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

Barndominium Builders in Sumner County, TN

Sumner County runs its own Building and Codes Department in Gallatin, and it adopted the 2021 International Residential Code by county resolution while the Tennessee statewide residential code is still the 2018 edition. It also publishes a filled-in Table R301.2(1) for its own area, so the design wind speed, seismic category and frost depth a barndominium frame gets engineered against are on the record rather than inferred. The land questions here are water and lake: parts of the county sit behind a water moratorium that the permit application now tests for, and anything in the Old Hickory Lake floodplain has to sit three feet above the base flood elevation.

Sumner County at a glance

County
Sumner County
Population
196,281
ZIP codes
37066, 37075, 37148, 37186, 37188, 37022, 37031, 37048
Site visits
About 50 miles north of our Franklin office, up I-65 past Nashville and out SR-386 to Gallatin
Start your project

Building conditions in Sumner 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 Sumner County , Tennessee: design wind speed 115 mph ultimate design wind speed. BUILD CONDITIONS SUMNER COUNTY, TNMiddle TennesseeCRITERIA SET LOCALLY DESIGN WIND SPEED 115 mph ultimate design wind speedPublished by Sumner County in its own filled-in Table R301.2(1), with topographic effects, special…ZONING · RR (RURAL RESIDENTIAL), RP (RURAL…40,000 sq ft in RR, 100,000 sq ft in…A single-family detached dwelling is permitted by right in AR, RP, RR…ADEQUATE FACILITIES TAX$0.70 per square foot of new…Levied under Chapter 57, Private Acts of 1999 and payable at the time…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITSumner County Building & Codes…355 N. Belvedere Drive, Room 208, Gallatin, (615) 452-1467
Build conditions for Sumner 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.
Who permits and inspects
The Sumner County Building & Codes Department at 355 N. Belvedere Drive in Gallatin permits and inspects unincorporated Sumner County. The State Fire Marshal's Office lists the county as an exempt jurisdiction, meaning it enforces its own residential code rather than the state programme. Gallatin, Hendersonville, Portland, White House, Millersville, Westmoreland and Goodlettsville each hold their own exemption and permit land inside their limits. The town of Mitchellville is the single exception in the whole county: it sits in the State Residential Building Program, so the residential permit there comes from the state.

Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office, Residential Jurisdictions & Inspectors, tn.gov, accurate as of 21 Aug 2026, fetched 31 Aug 2026, and Sumner County Building & Codes Department, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Codes enforced
The 2021 IBC, IRC, IPC, IMC, IFGC, IEBC, IECC and ISPSC, adopted by Resolution 2303-04 on 20 March 2023 and in force since 19 May 2023, together with ICC 400-2022 for log structures and the ICC/MBI 1200 and 1205 off-site construction standards. Tennessee's statewide residential code is still the 2018 IRC, so unincorporated Sumner County is running a newer residential edition than the state does.

Sumner County Board of County Commissioners Resolution 2303-04, 20 March 2023, as amended by Resolution 2501-04, 27 January 2025, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Design criteria
Sumner County publishes a completed Table R301.2(1) for its own area: 115 mph ultimate design wind speed, three-second gust, with no topographic effects, no special wind region and no wind-borne debris zone; seismic design category B; ground snow load 10 psf; frost line depth 12 inches; weathering severe; termite exposure moderate to heavy; winter design temperature 20F; ice barrier underlayment required; air freezing index 500; mean annual temperature 58F. Most Tennessee jurisdictions leave that table blank.

Sumner County Building & Codes Department, Climatic & Geographical Data Specific to Sumner County, Table R301.2(1), sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Zoning district and minimum lot
A single-family detached dwelling is permitted by right in AR, RP, RR and SR. Rural Residential takes 40,000 sq ft with 100 ft of lot width and setbacks of 40 ft front, 30 ft rear and 20 ft side. Rural Preservation, added to the resolution in the December 2025 revision, takes 100,000 sq ft with a 50 ft front setback. Agricultural Reserve is a 15-acre district applied at the owner's request on land of at least 15 acres, with a 75 ft front setback and 200 ft of lot width. All three cap height at 35 ft and residential lot coverage at 20%. Fronting an arterial adds 25 ft to the front setback, a collector 10 ft.

