Barndominium Builders in Roanoke & Salem, VA

Also worth knowing before you build in Roanoke & Salem

Steep slopes: the county publishes guidance, the city does not

Roanoke County's Office of Building Safety puts out a one-page notice, Development on or Near Steep Slopes, stating that the 2021 Uniform Statewide Building Code regulates construction on slopes in excess of a 1 to 3 ratio, or 33.3 percent, for both commercial and residential work, citing section 1808 of the Virginia Construction Code and R403.1.7 of the Virginia Residential Code. As the county states them, the setbacks are one-half the slope height up to a maximum of 15 feet at the bottom of a slope, and one-third the slope height up to 40 feet at the top, measured from the face of the structure at the bottom and the face of the footing at the top - and inside those setbacks an engineered site study and foundation plan must be submitted before a permit issues. Those figures are Roanoke County's published statement about the code it enforces, not a state-published number. Neither the City of Roanoke nor Salem publishes anything equivalent. The city's building document library runs to more than seventy items and contains no slope guidance; its zoning ordinance has seven overlay districts and none of them is a steep-slope or hillside overlay; and the only slope provision in its development standards is a landscaping rule requiring vegetative cover on any created slope of 2 to 1 or steeper. On a hillside lot inside the city, the code provisions still apply - there is simply no local explainer of them.

Roanoke County Development Services, Office of Building Safety, Development on or Near Steep Slopes; City of Roanoke Code of Ordinances ch. 36.2 sections 36.2-330 to 36.2-336 and Article 6, Development Standards; City of Roanoke Planning, Building & Development Documents library

Karst is a county number, and neither city has one

The only county-level karst measurement for Virginia - a Virginia Tech study drawing on Virginia Speleological Survey data - puts Roanoke County at 20 percent karst, in a band with Bland, Botetourt and Wise. That table lists counties only; there is no row for Roanoke city and no row for Salem, so no percentage exists for either. The Department of Conservation and Recreation is equally blunt about its own Virginia Karst Geology Map, publishing alongside it that the map is neither meant to provide information for land use decisions at the county or municipal locality scale, nor to portray hazards associated with karst. What that means in practice is that karst is a parcel question in this valley, answered by a geotechnical investigation on the site rather than by a map or a jurisdiction name. VDOT has recorded roughly 500 road-damaging sinkholes across Virginia in thirty years.

Belo, Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning For Karst Terrains in Virginia, Virginia Tech, May 2003, Table 3.1 (Virginia Speleological Survey 2003); Virginia DCR Natural Heritage Karst Program, Virginia Karst Geology Map caveat

Salem wants a shrink-swell soil test with the application

This is a genuinely unusual submittal requirement and it is worth budgeting for before drawings start. Salem's published requirements for a residential building permit for new construction are one digital PDF copy of plans emailed to Community Development or supplied on disc, a completed application, shrink-swell soil test results, a pre-construction certificate of elevation if the lot is in the floodplain, a certified plat showing all easements and existing and proposed structures, and an erosion and sediment control permit. Roanoke city takes the opposite approach and publishes a presumptive number instead: 1,500 psf soil bearing capacity, with the soil classes given as SC, ML, CL and inorganic CL 60 and the whole line annotated for shrink-swell. Its plan review checklist repeats it in plain words. Virginia Energy, for its part, names the Shenandoah Valley among the areas most likely to have expansive or frost-heave-susceptible soils and adds that standard homeowner's insurance does not cover damage from expansive or compressive soils or frost heave - which is an argument for testing a specific parcel rather than trusting either a map or a presumptive figure.

