Are Barndominiums Legal in Virginia? The Code, the Farm Exemption and Who Permits
Barndominiums are legal in Virginia, and the interesting question is not whether but under which rules. Virginia is unusual, and almost every guide written about this building type gets it wrong here, because the mental model most of them carry comes from states where each county adopts its own code. Va. Code § 36-98 directs the Board of Housing and Community Development to adopt a Uniform Statewide Building Code and provides that it "shall supersede the building codes and regulations of the counties, municipalities and other political subdivisions and state agencies." Va. Code § 36-102 puts the power to modify, amend or repeal any provision of that code with the Board and with nobody else. Va. Code § 36-105(A) makes enforcement of it a duty of the local building department rather than an option. There is no opt-in, no opt-out and no local amendment mechanism anywhere in Chapter 6 of Title 36. So the question "which building code applies to my barndominium" has the same answer in all 133 Virginia jurisdictions — and the questions that do vary are different ones: the design numbers your locality fills into a blank table, what its zoning ordinance lets you build, and which office you stand in to file. This page separates those two layers, and it quotes the instrument for every claim it makes.
Figures on this page are cited third-party or government data, not a quote from Virginia Barndominium Builders.
Bottom Line Up Front
- Yes — and under one code everywhere. The 2021 Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (13VAC5-63, effective 18 January 2024) applies in all 133 jurisdictions. Va. Code § 36-98 supersedes local building codes, § 36-102 puts the amending power with the Board and nobody else, and § 36-105(A) makes local enforcement a duty rather than an option.
- What varies is the layer underneath. Table R301.2 is printed blank for each locality to fill in, zoning is entirely local, and Virginia's 38 independent cities belong to no county at all — so a mailing address does not tell you which of the 133 offices issues your permit.
- The farm-building exemption does not reach a dwelling. Va. Code § 36-97 defines a farm building as one "not used for residential purposes", and Stafford County's exemption affidavit adds a conversion clause requiring full retroactive code compliance if the building is later lived in.
One code, statewide, and your county did not write it
Everything in this section is the primary text of Title 36 of the Code of Virginia and of 13VAC5-63, the regulation that contains the code itself. It is the part of the subject that no Virginia barndominium page currently covers.
Supersession, not a ceiling
Most states say a locality may not adopt anything more stringent than the state code. Virginia does something stronger. Va. Code § 36-98 says the Uniform Statewide Building Code "shall supersede the building codes and regulations of the counties, municipalities and other political subdivisions and state agencies." The question of stricter or looser never arises, because the local building instrument has no force in the first place. More stringent, no. Less stringent, no. Different, no.
The amending power sits in one place
Va. Code § 36-102: "The Board may modify, amend or repeal any Code provisions from time to time as the public interest requires, after notice and hearing as provided in § 36-100 of this chapter." The Board is the Board of Housing and Community Development, defined at § 36-97. There is no local amendment procedure in Title 36 Chapter 6 at all — not a vote, not a resolution, not a locally adopted appendix. A page that tells you to check your county's building code amendments is describing a different state.
Enforcement is mandatory, and that word matters
Va. Code § 36-105(A): "Enforcement of the provisions of the Building Code for construction and rehabilitation shall be the responsibility of the local building department." A locality without a building department does not thereby escape the code — the same subsection requires it to contract the function to another locality, another agency or a state agency approved by the Department. There is no unenforced corner of Virginia for new construction.
The contrast people get backwards
New construction is "shall". Maintenance of existing buildings is "may" — Va. Code § 36-105(C)(1) provides that the local governing body "may also inspect and enforce the provisions of the Building Code for existing buildings and structures, whether occupied or not." So the correct sentence is that every Virginia locality must enforce the code on your new build, while whether it enforces the maintenance code on what is already standing is a local choice.
The hinge — what "building regulations" means
The preemption is exactly as wide as the phrase it uses, and Va. Code § 36-97 defines it widely and then draws one line: "'Building regulations' does not include zoning ordinances or other land use controls that do not affect the manner of construction or materials to be used in the erection, alteration, or repair of a building or structure." That single sentence organises this whole page. How you build is the Commonwealth's. Whether, where and for what use is your locality's.
