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

Barndominium Builders in Maury County, TN

Maury County publishes a filled-in Table R301.2 — 115 mph wind speed, seismic design category B and C, a 10-inch frost line and IECC climate zone 4A — which is rare in Tennessee, where the code leaves that table for each jurisdiction to complete and most never do. The unincorporated county enforces the 2018 International Residential Code it adopted by resolution in December 2019, while the City of Columbia moved to the 2024 edition on 1 January 2026, so a single city limit separates two codes six years apart. The county's zoning ordinance sets no minimum floor area for a dwelling and places no restriction on exterior cladding material for a detached house.

Maury County at a glance

County
Maury County
Population
118,131
ZIP codes
38401, 37174, 38474, 38451, 38461, 38482, 38487, 38476
Site visits
About 25 miles south of Franklin; Spring Hill is nearer 12
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Building conditions in Maury County

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 Maury County , Tennessee: design wind speed 115 mph. BUILD CONDITIONS MAURY COUNTY, TNMiddle TennesseeCRITERIA SET LOCALLY DESIGN WIND SPEED 115 mphFrom Maury County's own climatic and geographic design criteria sheet for Table R301.2(1) of the 2018…ZONING · RR RESIDENTIAL RURAL AND RG…5 acres in RR, 1 acre in RG, 15 acres…No minimum heated or finished floor area for a dwelling appears…NEW DEVELOPMENT TAX$1.50 per square footLevied under the County Powers Relief Act from 1 November 2024…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITMaury County Building & Zoning OfficeWalter Harlan Building, 5 Public Square, Columbia, TN 38401. Permits…
Build conditions for Maury County, drawn from the sourced facts on this page. Every figure above is cited in the quick-facts panel below, with its source and vintage.
Design criteria the county actually publishes
Maury County publishes a completed Table R301.2(1) sheet for the 2018 IRC, dated 1 January 2020: ultimate design wind speed 115 mph, ground snow load 10 PSF, seismic design category B and C, weathering severe, frost line depth 10 inches, termite moderate to heavy, decay moderate to severe, winter design temperature 14, ice shield underlayment not required, air freezing index 296 BF, mean annual temperature 58.7 F. Tennessee's code leaves every one of those cells for the jurisdiction to fill in, and very few do. It means a frame can be specified against a county figure instead of a national map.

Maury County Building & Zoning Office, "CLIMATIC AND GEOGRAPHIC DESIGN CRITERIA", maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2642, fetched 31 August 2026

Who permits and who inspects
Maury County adopted the 2018 International Residential, Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, Fuel Gas and Energy Conservation Codes by Resolution No. 12-19-26, passed 16 December 2019 and effective 1 January 2020, and enforces them itself. The Building & Zoning Office sits in the Walter Harlan Building at 5 Public Square in Columbia. Its stated jurisdiction is the unincorporated county: Columbia, Mount Pleasant and Spring Hill are inspected by their own cities, so the first question on any parcel is whether it is inside a city limit.

Maury County Resolution No. 12-19-26, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2604; department page /473/Building-Zoning-Office and county FAQ page, fetched 31 August 2026

Exterior cladding and minimum house size
The Maury County Zoning Ordinance effective 1 January 2026 contains no minimum floor area for a dwelling and no restriction on exterior wall material for a detached single-family house. The word metal appears in the ordinance only in the salvage and mining use definitions. The one exterior-materials clause in the document — requiring a detached garage or carport to match the building it serves, and façade offsets every 75 feet — sits inside Section 5.9, Multifamily and Townhouse Form and Design Standards, and does not reach a detached house.

Maury County Zoning Ordinance effective 1 January 2026, Secs. 5.8 and 5.9, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7441, fetched 31 August 2026

The development tax counts conditioned space only
Maury County ended its adequate facilities tax on 31 October 2024 and levied a County Powers Relief Act tax on new development at $1.50 per square foot from 1 November 2024, by two-thirds votes on 19 August and 16 September 2024. The governing statute defines floor area as the gross horizontal area of all floors, including basements, cellars or attics, that is heated or air-conditioned space. The building permit fee is valued the other way, at $0.60 per square foot for everything under the roof including porches and decks. An unconditioned shop bay is inside one measurement and outside the other.

Maury County Resolution No. 08-24-38 with Public Chapter 990 of 2024 attached, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/5421; 2026 Building Permit Application & Fees rev. 20 May 2026, /DocumentCenter/View/7194, fetched 31 August 2026

Two editions of the residential code inside one county
The unincorporated county is on the 2018 International Residential Code. The City of Columbia moved to the 2024 edition, along with eight other 2024 ICC codes, effective 1 January 2026. That matters beyond the date, because the 2024 renumbering moves the chapter a barndominium relies on: under the 2018 code R310 is emergency escape and rescue openings and R318 is termite protection, and under the 2024 code those numbers point elsewhere. A plan set annotated for one side of the Columbia city limit cites the wrong sections on the other.