City of Salem, Permits - requirements for permit types, Residential Building Permit New Construction; City of Roanoke Local Climatic Design Criteria (2021) and Building Plans Checklist for New Homes and Additions (2021 VRC); Virginia Energy, Division of Geology and Mineral Resources, Expansive Soils

Radon: required in Roanoke city, not required in Salem

Virginia's residential code lets a locality require radon-resistant construction under R331 only where radon potential is high, and the federal county table that answer turns on contains no rows for independent cities at all - it puts Roanoke County in Zone 1 and simply has no line for either city. Roanoke city nonetheless enforces it, and does so through the permit process rather than by a codified ordinance: its plan review checklist for new homes carries the line Radon: slab, basement, or unvented crawlspace against R331, and its residential inspection code list carries three dedicated radon inspections - under-slab radon, rough-in radon and final radon. Salem does not require it, and neither does Roanoke County. That matters most to a slab-on-grade building, because the code's exception is written for crawl spaces ventilated to the exterior, which a slab shop-house is not. In Roanoke city the passive sub-slab depressurisation system goes in under the pour; in Salem the same building gets nothing by code, and the rough-in becomes a choice.

City of Roanoke Building Plans Checklist for New Homes and Additions (2021 VRC), updated May 2026; City of Roanoke Residential IVR Codes (inspection types 141, 211, 412); City of Salem Inspection Types; EPA radon zone county table for Virginia; 2021 Virginia Residential Code section R331

Two feet of freeboard in Roanoke city, one foot in Salem

Both cities sit on the Roanoke River system and both regulate their floodplains through their zoning ordinances, and the numbers are not the same. Roanoke city's Floodplain Overlay District, section 36.2-333, requires new residential construction in Zones A1-30, AE, AH and A with detailed base flood elevations to place the lowest floor including basement at the base flood elevation plus 24 inches of freeboard, with all electrical, heating, ventilation, plumbing and air conditioning equipment and ductwork elevated or floodproofed to two feet above base flood elevation. Salem's floodplain overlay, section 106-226.6(A), requires the lowest floor of any new residential structure to be at least one foot above base flood elevation, with critical electrical and mechanical equipment at or above the 100-year flood level. The effective flood insurance rate map date shown on the shared regional criteria sheet for both cities is 28 September 2007. On a flood-zone lot this is the difference between one slab height and another, and it has to be read off the right city.

City of Roanoke Code of Ordinances section 36.2-333, Floodplain Overlay District (F), Elevation and Construction Standards; City of Salem Code of Ordinances section 106-226.6(A); City of Roanoke Local Climatic Design Criteria (2021), flood hazards block

Accessory dwellings: 800 square feet in one city, family only in the other

If the plan is to put quarters in a detached building, the two cities answer differently. Roanoke city allows one accessory dwelling on a lot containing one dwelling building, and section 36.2-409.1(a) limits it, when it sits in a detached accessory building, to 800 square feet or 80 percent of the gross floor area of the principal dwelling, whichever is less - and inside the principal building, to 40 percent of the building's gross floor area. Salem's accessory apartment standard, section 106-304.1, is tighter in a different direction: no more than 40 percent of the finished floor area of the principal dwelling, not less than 300 and not more than 1,000 square feet, one per lot, no separate utility services, the owner must live on the property, and the apartment may only be occupied by a family member of the owner. Neither city's rule survives being carried across the line into the other.

City of Roanoke Code of Ordinances section 36.2-409.1(a); City of Salem Code of Ordinances section 106-304.1

The permit clock, and what stops it

Roanoke city publishes its own review times for a new one- or two-family dwelling: 10 business days for zoning review and 5 business days for building review, which the city states as a total of 20 business days, with comments issued if more information is needed and a resubmission form required with any resupply. A city permit expires if work is not started within six months or if no inspection is recorded in any six-month period, and extensions are by written request and are not guaranteed. The submittal set includes a basic development plan drawn to scale - which the city expressly says a design professional is not required to prepare - building plans, a water and sewer availability letter from the Western Virginia Water Authority, a contractor and subcontractor listing, an owner-builder affidavit if the state contractor licensing exemption is being claimed, and an agreement in lieu of an erosion and sediment control plan. Salem schedules inspections requested before 4:00 p.m. for the next business day and those after 4:00 p.m. for the second working day, and will not issue a permit until the contractor holds a valid Salem business licence.