One edition, one date
The code in force is the 2021 edition of the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, built on the 2021 International Building Code and International Residential Code, effective 18 January 2024, codified at 13VAC5-63. Because no locality may adopt an edition of its own, a page that names a code edition for a particular Virginia county is asserting a local choice Virginia law does not allow. Note also that Chapter 1 of the IBC is not incorporated in Virginia, so permit, fee, inspection and certificate-of-occupancy provisions come from 13VAC5-63's own Chapter 1 and carry different section numbers than in other states.
Statewide, and safe to rely on anywhere in the Commonwealth
Because the code is one document, a small number of technical requirements genuinely are the same in every jurisdiction. The energy provisions are the ones a barndominium owner feels: a whole-house air leakage limit of 5 air changes per hour at 50 pascals, verified by a blower-door test with the result reported to the building official, and a wall insulation requirement of R-15 cavity or R-13 plus R-1 continuous. A large-volume metal or post-frame building meets those with a deliberate air barrier and insulation strategy, not by accident.
The same code, different numbers — the seven local options
The code grants a locality a small, closed set of choices. Everything else claimed as a "local building code amendment" in Virginia is a misdescription. The first of the seven is the one that changes what your building is engineered to.
Table R301.2 is printed blank
13VAC5-63-30, Section 103.4, lists among the valid provisions of the code "Section R301.2 of the IRC authorizing localities to determine climatic and geographic design criteria." The 2021 Virginia Residential Code prints that table with em-dashes in every cell and the instruction that additional criteria shall be established by the local jurisdiction. Ground snow load, design wind speed, seismic design category, frost line depth, termite hazard, winter design temperature and flood hazard are your locality's own published figures. The code is the same everywhere; the numbers are not. That distinction is the single most useful thing to understand about building here.
How wide the spread actually is
Snow: Augusta County publishes 43 psf, the heaviest figure found in Virginia; Rockingham County publishes 42.5 psf with a 30 psf non-reduced roof live load footnote; Frederick County publishes 35 and 40 as a Case Study county; Petersburg and Hanover County publish 20; Virginia Beach publishes 10. Frost depth: 24 inches across much of the Valley and Northern Virginia, 18 inches in Roanoke city, Chesterfield, Bedford, Floyd, Petersburg and Hanover, 12 inches in Virginia Beach. Wind: Chesapeake publishes 117 and 123 mph ultimate, Virginia Beach 120, Newport News 118, Arlington 115, Montgomery 110. A design drawn to one county's numbers is not portable to the next county.
And many localities publish nothing at all
Richmond city, Suffolk, Isle of Wight County, Washington County, Albemarle County, New Kent County and Manassas publish no design criteria table that could be located. That is a finding rather than a gap: where the locality has not filled the table in, the figures come from the building official and from the engineer of record, and they are agreed at plan review rather than read off a page. On this building type — wide clear spans, light roof, large uplift areas — that conversation is worth having before the drawings are finished, not after.
The one wind rule Virginia does write itself
Virginia adds a paragraph to IRC Section R301.2.1: "Wind speeds for localities in special wind regions, near mountainous terrain, and near gorges shall be based on elevation. Areas at 4,000 feet in elevation or higher shall use the ultimate design wind speed of 140 mph and areas lower than 4,000 feet in elevation shall use the ultimate design wind speed of 110 mph." Read the scope carefully. It applies to localities in special wind regions, near mountainous terrain and near gorges. It is not a Virginia-wide design wind speed and must not be quoted as one.
Radon and airport noise are true local opt-ins
Virginia adds IRC Section R331.1: following official action by a locality in areas of high radon potential, as indicated by Zone 1 on the EPA Map of Radon Zones, "such locality shall enforce the provisions contained in Appendix AF" — with an exception for crawl space foundations ventilated to the exterior. Both conditions must be met: EPA Zone 1 and a local adoption. Radon-resistant construction is not automatically required anywhere in Virginia. The airport noise attenuation provision works the same way, applying only where a locality enforces it under Va. Code § 15.2-2295.
A local setback can change a construction requirement
Virginia adds Exception 7 to IRC Section R302.1: the exterior wall fire-resistance requirements do not apply to walls of dwellings and accessory structures on lots in subdivisions or zoning districts where building setbacks established by local ordinance prohibit walls on adjacent lots from being closer than 10 feet to each other. It is a small provision and a clean illustration of the two layers touching — the zoning instrument, which is local, altering what the construction code asks for.