City of Columbia adopted codes list, columbiatn.gov/222/Building-Codes; Maury County Resolution No. 12-19-26, fetched 31 August 2026

Districts and acreage
The 2026 ordinance runs three agricultural and residential districts. AP Agricultural Preservation is a 15-acre minimum with a 300-foot lot width, 10 percent lot coverage and a 100-foot front setback. RR Residential Rural is 5 acres, 100-foot lot width, 200 feet of public road frontage, 30 percent coverage and a 75-foot front setback. RG Residential General is 1 acre, 100 feet of frontage, 30 percent coverage, a 40-foot front setback and a two-storey height cap where AP and RR allow three. The front setbacks are the figures that catch people: 75 feet in RR is nearly double the 40 feet most buyers assume.

Maury County Zoning Ordinance effective 1 January 2026, Tables 3-2, 3-4 and 3-6, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7441, fetched 31 August 2026

Also worth knowing before you build in Maury County

Spring Hill sits in two counties
Spring Hill's city limits cross the Maury–Williamson line, and that is a genuine source of confusion about which rules apply. The city's own residential building permit application settles it: there is a County field in the property location block, and the required-items list begins with the Maury or Williamson county development tax being paid. The city issues the permit and inspects on both sides of the line; the county tax follows the parcel. Spring Hill's Building Codes and Inspection Department states it inspects to the 2018 International Residential Code.

City of Spring Hill Residential Building Permit Application, springhilltn.org/DocumentCenter/View/277, and springhilltn.org/145/Building-Codes-Inspection-Information, fetched 31 August 2026

Inspections and the blower door
Inspections are booked on (931) 375-3002 with at least 24 hours' notice. The county requires the permit posted, a copy of the plans and a job box on site, and a porta-potty in place at the foundation inspection. The sequence runs footing, foundation, dry-in and framing, plumbing, mechanical, energy before sheetrock and again at final, then final. A blower door test result must be turned in before the certificate of occupancy issues — a step Tennessee's own amended energy provisions leave optional. Re-inspection charges start at the ninth inspection: $25, then $50, then $100.

Maury County 2026 Building Permit Application & Fees, revised 20 May 2026, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7194, fetched 31 August 2026

The agricultural exemption is a signed waiver here
Maury County will certify a structure as agriculturally exempt, but the application is notarised and carries six initialled acknowledgements. Among them: the structure has no grandfathering rights simply because it began as an agricultural use; converting it to any other use subjects it to the zoning ordinance and building codes; and the applicant accepts that by claiming the exemption the county cannot issue a building permit or inspect the work. The form also asks what role the resident serves in the agricultural enterprise, which is the question that decides most of these.

Maury County Application for Certificate of Agricultural Exemption, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6950, fetched 31 August 2026

Septic, water and the electrical permit
A septic permit or recertification from TDEC at 1421 Hampshire Pike in Columbia, (931) 380-3371, must be in hand before the county issues a building permit — Maury runs no county septic programme of its own, so TDEC is the desk. Proof of a water tap comes from Maury County Water System or Columbia Power & Water Systems. Driveway connections on county roads go through the Highway Department at (931) 375-6203. The electrical permit is not a county permit at all: Tennessee deletes the IRC electrical chapters, and the county directs applicants to the Department of Commerce & Insurance on (615) 741-7170.

Maury County 2026 Building Permit Application & Fees, items 1 to 4, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7194, fetched 31 August 2026

Sinkholes, slopes and the Duck River
Maury is limestone country and the ordinance treats a sinkhole as a water feature. Buildings must be set back at least 20 feet from a pond, lake, stream, sinkhole or impoundment in AP, RR and RG, and 50 feet from the Duck River or any other waterway listed by TDEC as impaired. Slopes of 15 to 25 percent inside a building envelope require an engineered site plan, and land disturbance is prohibited on slopes over 25 percent, test wells included. Those thresholds interact with the septic rules, since the steep ground that suits a walkout is the ground that struggles on a soil and site evaluation.

Maury County Zoning Ordinance effective 1 January 2026, Sec. 5.6 and Table 5-17, maurycounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7441, fetched 31 August 2026

How fast the county is filling up
The Census Bureau puts Maury County at 118,131 as of 1 July 2025, up 3,675 in a single year. The previous decade ran from 80,956 to 100,974, a 24.72 percent gain — figures the county certified to the state Comptroller in 2024 to qualify for its development tax, so they are attested rather than estimated. Across 613 square miles of land there are only three incorporated municipalities, which leaves most of the county unincorporated and permitted by the county office.

US Census Bureau Vintage 2025 county population estimates and 2024 Census Gazetteer counties file, www2.census.gov; Maury County Resolution No. 08-24-38, fetched 31 August 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 Maury County

All nine services are available across Maury 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 Maury County 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 Maury 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 Maury County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Maury County

Maury 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 Maury County service area, covering Maury 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 Maury County 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 Maury County 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.