City of Roanoke, Single and Two Family Dwellings, new - review process, submission requirements and expiration; City of Roanoke Inspections page; City of Salem Permits and Building Inspections pages

A shed is 256 square feet in both cities - but Salem still wants a zoning permit

The two cities agree on the building-permit threshold for a detached accessory building and disagree on what happens under it. In Roanoke city, an accessory structure of 256 square feet or less needs no building permit unless the property sits in the Historic Downtown, Historic Neighborhood, Floodplain or River and Creek Corridors overlay districts. In Salem, sheds and playhouses over 256 square feet need a permit - and the city's own permit page states that zoning permits are required regardless of structure size. Salem also requires a one-hour rated exterior wall on a detached structure over 256 square feet placed within five feet of the primary structure. Both cities require a scaled basic development plan and a signed affidavit for the larger structures unless the drawings are stamped by a registered design professional.

City of Roanoke, Accessory Structures, Residential - project page; City of Salem Permits page and Permit Application Requirements Residential Structures

No Chesapeake Bay Act here, and what that is worth on county land

The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act applies to a statutory list at Va. Code section 62.1-44.15:68 of 29 counties and 17 cities. Roanoke city, Salem, Roanoke County, Botetourt, Craig, Franklin County, Bedford and Floyd are on none of it - this valley drains south to the Roanoke River, not to the Bay. So the 100-foot resource protection area buffer, the unconditional 100 percent reserve drainfield for new construction and the 2,500 square foot land-disturbance trigger that shape a build in Richmond or Hampton Roads do not follow a buyer here. Septic still sizes the same way it does everywhere in Virginia: 150 gallons per day per bedroom under 12VAC5-610-670 Table 5.1, with no living-area band and no row for a shop, garage or barn anywhere in the table, so a four-bedroom barndominium is a 600 gpd design however big the shop bay is. Clay lands in Texture Group IV at 91 minutes per inch or slower under 12VAC5-610-490, past the 45 minute per inch point at which a reserve area becomes mandatory. The Health Department issues the permit, with 15 working days on a single-lot application under section 32.1-163.5.

Va. Code section 62.1-44.15:68; 12VAC5-610-670 Table 5.1 and footnote 1; 12VAC5-610-490 C; Va. Code section 32.1-163.5

Roanoke city's own reading of the owner-builder exemption

Virginia requires a contractor licence from the DPOR Board for Contractors, and Roanoke city publishes the classes plainly: Class A for single contracts of $150,000 or more or $1,000,000 or more a year, Class B for $30,000 to $149,999, Class C for $1,000 to $29,999, across six classifications including Residential Building. It also publishes how it reads the owner-builder route in Va. Code section 54.1-1111 - available to a person who performs or supervises work on no more than one primary residence owned by him and for his own use during any 24-month period - and adds three things owners get wrong: the 24-month clock runs anywhere in Virginia, not just in Roanoke; a corporation cannot use the exemption because the statute says person; and invoking it does not excuse anyone from submitting approved construction documents, because the owner is not a contractor and so meets no plans exemption. Any subcontractor still needs the right class and classification. A Roanoke business licence is separately required for work in the city, except where a contractor holds one in its home locality and does under $25,000 of work in Roanoke in a year.

City of Roanoke Contractor License Requirements and Contractor License Exemptions pages; Va. Code section 54.1-1111

A workshop use is capped at 10,000 square feet - and is not a residential use

Roanoke city's zoning ordinance has a workshop use with its own standards at section 36.2-433: a maximum of 10,000 square feet of gross floor area in every zoning district, and all processing, manufacturing and assembly within a fully enclosed building. It does not appear in the use table for the residential districts. What does appear there, and is worth knowing, is that agricultural operations are permitted by right in the RA district and only by special exception in every other residential district, while dwellings, accessory uses not otherwise listed, accessory dwellings and home occupations excluding personal service are permitted by right across all eight residential districts. So a barndominium's shop side inside the city is a private garage and workshop accessory to a dwelling, not a workshop use - and the moment it becomes a place of trade, the zoning question changes.

City of Roanoke Code of Ordinances sections 36.2-311, 36.2-433 and 36.2-310(a)