Sumner County Zoning Resolution effective 8 December 2025, Section 402, Table 1 Residential Districts Bulk Regulations, and Appendix B Land Use Activity Table, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Adequate Facilities Tax
70 cents per square foot on new residential development, payable when the building permit is issued, on top of the permit fee. Unfinished basement and bonus room area counts toward the square footage; garage and open porches are excluded. On a 2,400 sq ft dwelling that is $1,680. Barns and outbuildings used for agricultural purposes are exempt, as are additions to an existing single-family dwelling.

Sumner County Law Director memorandum of 13 February 2024 on Adequate Facilities Tax classifications, citing Sections 3, 6 and 7 of Chapter 57, Private Acts of 1999, and the county's Adequate Facilities Tax plan review application form, sumnercountytn.gov, both fetched 31 Aug 2026

Metal cladding on a house
Sumner County's zoning resolution does list approved exterior materials that leave metal out for walls, but that list sits in Chapter 15, the Historic Overlay District design review guidelines, and the chapter scopes itself to non-residential and multi-family properties in or near a mapped Historic Overlay District. It states in terms that it does not apply to agricultural buildings in those areas or to any other areas within unincorporated Sumner County. A detached single-family dwelling on ordinary rural land is outside it, and there is no restriction on metal wall cladding for that house.

Sumner County Zoning Resolution effective 8 December 2025, Section 1501 Purpose & Intent and Section 1507.B.8 Materials, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Also worth knowing before you build in Sumner County

Building in the floodplain
In AE zones with a published base flood elevation, the lowest floor including basement has to sit at least three feet above that elevation. Where no base flood elevation is established, the floodplain administrator requires three feet above the highest adjacent grade. Three feet of freeboard is well above the national minimum, and on Old Hickory Lake frontage it usually decides whether a slab-on-grade design works at all.

Sumner County Zoning Resolution effective 8 December 2025, Chapter 10, Section 1005.B.1 Residential Structures, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Water before permit
Since 1 February 2023 every building permit application has to include either a letter from the water utility provider confirming it will serve the address, or a water well driller's report. The county introduced the requirement because water moratoriums were imposed in parts of the county. It is worth settling water before land, because a parcel the utility will not serve is a well parcel whether or not that was the plan.

Sumner County Building & Codes Department, Building Setbacks handout, Water Well Drillers Report notice effective 2/01/23, and the 2025 building permit application checklist, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

A pole barn is not a house
Sumner County defines pole barn construction by name and treats it separately. A pole barn or detached garage over 200 square feet takes a zoning permit, $100 for 200 to 600 square feet, and the county states that structures issued a zoning permit are not inspected, with a single site visit before construction to confirm setbacks. A dwelling is a different route entirely: a building permit, seven inspections and the adequate facilities tax. The county also bars metal shipping containers from residential and agricultural districts.

Sumner County Building & Codes Department, Required Inspections, zoning permit and pole barn definitions, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Living in the shop
Accessory structures are prohibited from being permitted as dwelling units unless an Accessory Dwelling Unit permit is obtained from Sumner County Planning and Engineering. Any combination of a kitchen sink or cooking appliance, a room with closet space, indoor washer and dryer hookups, or a full bathroom triggers that permit. Where there is a dispute over whether a building is a dwelling, the Planning and Engineering Director decides, with appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals. On a lot of five acres or less the accessory building cannot go up before the house at all without a Board of Zoning Appeals special exception, and that exception bars living quarters.

Sumner County Building & Codes Department, Accessory Structures handout, and Sumner County Zoning Resolution effective 8 December 2025, Chapter 11 accessory building regulations, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Inspections on a house here
Seven call-in inspections: footing with underground plumbing, foundation, foundation sill plate and waterproofing, rough-in plumbing and mechanical, framing, final plumbing and mechanical, and final structural. The first three have to be scheduled before any concrete is placed. A separate foundation wall inspection is required wherever any part of a masonry or cast-in-place wall will end up 64 inches below finish grade, which catches most walkout and basement designs on Sumner's rolling ground.

Sumner County Building & Codes Department, Sumner County Required Inspections, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Septic and the certificate of occupancy
Septic in Sumner County is state-run. The permit application requires a valid TDEC septic permit or an affidavit of disclosure, or a paid sewer tap receipt, and the county will not issue a certificate of occupancy until it has a certificate of completion from the environmental office. TDEC's number on the county's own form is (615) 687-7000. The county publishes a list of groundwater-protection approved soil consultants alongside its surveyor list.

