Barndominium Builders in Morristown, TN

Barndominium builders in Morristown are working in one of the smallest counties in Tennessee. Hamblen County is the third-smallest in the state by land area, with 161 square miles of land and 15 square miles of water, and Morristown is both its county seat and its only incorporated city. The city counted 30,431 people in 2020 and reaches a little into Jefferson County on its west and south ends. Because there is so little land to go around, the rural tracts left in Hamblen County and just over the line in Jefferson, Grainger and Cocke counties are where most people look to build a home with a shop.

Two offices, depending on the address

The first question on any Morristown project is whether the lot is inside the city. The City of Morristown's Building Inspections department handles construction and code enforcement in the city, with inspectors for building, plumbing and mechanical, and electrical work, and the city publishes an "Am I in City Limits?" lookup on its site. Outside the city, the Hamblen County Planning and Zoning office in the courthouse administrative building enforces the county's subdivision, zoning, storm water, building code and property maintenance regulations. Its Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals meet the first Monday of each month and hear subdivision plats, site plans, drainage plans, rezoning requests and variances. If you are carving a homesite out of a family farm, that board is where a plat gets reviewed.

Storm water is a county topic here

Hamblen County lists storm water as one of the regulation sets its planning office enforces, and it even runs a separate storm water hotline. A barndominium puts a large roof on the ground and usually a big gravel or concrete apron in front of the shop doors. We plan gutters, downspout outlets and swales so that water leaves the pad without washing out the drive or a neighbor's field.

The lake and the ridges

Morristown sits in the Ridge and Valley region of the Appalachians, in the Tennessee Valley between the Great Smoky Mountains to the south and Clinch Mountain to the north, at about 1,302 feet. Cherokee Lake lies north of the city. TVA closed Cherokee Dam on the Holston River in December 1941, and the reservoir now holds nearly 400 miles of shoreline. It is Hamblen County's main water source. Lake-country lots often have long side slopes, so a walkout or split-level barndo layout can fit the ground better than a single big slab.

Septic and soils on rural tracts

Outside the city sewer, a house needs a septic permit from the state. The application starts a site evaluation by a TDEC environmental scientist, who may ask for a site plan or a soils map from a private soil consultant. Mark the property lines, stake the pad corners and mow the area before the visit, and do not disturb the soil. Soils in Tennessee's Ridge and Valley include the Talbott series, which is clayey limestone residuum with bedrock only 20 to 40 inches down and moderately slow permeability, and it can show karst features. Shallow rock and slow-draining clay are what make one corner of a tract perc and another fail, which is why we wait for the evaluation before fixing the house location.

Weather we build for

Morristown's 1991-2020 climate table shows 48.14 inches of precipitation and 8.8 inches of snow in an average year, a mean July high of 86.4 degrees F and a mean January high of 46.2 degrees F. The record low is minus 19 degrees F. That mix of humid summers and real cold snaps is hard on an uninsulated metal shell. Closed-cell spray foam or a properly detailed vapor barrier keeps condensation off the inside of the steel, and HVAC is sized for the actual conditioned area, not the whole building.

A working town

Morristown grew up where two stagecoach routes crossed, got its railroad in 1858 and was incorporated in 1855. It is now a manufacturing hub with more than 100 manufacturers. I-81 serves the city and joins I-40 near Dandridge; US 25E runs north and south and US 11E runs east and west. Here the appeal of a barndominium is practical: a heated shop for a trade or equipment, attached to a house, on land they already own.

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