Williamson County

Williamson County
Rutherford County

Rutherford County
Nashville

Davidson County

Building in Maury County: common questions

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

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Can a barndominium in Maury County have metal siding?
In the unincorporated county, yes. The Maury County Zoning Ordinance that took effect on 1 January 2026 contains no restriction on exterior wall material for a detached single-family dwelling, and no minimum roof pitch, overhang, porch or masonry requirement either. The word metal appears in the ordinance only in the salvage and mining use definitions. There is one clause about exterior materials in the document — a detached garage or carport must match the building it serves, and street-facing façades need wall offsets every 75 feet — but it sits inside Section 5.9, which applies to multifamily and townhouse development, not to a house on acreage. Inside the Columbia, Spring Hill or Mount Pleasant city limits the city's own ordinance governs and has to be read separately. A private subdivision covenant can also restrict cladding regardless of what the county allows, so the deed is worth reading before the frame is ordered.
Does Maury County require a permit, and who inspects?
Maury County enforces its own codes. Resolution No. 12-19-26, passed on 16 December 2019 and effective 1 January 2020, adopted the 2018 International Residential, Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, Fuel Gas and Energy Conservation Codes for use in the county. Permits and inspections run through the Building & Zoning Office in the Walter Harlan Building at 5 Public Square in Columbia, on (931) 375-3006 for permits and (931) 375-3002 for inspections. That office covers the unincorporated county only — the City of Columbia, Spring Hill and Mount Pleasant permit and inspect inside their own limits. Booking an inspection needs 24 hours' notice, and the county wants the permit posted, a copy of the plans and a job box on site, with a porta-potty in place by the foundation inspection. One item catches self-builders out: the electrical permit is not a county permit. Tennessee deletes the electrical chapters from the residential code, and the county sends applicants to the Department of Commerce & Insurance on (615) 741-7170.
What will the permit and taxes actually cost in Maury County?
Two separate charges, paid by separate cheques, and they are very different sizes. The building permit fee is worked off a valuation of $0.60 per square foot for everything under the roof including porches and decks, and that valuation goes into a fee table that starts at $25 for the first $1,000 of value plus $7 for each additional thousand. For an ordinary house that lands in the low tens of dollars. The New Development Tax is the real number: $1.50 per square foot, levied under the County Powers Relief Act since 1 November 2024, paid on completion before the certificate of occupancy issues. The detail that matters for this building type is what each one measures. The permit valuation covers everything under the roof. The development tax is charged on heated or air-conditioned floor area only — the statute defines it as gross horizontal area of all floors, basements, cellars or attics included, that is heated or air-conditioned space. An unconditioned shop or equipment bay under the same roof falls inside the permit valuation and outside the tax. Beginning work before the permit issues doubles the fee.
My land is in Spring Hill. Is that Maury County or Williamson County?
It can be either, and that is a real source of confusion rather than a trick question. Spring Hill's city limits straddle the Maury–Williamson county line. The city's own residential building permit application resolves it plainly: there is a County field in the property location block, and the first required item on the list is the Maury or Williamson county development tax being paid. So the City of Spring Hill issues the permit and inspects the work on both sides of the line — its Building Codes and Inspection Department at 8060 Station Hill Drive, (931) 451-0940, states it inspects to the 2018 International Residential Code — while the county tax and the county's other requirements follow whichever county the parcel physically sits in. The practical step is to confirm the county on the parcel record before budgeting, because the two counties levy at different rates and under different instruments.
How much land do I need, and can I put the shop up first?
The ordinance runs three agricultural and residential districts. RG Residential General has a one-acre minimum with 100 feet of public road frontage, a 40-foot front setback and a two-storey cap. RR Residential Rural is five acres with 200 feet of frontage and a 75-foot front setback, which is the figure that surprises people. AP Agricultural Preservation is fifteen acres with a 100-foot front setback and only 10 percent lot coverage. At five acres or more, RR and RG both allow two dwellings on one lot, either in a single building separated by a fire wall or in two buildings at least 40 feet apart. On the shop question, the ordinance requires an accessory structure to be customarily accessory, clearly incidental and subordinate in area, intent and purpose to the principal structure, and to cover no more than 20 percent of the lot. That test is what stops a workshop going up alone and being lived in. The way round it is the one this building type already takes: put the dwelling and the shop under one roof so the whole thing is the principal structure, and the accessory rules never engage.
What design figures should the engineer be using here?
Maury County is unusual in publishing them. Its climatic and geographic design criteria sheet for Table R301.2(1), dated 1 January 2020, gives an ultimate design wind speed of 115 mph, a ground snow load of 10 PSF, seismic design category B and C, severe weathering, a frost line depth of 10 inches, a moderate to heavy termite hazard, a winter design temperature of 14, an air freezing index of 296 BF and a mean annual temperature of 58.7 F, with no ice shield underlayment required. The same sheet puts the county in IECC climate zone 4A and at EPA Radon Zone 1, high potential — worth a passive sub-slab pipe while the floor is open. Two figures need care. The seismic entry lists two categories, not one, because the county straddles the boundary, so the category is fixed per parcel with the building official. And a clear-span steel or post-frame building exceeds the prescriptive tables anyway, which under Section R301.1.3 of the 2018 code makes it an engineered building designed in accordance with accepted engineering practice. A Tennessee-licensed engineer takes the county's published figures and designs to them.

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 Maury County?

Start with the plan. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it, then confirm what Maury 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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