Sumner County Building & Codes Department, 2025 Building Permit Application checklist and Environmental quicklinks, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

What the permit costs
The residential building permit fee is the floor area multiplied by the per-square-foot construction cost in the ICC Building Valuation Data table for Group R-3, multiplied by 0.006, with a $150 minimum. The county's adopted table puts Group R-3 Type VB at $167.37 per square foot and Type IIB at $197.13, so the fee lands near a dollar a square foot for wood frame and about $1.18 for unprotected steel. Starting work without the permit carries an administrative fee of up to 100% of the permit fee, capped at $500.

Sumner County Building & Codes Department fee schedule and ICC Building Valuation Data table as adopted, plus Resolution 2303-04 amendment to IBC Section 109.4, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Ice barriers are required here
Most of Middle Tennessee leaves the ice barrier row of Table R301.2 blank. Sumner County filled it in as yes and wrote the reasoning into its code adoption: there is empirical evidence of ice forming along eaves causing water damage in the county, so ice barriers are required under Section R905.1.2. The county also states that its inspectors do not inspect shingles, underlayment, ice barrier or drip edge, so that detail is on the builder to get right.

Sumner County Board of County Commissioners Resolution 2303-04, IRC amendment 16, addendum to Section 905.1.2 Ice Barriers, sumnercountytn.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Old Hickory Lake
The lake shapes a large part of the county's usable land. It covers about 22,500 acres with roughly 440 miles of shoreline at a pool elevation of 445 feet above mean sea level, impounded on the Cumberland River at river mile 216.2 in Sumner and Davidson Counties. Hendersonville sits along the northern shore. Of the county's 543 square miles, 14 are water.

US Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, Old Hickory Lake Master Plan dated 13 January 2016, and US Census Bureau county area figures, 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 Sumner County

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

Start your project

Where we build around Sumner County

Sumner 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 Sumner County service area, covering Sumner 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 Sumner County allows.

Barndominium Cost Guide

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

Read it

Is It Legal in Tennessee?

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

Read it

How Long Does It Take?

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

Read it

Sources for this page

The primary documents behind the Sumner 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.