Sign-offs, fees and penalties
The remaining options are administrative. Under 13VAC5-63-30, Section 103.5, a locality may require reports from other departments indicating compliance with their functional-design regulations as a condition of issuing the permit or the certificate of occupancy — the mechanism by which the septic and well approvals gate the building permit. Fees are set locally, with the state adding a levy of 2 percent. And a locality may adopt a civil penalty schedule instead of prosecuting: not more than $100 for the initial summons and $350 for each additional, capped at $4,000 for a series arising from the same operative set of facts.
Can a Virginia locality tell you not to use metal siding?
This is the question this building type raises everywhere, and Virginia's answer has two halves that must travel together. Both come out of § 36-98 itself.
Not by general ordinance — the 2006 sweep
For single-family residential construction specifically, § 36-98 provides that the code "also shall supersede the provisions of local ordinances applicable to single-family residential construction that (a) regulate dwelling foundations or crawl spaces, (b) require the use of specific building materials or finishes in construction, or (c) require minimum surface area or numbers of windows." A metal-clad or post-frame house is precisely the building a locality would most like to reach with a materials ordinance or a minimum-window rule. Both are foreclosed by statute.
But read the exceptions clause, because that is where the power went
The same section continues that the code "shall not supersede proffered conditions accepted as a part of a rezoning application, conditions imposed upon the grant of special exceptions, special or conditional use permits or variances, conditions imposed upon a clustering of single-family homes … or land use requirements in airport or highway overlay districts, or historic districts created pursuant to § 15.2-2306, or local flood plain regulations adopted as a condition of participation in the National Flood Insurance Program." So an appearance requirement a locality cannot impose by general ordinance it may still impose through a proffer, a conditional use permit condition, an overlay or a historic district attached to that particular parcel.
Petersburg is the worked example, and both halves are true
The City of Petersburg's Zoning Ordinance, Appendix B, Article 25, § 4.4(2), added by Ord. No. 24-ZTA-04 on 18 June 2024 and applying citywide, provides that "Corrugated sheet metal panels used as a finish material are prohibited. Architectural metal panels may be accepted, subject to consultation with and a determination by the director of planning and community development that the treatment meets the intent of this section." Its § 4.1 additionally requires an approved architectural theme before a building permit for a new dwelling. Metal is not banned in Petersburg; corrugated panel as a finish is, architectural panel is discretionary, and a named official decides. Because it is a zoning instrument rather than a building regulation, § 36-98 does not touch it.
What that means practically
The honest answer to "can my locality tell me I cannot have metal siding" is: not through its building code, because it does not have one; possibly through the zoning ordinance, an overlay, a historic district or a condition attached to a rezoning or special use permit on your parcel; and always subject to any recorded covenant on the land, which is private law and not touched by any of this. Which of those apply is a parcel-level question, and it is answerable before you buy.
The farm-building exemption, and why it does not reach a barndominium
This is the most common and most expensive misunderstanding in the subject. Virginia does exempt farm buildings from the building code outright. The exemption is also drafted, in its own first clause, to exclude the building a barndominium buyer wants to put up.
The exemption is real and it is broad
Va. Code § 36-99(B): "Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, farm buildings and structures shall be exempt from the provisions of the Building Code," with an exception for a farm restaurant holding a Board of Health licence, and with floodplain and mudslide rules still applying. The regulation restates it as an outright exemption at 13VAC5-63-20, Section 102.3, item 9. No permit, no plan review, no inspections, no certificate of occupancy.
And then the definition does all the work
Va. Code § 36-97 defines the term: "'Farm building or structure' means a building or structure not used for residential purposes, located on property where farming operations take place, and used primarily for" one of six listed uses — storage and handling of farm products, sheltering animals, business or office uses relating to the farm, farm machinery, supplies and materials, and best management practices. Living is not on the list, and "primarily" is a primary-use test. A buyer who believes their barndominium is covered is not making a marginal error: the exemption is drafted to exclude exactly that building, by its first clause.
The nuance that is genuinely useful
The shop can be exempt while the house cannot. A genuinely separate farm building on the same farm, used for one of the six listed purposes and not lived in, is exempt. The building you live in is not. That is a real planning option on a working farm — a separate exempt implement building alongside a permitted dwelling — and it is a different thing from the belief that calling the whole structure a barn makes the dwelling half go away.
