the actual windows and doors. A single-skin metal shell does not reach that on its own, so it has to be designed in before the frame is priced. Which zone a parcel falls in is a map question for the Regional Planning Commission on 931-645-7448, not something anyone can answer from an address alone.
What does the permit cost?
Inside the city, 37 cents per square foot for a single-family dwelling, and the ordinance is explicit that the rate applies to total heated and unheated square footage. Outside it, 38 cents per square foot of total floor area including bonus rooms, garages and finished basements, with a 25 dollar minimum and a 5 dollar archive and records fee on every application. For a building with a large shop bay that distinction matters more than it does on a conventional house, because the fee follows the whole footprint rather than the living space. On top of that sits the Adequate Facilities Tax, a Montgomery County schools tax adopted in 2004 at 250 dollars per new lot and 250 dollars per unit, escalating 6 percent a year to a combined cap of 1,000 dollars. It is collected at the county counter, it applies whether the permit comes from the city or the county, and it is paid before the permit issues. The county also charges 100 dollars each for residential plumbing and mechanical permits and 50 dollars for a reinspection. Ring 931-648-5718 for the current tax figure.
Do I have to use a licensed contractor?
For a project of 25,000 dollars or more, yes. The City of Clarksville's building official put it in writing in an April 2026 memorandum: under T.C.A. 62-6-103, any project with a total valuation of 25,000 dollars or more must be performed by a contractor licensed by the State of Tennessee, with the classification appropriate to the scope, and the licence copy goes in with the application alongside general liability and workers' compensation certificates. Tennessee counts the complete project cost including labour and materials, and separate phases or contracts cannot be used to stay under the threshold. There is a homeowner route: you may pull a permit for your own primary single-family residence provided you do not apply for more than one permit to construct a single residence, or construct more than one, within a two-year period, and you file a notarised homeowner affidavit taking responsibility for the work. Even then, homeowners cannot obtain plumbing or mechanical and gas permits in the city; those must come from a licensed contractor.
How does the inspection sequence work on a steel or post-frame building?
Montgomery County splits framing into two inspections and the first one is where a barndominium is decided. Framing number one is structural: no exterior veneer, no house wrap, no electrical or plumbing rough-in and no insulation, and the county's published description says the inspector is looking at wall bracing, all load paths, and the spans of every joist, beam, stud and rafter. A clear-span frame cannot satisfy the prescriptive bracing and span tables, so it has to arrive at that visit with an engineered design behind it under IRC R301.1.3. Framing number two comes after the electrical rough-in is approved, with insulation, house wrap and cladding installed, and includes a check that the bath exhaust is ducted outside rather than into the soffit. Footings are inspected before concrete with the trench open and free of rock, steps placed, and rebar at least three inches off the trench bottom. If the house is on septic, the county needs the certificate of completion before it will issue the certificate of occupancy.

What clients say

4.9 out of 5 based on 8 reviews Placeholder content

We had ten acres outside town and no idea what we could legally put on it. They pulled the zoning and the A-1 lot minimum before we spent anything on drawings, which saved us from buying plans for a building that would not have been approved.

Dale W. July 18, 2026

Ordered the shell kit and erected it with my brother-in-law over about six weekends. The drawings were clear, the bolt schedule matched what showed up on the truck, and the county inspector had no issues with the engineering.

Marisol T. June 2, 2026

Turnkey from a cleared lot to certificate of occupancy. What I appreciated most was that when plan review came back with comments, I heard about it the same day along with what they were doing about it.

Ray B. April 27, 2026

Building in Clarksville?

Start with the plan. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it, then confirm what Montgomery County will actually let you put on the parcel and what wind load it has to meet. That conversation costs nothing.

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