Nashville

Davidson County
Wilson County

Wilson County
Robertson County

Robertson County

Building in Sumner County: common questions

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

Start your project
Do I need a building permit for a barndominium in Sumner County?
Yes, and from the county rather than the state. Tennessee lets a county vote itself out of the residential code entirely, and thirty-seven counties have done exactly that. Sumner is not one of them. The State Fire Marshal's Office lists Sumner County as an exempt jurisdiction, which means the county certified that it adopts and enforces its own codes, so the permit and the inspector both come from the Building & Codes Department at 355 N. Belvedere Drive in Gallatin. If your land is inside Gallatin, Hendersonville, Portland, White House, Millersville, Westmoreland or Goodlettsville, that city holds its own exemption and permits your build instead. The single exception in the county is Mitchellville up on the Kentucky line, which participates in the State Residential Building Program, so a residential permit there comes from the state.
Which code edition applies, and does it differ from the rest of Tennessee?
It does, and in an unusual direction. Tennessee's statewide residential code is the 2018 IRC. Sumner County adopted the 2021 IRC for its own area by Resolution 2303-04 in March 2023, in force since that May, along with the 2021 IBC, IPC, IMC, IFGC, IEBC, IECC and swimming pool code. A locally enforcing jurisdiction may adopt its own codes, and this one chose a newer edition than the state's. Two county amendments matter on a building like this. Electrical is struck from the residential code entirely and sits with the State Fire Marshal's Office, so that is a separate permit. And the 2021 residential energy tables are replaced with the 2009 IRC insulation and U-factor tables, with duct leakage testing left optional, which is the same 2009-era envelope regime the state runs.
What wind speed and seismic category does a Sumner County frame get engineered to?
The county publishes them, which is genuinely uncommon in Tennessee. Its Climatic and Geographical Data sheet fills in Table R301.2(1) for Sumner: 115 mph ultimate design wind speed as a three-second gust, no topographic effects, no special wind region, no wind-borne debris zone, seismic design category B, ground snow load 10 psf, frost line depth 12 inches, severe weathering, moderate to heavy termite exposure, and ice barrier underlayment required. That matters more for a clear-span building than for a stick-built house. A wide clear span exceeds the prescriptive tables in the code, which makes it an engineered building under IRC Section R301.1.3, and an engineered building needs real numbers at the base connections and the anchor bolts rather than assumptions off a national map.
How much land do I need, and is there a minimum house size?
There is no minimum heated floor area. Sumner County's zoning resolution sets none for a dwelling in any residential district, which is not true of every Tennessee county. Lot size is the real constraint. A single-family detached dwelling is permitted by right in four districts. Rural Residential takes 40,000 square feet, a bit under an acre, with a 40 foot front setback. Rural Preservation, which came in with the December 2025 revision, takes 100,000 square feet and a 50 foot front setback. Agricultural Reserve is a 15-acre district, and it is applied at the owner's request on land of at least 15 acres rather than being the default rural zoning. All of them cap height at 35 feet and residential lot coverage at 20 percent. One caveat in the resolution itself: the stated minimum lot sizes depend on the lot meeting the state's wastewater requirements, so a slow soil result can push the real minimum above the zoning number.
Will Sumner County make me put siding over the metal?
No, not on a house on ordinary rural land. The zoning resolution does carry a list of approved exterior materials that names brick, wood, stone and faux stone as primary and Hardie board and stucco as supporting, with metal approved for roofs only. That list lives in Chapter 15, the Historic Overlay District design review guidelines. The chapter scopes itself in its own purpose section to non-residential properties and multi-family residential properties in or near a mapped Historic Overlay District, and says plainly that it does not apply to agricultural buildings in those areas or to any other areas within unincorporated Sumner County. A detached single-family dwelling falls outside it on both counts. The skirting and appearance rules elsewhere in the resolution are in the mobile home standards and do not reach a site-built dwelling either. If your parcel does sit in a mapped historic overlay, ring Planning and Engineering on (615) 451-6097 before you specify the cladding.
Can I put the shop up first and live in it while the house goes up?
No. The county has written the answer down twice. Accessory structures are prohibited from being permitted as dwelling units unless an Accessory Dwelling Unit permit is obtained from Planning and Engineering, and the trigger list is broad: a sink or cooking appliance, a room with closet space, indoor washer and dryer hookups, or a full bathroom. If there is any argument about whether a building is a dwelling, the Planning and Engineering Director decides. Separately, on a lot of five acres or less an accessory structure cannot be built before the principal structure at all without a Board of Zoning Appeals special exception, and that exception expressly bars living quarters. There is a legitimate version of the sequence: a pole barn or detached garage over 200 square feet takes a zoning permit, $100 for 200 to 600 square feet, with a single site visit for setbacks and no inspections. It is a shop until it has a kitchen and a bathroom in it, and then it is a dwelling unit and a different permit.
What else does the county want before it will issue the permit?
More than most. The application has to arrive with the recorded deed showing transfer, and a deed of trust will not do. Septic approval from TDEC, or a paid sewer tap receipt, and the county will not release the certificate of occupancy until the environmental office issues its certificate of completion. A water tap receipt or a water well driller's report, a requirement the county added in February 2023 because water moratoriums were imposed in parts of the county. A site plan showing lot size, building size, distance to property lines and other structures. A driveway permit from the County Highway Department, an address assignment from Emergency Services, a land disturbance permit and zoning compliance packet, construction plans, the contractor's licence with a certificate of liability made out to Sumner County and proof of workers' compensation, and the adequate facilities tax at 70 cents a square foot. That last one is worth budgeting early: on a 2,400 square foot dwelling it is $1,680 due the day the permit is issued.
Does the lake affect what I can build?
On the wrong parcel, decisively. Sumner County requires the lowest floor, basement included, to sit at least three feet above the base flood elevation in AE zones, and three feet above the highest adjacent grade where no base flood elevation has been established. Three feet is well above the national minimum and above the one foot many jurisdictions use, and it is enough to rule out a slab-on-grade barndominium on a good deal of low ground near Old Hickory Lake and the creeks feeding it. Flood zone questions go to the County Engineer and Floodplain Administrator at Planning and Engineering, (615) 451-6097, and it is worth asking before you buy rather than after. On the drier ground the county's own criteria sheet is more forgiving than people expect: a 12 inch frost line and a 10 psf ground snow load are modest numbers to design a foundation and a roof to.

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 Sumner County?

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

Start your project