Stafford County's affidavit, and the clause that closes behind you
There is no state registration of farm buildings. Localities use a sworn affidavit instead. Stafford County's "Farm Building or Structure Exemption" form, marked as a May 2023 update, is notarised and requires the owner to affirm "that the structure to be constructed and/or improved will not be used for residential purposes." It then adds the conversion clause: "Should the farm building or structure be converted to any other use not subject to this exemption, said farm building or structure shall be brought into compliance with the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC) and other applicable codes and regulations to include submittal/approval of any corresponding permit applications." Claim the exemption, build the shell, then move in, and the structure must be brought into full compliance retroactively — on concealed work that can no longer be inspected.
Franklin County's version has no conversion clause and a fine instead
Franklin County's "Affidavit Farm Structure Exemption", revised 10.11.19, prints § 36-97's definition on the form itself, including the words "not used for residential purposes", and turns on two yes-or-no questions. It states that for an exempt structure there will be "no plans required or inspections performed" by the county's building inspections office, and that "Presentation of a false affidavit is a violation of the USBC and subject to a fine not to exceed $2,500.00." The county's own permit fee schedule prices work started without a permit at twice the fee, and notes that engineering may be required to verify that work done without inspections complies with the code.
Chesapeake requires two signatures and a zoning permit anyway
The City of Chesapeake's "Farm Use Structure Affidavit Exemption Form", revised 4/19/2023, is notarised and must be approved by both the Zoning Administrator and the Building Official, either of whom may deny it. It asks the property's use to conform to the OSHA SIC codes under Division A, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, asks for a USDA farm program number where applicable, requires each structure to be listed and shown on a site plan, and has the affiant acknowledge "that any non-farm use of the structure(s) may require a new building permit, final inspection, and/or a certificate of occupancy." It also states that even where the exemption is granted, a permit from the Zoning Division is still required. The exemption is from the building permit. It is never from zoning.
The fee schedules show you the incentive, in the localities' own numbers
Augusta County's published permit schedule charges $0.18 per square foot for a new dwelling and $10 for a farm building permit, with multiple structures allowed on one permit. Chesapeake's schedule charges $10 per 100 square feet for a dwelling and $5 per 100 square feet for a farm building. Rockingham County charges $50 for a permit for a farm building that is exempt from the code, with a fine not to exceed $300 for building one without that permit. Washington County charges nothing at all for a permit for an agricultural structure exempt under the code. The gap between those lanes is exactly why the temptation exists — and every one of those localities defines the exempt building the same way the statute does.
Rockingham's zoning ordinance repeats the disqualifier independently
Rockingham County's zoning ordinance carries its own definition at § 17-201: "Farm building. A building or structure not used for residential purposes, located on a property where farming operations take place." So the same disqualifying words appear in the state building code and in the county's land-use ordinance, from two different bodies with two different jobs. Build it as a farm building, move in, and neither instrument is doing anything for you any more.
The contractor licence draws the same line
18VAC50-22-30 defines farm improvement contracting, classification FIC, as "the service that provides for the installation, repair, or improvement of a nonresidential farm building or structure, or nonresidential farm accessory-use structure, or additions thereto", and states that it does not provide for electrical, plumbing, HVAC or gas fitting. The word nonresidential appears twice. A contractor holding only FIC may build the barn and may not build the dwelling. Two independent instruments — the code exemption and the licence scope — stop at precisely the same point.
The zoning agricultural protections are a different instrument entirely
Va. Code § 15.2-2288 provides that a zoning ordinance shall not require a special exception or special use permit for production agriculture or silviculture activity in an agricultural district — and in the same breath preserves the locality's power to "adopt setback requirements, minimum area requirements and other requirements." Va. Code § 15.2-2288.6 protects a closed list of four activities: agritourism, sales of farm products, food preparation, and activities usual and customary at Virginia agricultural operations. A house is on neither list. "It is agricultural land, so they cannot tell me what to build" is wrong in a specific way: the agricultural protections reach farming activity, while the dwelling is a separate zoning use governed by the district's own text, its minimum lot area and its setbacks.
