How it works
Five stages, and an honest account of each.
All five stages are free for owners. The first four need no account; the fifth needs a free one, so the project can be saved. For every stage, this page says what it does — and what it deliberately does not.
Find land
Search for a lot to build on, or skip this entirely. The point of this stage is a shortlist and a list of questions — not a decision.
What it does
- Searches land listings by city, address or ZIP, with radius, price and acreage filters.
- Shows each result with its listed price, acreage, rough price per acre, location and data source — on a map where one is configured, and as a list everywhere.
- Opens a detail page for each lot that separates what the listing states from what nobody has verified, with a due-diligence checklist.
- Lets you save lots in your browser, enter land you already own, or design with no land at all.
What it does not do
- Promise that a listing is complete, current or still available.
- Show legal parcel boundaries. A pin is one approximate point, not a survey.
- Check zoning, setbacks, covenants, flood status, soil, septic suitability, utilities or access.
- Tell you a lot is buildable. Nothing in PlotBarn can.
Notices shown at this stage
- Listings may be incomplete or outdated. Confirm availability and details with a licensed real estate professional.
- Pin locations do not represent surveyed property boundaries.
- Zoning, setbacks, HOA/covenants, floodplain, utilities, soil, septic and site access require independent confirmation.
Design your barndo
Lay out a one-story barndominium on a dimensioned 2D plan. The designer is intentionally constrained so that everything it draws can also be measured and priced.
What it does
- Starts you from one of four presets: Modern Farmhouse, Classic Gable, Workshop + Home and Courtyard-Inspired Porch.
- Sets the footprint in two-foot steps, bedrooms and bathrooms, office, pantry and laundry, an attached garage or shop, porches, wall height, roof style and pitch, structure, cladding, insulation and finish tier.
- Draws real room rectangles with doors, windows and dimension strings. Drag a partition and rooms resize within snapped limits and minimum sizes.
- Keeps conditioned area, garage, covered porch and total under-roof area separate, so nothing is counted twice.
- Saves your draft in your browser as you work, with undo and redo.
What it does not do
- Model two-story, L-shaped or otherwise irregular buildings. This version handles one-story rectangles with an attached garage and porch modules.
- Check structural feasibility — spans, loads, bracing or connections.
- Check your layout against zoning, setbacks or any building code. Room-size limits in the designer are usability rules, not code minimums.
- Price foundations other than slab-on-grade. Other types need an engineer and are not estimated.
See the live estimate
Every change to the design recalculates the cost immediately. The arithmetic is deterministic — quantities from your geometry multiplied by rates from a versioned catalog — so the same design always gives the same numbers.
What it does
- Itemizes site work and utilities, foundation and shell, electrical, plumbing and HVAC, interior finishes, soft costs and contingency.
- Gives a low, base and high figure for each line, and marks which lines are calculated from quantities and which are allowances.
- Adds land separately: land + building + site and soft costs + contingency = estimated all-in total.
- Lists a preliminary material takeoff — concrete, wall and roof areas, cladding, insulation, drywall, paint, flooring and fixture counts.
- Lets you save alternative scenarios and compare them line by line.
What it does not do
- Stand in for a contractor quote, bid or guaranteed price.
- Use live local supplier or labor pricing. Catalog rates are illustrative placeholders adjusted by a regional factor.
- Know your site. Rock, slope, long utility runs, septic type and access can move the total substantially.
- Produce quantities you should order from without verification.
Notice shown at this stage
- Planning estimate, not a contractor quote or binding bid. Site conditions, specifications and local market prices may materially change cost.
Get the plan set
Open the Plans page and the conceptual plan set is drawn for your design as it is at that moment. It is made in your browser by the same code that measures the design, so the sheets and the estimate cannot disagree.
What it does
- Draws a 15-sheet conceptual plan set as a vector PDF from your design’s geometry: cover, site concept, floor plan, roof plan, elevations, wall section, foundation, roof framing, electrical, plumbing and HVAC concepts, takeoff, budget and trade scopes.
- Adds a material takeoff as a CSV and a cost report from the same model.
- Stamps each set with its issue date and a short design reference code, so you can tell which version of the design a printout belongs to.
- Redraws the set whenever you open the page, always for the current design — for guests and account holders alike.
What it does not do
- Produce engineered, stamped or permit-ready drawings.
- Size structural members, footings, circuits, pipes or ducts. Those sheets are labeled concepts.
- Submit anything to a permitting authority.
- Keep earlier sets. PlotBarn does not store plan sets, so download the PDF if you want to keep a particular version.
Notice shown at this stage
- Conceptual only — not engineered, permit-ready or approved for construction. Licensed professionals and your local authority must review and complete required design.
Run the build workspace
Create a free account and the project gets a private workspace for the build itself: who you are talking to, what they bid, what you have spent and what comes next. This is the only stage that needs an account, because the project has to be saved somewhere.
What it does
- Imports your browser draft into a saved project, with your confirmation.
- Organizes the work trade by trade and phase by phase, each trade with a scope-of-work template you can hand to a bidder.
- Stores your own vendors, contacts, bids and status, from researching through contracted to completed.
- Tracks budget against your original estimate: baseline, bid, contracted and actual, with variance.
- Lays out milestones from due diligence to handover, with editable dates, a task board, checklists, file uploads and the financing planner.
What it does not do
- Offer a marketplace of vetted contractors. PlotBarn does not vet or recommend vendors, and the bundled vendors and lenders are fictional, labeled demo entries.
- Contact vendors or lenders, or send requests for bids, on your behalf.
- Verify anyone’s licence, insurance or references.
- Predict how long permits, inspections or utility hookups will take.
Notice shown at this stage
- Fictional demo vendor — not available for hire.
Alongside the five stages
Two more things you can open at any point.
- No account
Financing planner
A calculator that turns your planning estimate into a rough construction-loan picture: down payment, loan amount and an illustrative monthly payment from a rate you type in. It lists fictional demo lenders alongside. No account needed.
An illustration only — not a loan offer, pre-approval, rate quote or financial advice. PlotBarn is not a lender or broker.
- No account
Sample workspace tour
A read-only build workspace filled in for the sample design, so you can see vendors, budget, schedule and tasks before creating an account.
Every vendor and figure in the tour is example data.
Beyond PlotBarn
What you’ll still need professionals for.
A conceptual plan set makes these conversations faster and more specific. It does not replace any of them, and requirements vary by jurisdiction.
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Land surveyor
Establishes the legal boundaries, easements and topography that a map pin cannot. Setbacks are measured from surveyed lines.
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Geotechnical engineer
Tests the soil and recommends how the foundation should respond to it. Septic suitability is a separate evaluation — ask your local health authority who performs it.
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Structural engineer
Designs framing, foundation and connections for the loads at your site, and takes responsibility for them. PlotBarn’s structural sheets are concepts for this person to replace.
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Civil or site engineer
Grading, drainage, driveway access, erosion control and, where needed, septic and utility layout.
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Licensed trades
Electrical, plumbing and HVAC contractors design and install their systems to code. The concept sheets show intent — fixture locations and zones — not sizing.
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Your permitting authority
The local building department decides what drawings, engineering and inspections are required, and issues permits and occupancy approval.
For the land purchase itself, work with a licensed real estate professional, and with a lender or attorney as your situation calls for. PlotBarn is none of these. See the full disclaimer and what is free for owners.
Start with the land, or start with the plan.
Search for a lot or go straight to the designer. Land search, the designer, the estimate and the plan set all work without an account, and your draft is saved in your browser.
Free for owners, with no card. A free account is only needed to save projects and use the build workspace.