What a genuinely exempt farm building still has to do
The exemption is not a licence to ignore everything. Va. Code § 36-99(B) keeps floodplain and mudslide rules in force, and excludes a farm restaurant holding a Board of Health licence under Title 35.1. Zoning applies as normal, because the exemption is from the Building Code and land-use controls sit outside it. And where the public is invited in for an agritourism activity and the building is used for display, sampling or sale of farm products, the statute requires portable fire extinguishers, a simple written emergency plan, and a posted sign of at least 24 by 36 inches in black letters an inch high near the entrance reading: "This building is EXEMPT from the Uniform Statewide Building Code. Be alert to exits in the event of a fire or other emergencies." That sign is the clearest statement in Virginia law of what an exempt building is and is not.
Building it yourself — the owner-builder exemption and what it does not cover
Virginia does let a landowner build their own house without a contractor licence. The provision is narrower than most people assume, and the second half of it is the point.
The exemption, clause by clause
Va. Code § 54.1-1101(A)(7) exempts "any person who performs or supervises the construction, removal, repair, or improvement of no more than one primary residence owned by him and for his own use during any 24-month period." Every phrase is a limit. "Performs or supervises" means you may act as your own general contractor. "No more than one primary residence" means one, not a house and a second dwelling. "Owned by him" means you must own the land. "For his own use" means a building put up to sell is outside it. "During any 24-month period" is a rolling two-year cap, so a second build eighteen months later is not covered.
The sentence that catches nearly everybody
Va. Code § 54.1-1101(C): "Any person who is exempt from the provisions of this chapter as a result of subdivision 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, or 14 of subsection A shall comply with the provisions of the Uniform Statewide Building Code (§ 36-97 et seq.)." The owner-builder exemption is a licensing exemption only. It is not a building-code exemption. Permits, plan review, the seven required inspections and the certificate of occupancy all still apply in full. This is stated flatly in the statute and it is very likely the most misunderstood point in the whole subject.
And the certificate of occupancy before you sell
Va. Code § 54.1-1101(B) requires an owner-builder relying on that exemption to obtain a certificate of occupancy before conveying the property to a third-party purchaser, unless the purchaser acknowledges in writing that no certificate has been issued and consents to acquire it anyway. § 54.1-1101(D) makes a violation of subsection B or C a Class 1 misdemeanor, with a third or subsequent conviction inside 36 months a Class 6 felony. This is the provision that turns an undocumented self-build into a problem at closing rather than at the time.
The family gift exemption, and who is not on the list
Va. Code § 54.1-1101(A)(8) covers a house built on your own real property as a bona fide gift to a member of your immediate family, provided that family member lives in it. The statute defines immediate family as "one's mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandchild, grandparent, mother-in-law, and father-in-law." A spouse is not on that list, and neither are nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles or cousins.
If somebody else is building it, the classification is RBC
18VAC50-22-20, as amended effective 1 September 2025, replaced the old combined Building classification with two. Residential Building Contractors, RBC, covers "construction, remodeling, repair, improvement, removal, or demolition on real property owned, controlled, or leased by another person of dwellings and townhouses, as defined in the USBC, including accessory buildings or structures on such property." Commercial Building Contractors, CBC, expressly does not allow construction of dwellings and townhouses. RBC is the classification that reaches a barndominium built as a dwelling for somebody else, and it does not itself cover the electrical, plumbing, HVAC or gas fitting work, which are separate tradesman credentials.
The class is set by the money, and either limb triggers it
Va. Code § 54.1-1100 lists three classes on two disjunctive tests, a single contract or project value and a twelve-month aggregate: Class A at $150,000 or more on a project, or $1,000,000 or more in a year; Class B at $30,000 or more but less than $150,000, or $250,000 or more but less than $1,000,000 in a year; Class C above $1,000 but below those. Because the statute reads "or", either limb pushes a firm into the higher class. Note that a different and older set of figures survives in § 54.1-1103(C) for water well construction and landscape irrigation only; the two sets are routinely confused.
The licence is checkable, and the cover is not
DPOR runs a public licence lookup, so a contractor’s classification, class and status can be verified before signing rather than taken on trust. What that lookup does not tell you is anything about insurance: 18VAC50-22-40, -50 and -60 set the entry requirements for the three classes and none of them requires liability cover. The financial test is net worth, with a surety bond as the alternative, and a surety bond protects the customer rather than the contractor. In Virginia those two words mean genuinely different things, so cover belongs in the contract in writing.
Which of 133 jurisdictions actually issues your permit
Google's AI Overview currently tells Virginians that permits are "handled at the county level." That is how most states work and it is not how Virginia works. Getting this right saves a wasted trip and sometimes a wasted contract.
95 counties, 38 independent cities, 189 towns
Virginia has 133 county-level jurisdictions: 95 counties and 38 independent cities. An independent city is a county equivalent that belongs to no county at all. There is no county building official above it, no county zoning administrator reaching into it, and no county board of supervisors with any authority inside its limits. Harrisonburg is not in Rockingham County; Winchester is not in Frederick County; Staunton and Waynesboro are not in Augusta County; Charlottesville is not in Albemarle County. Their postal addresses say otherwise, which is exactly how people end up filing in the wrong building.
Towns are the opposite case, and they vary
An incorporated town stays inside its county and its residents remain county residents. Whether the town runs its own building department is a per-town fact, not a function of population. Va. Code § 36-105(A) provides that towns with a population of less than 3,500 "may elect to administer and enforce the Building Code", and where the town does not so elect, the county administers and enforces it for the town. The fallback is never ambiguous; it is simply not the same answer twice.
Four counties, four different answers
Rockingham County issues the building permit inside all seven of its towns — Bridgewater, Broadway, Dayton, Elkton, Grottoes, Mount Crawford and Timberville — while each town issues its own zoning permit first; Elkton's own permits page warns that going to the county first will send you back. Frederick County does the same for both of its towns, and Middletown's town code § 84-2 A directs applications to the Frederick County Building Inspections Department by name. Washington County permits for Damascus and Glade Spring, but Abingdon runs its own department, its own appeals board and its own fee schedule. Floyd County has no zoning ordinance at all — its building department enforces the state code, an erosion ordinance, a manufactured home ordinance and a subdivision ordinance, and nothing that would classify a shop with living quarters as a use.
One line, twice the fee
The clearest illustration of why the jurisdiction question is not academic sits in Washington County. On a $300,000 stated valuation, the county's own published fee schedule works out to $770 plus the 2 percent state levy, and the Town of Abingdon's published schedule of fees works out to $1,525 on the same house. Roughly double, one mile apart, across a town line, with the identical building code applying on both sides. Fees are the local variable that the statewide code deliberately leaves alone.
Appeals run on a fixed clock
Every local building department must have a Local Board of Building Code Appeals, with at least five members, and employees or officials of the locality may not serve on it. Under 13VAC5-63-190 you appeal a building official's decision to that board in writing within 30 calendar days, and the board must meet within 30 calendar days of receiving the application, or 45 where it has regularly scheduled monthly meetings. From there an application to the State Building Code Technical Review Board must be made within 21 calendar days. Va. Code § 36-105(A) provides that no appeal to the Review Board lies before a final determination by the local board, so the local step cannot be skipped.
What happens if you build without a permit
Va. Code § 36-106 lists a violation of the code as a misdemeanor with a fine of not more than $2,500, each day after a court-ordered abatement period counting as a separate offence, with escalating minimums for repeat offences inside five and ten years. Localities may substitute a civil penalty schedule. The larger cost is usually not the fine: it is that concealed work has to be opened up, or engineered after the fact, before anything can be signed off.
The approvals that are not the building code
Because the code is uniform, everything that varies between two Virginia parcels sits in this section. This is the layer that decides whether a particular piece of land will take the building you have drawn.
Septic comes first, by statute
Va. Code § 32.1-165(A): "No county, city, town, or employee thereof shall issue a permit for a building designed for human occupancy without the prior written authorization of the Commissioner or his agent." A barndominium with living quarters is unambiguously designed for human occupancy. On an unsewered parcel the septic authorisation is not a parallel task to the building permit — it is a precondition of it, and it is the item most likely to determine whether the land works at all.
The drainfield is sized by bedrooms, and the shop adds nothing
12VAC5-610-670, Table 5.1 designs a dwelling at 75 gallons per person per day, and the table's own footnote provides that "For all dwelling units the design shall be based on two persons per bedroom." That is 150 gallons per day per bedroom and nothing else. There is no living-area band and no row for a garage, shop or barn anywhere in the table. A four-bedroom barndominium is a 600 gallon-per-day design whether the shop bay is 1,200 square feet or 4,000. Adding shop area adds nothing; adding a bedroom adds 150 gallons per day.
Zoning decides the building, not the code
Virginia counties do have zoning authority, and they use it very differently. On whether the shop may be larger than the house: Rockingham County's § 17-805(a) allows an accessory structure to exceed the dwelling in A-1, A-2 and RV and in no other district; Goochland County's § 15-285.B sets no cap at all; Isle of Wight caps it at the house's square footage; Chesterfield caps at 200 percent in RC and leaves it uncapped in A; Roanoke city caps at 75 percent of the house; New Kent measures A-1 against the lot instead, at 5 percent of lot area with a 10,000 square foot ceiling. Same building, six answers, one building code.
And on living in the shop while the house is built
That question also has no statewide answer. It is barred by ordinance in Suffolk (§ 31-701(a)), Richmond city (§ 30-680.3), Hanover County (§ 26-246, with a six-month rule) and Isle of Wight (§ 5-2000.B). It is allowed in Louisa County under §§ 86-135(b) and 86-153(b). If the plan is to build the shop first and live in it, that is the ordinance to read before choosing the parcel.
The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act is a closed statutory list
Va. Code § 62.1-44.15:68 names the localities covered — 29 counties and 17 cities — and membership is a matter of reading the list, not of guessing from geography. It reaches inland: Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, Henrico and Richmond city are all on it. Inside a designated Resource Protection Area a new dwelling is barred except by narrow lot-recordation routes and never into the seaward 50 feet, a 100 percent reserve drainfield must be kept and cannot be built on, and land disturbance is regulated from 2,500 square feet rather than 10,000. Where your locality is not on the list, the neighbouring one may be — and a buffer can also arrive by another instrument entirely, as Rappahannock County's own stream protection overlay shows.
Land disturbance has thresholds of its own
Under 9VAC25-875-70 the criteria that apply step up with the area disturbed: 10,000 square feet or more outside a Bay Act locality brings erosion and sediment control criteria; 2,500 square feet or more inside one brings those plus the Bay Act criteria; one acre or more, or a smaller area that is part of a common plan totalling an acre, brings the full stormwater technical criteria. A locality may set a lower threshold by ordinance. On a rural barndominium with a long drive and a septic field, an acre of disturbance arrives sooner than people expect.
The permit exemptions do not include your building
13VAC5-63-80 exempts one-story detached tool or storage sheds and similar structures not exceeding 256 square feet, fences, low masonry walls and small retaining walls. That is an accessory-structure threshold and it is not a barndominium exemption in any form. Note the escape hatch in the other direction: if an owner requests a permit for an exempt item, one shall be issued and inspections shall be required — occasionally worth doing where a lender or a future buyer will want the record.
Reading this because you are weighing a build? The next step is a plan drawn for your program.
What's different about Virginia
One code and one edition, everywhere
The 2021 Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, 13VAC5-63, effective 18 January 2024, applies in all 133 jurisdictions. No locality adopted it, no locality may amend it, and no locality may run a different edition.
The design numbers are the local half
Table R301.2 is printed blank with the instruction that additional criteria shall be established by the local jurisdiction. Wind speed, snow load, frost depth and seismic category are your locality's published figures, and several localities publish none.
38 independent cities belong to no county
Virginia's independent cities are county equivalents. A county has no building or zoning authority inside them, which is why a mailing address is not a reliable guide to which office issues your permit.
The farm-building exemption excludes a dwelling by definition
Va. Code § 36-97 defines a farm building as one "not used for residential purposes." The exemption is real and broad for genuine farm structures, and it never reaches the building you intend to live in.
Owner-builder is a licensing exemption only
Va. Code § 54.1-1101(C) states expressly that a person exempt under (A)(7) must still comply with the Uniform Statewide Building Code. Building it yourself changes who may hold the contract, not which rules the building is inspected against.
Septic authorisation precedes the building permit
Va. Code § 32.1-165(A) bars any locality from issuing a permit for a building designed for human occupancy without prior written authorization from the Health Commissioner or his agent. On an unsewered parcel that is the first gate, not a later one.
Pros and cons, honestly
Pros
- One code statewide means a design that complies in one Virginia jurisdiction complies in all of them, apart from the locality-set design figures.
- There is no county to lobby, no local amendment package to research, and no risk of a locality adopting a stricter or looser standard of its own.
- Enforcement is mandatory for new construction, so an inspection record and a certificate of occupancy exist for every legally built dwelling — which matters at appraisal and at resale.
- A permit denial must be explained in writing under Va. Code § 36-105(D)(2), and the appeal chain has published deadlines at every step.
- Where the building official cannot inspect within two working days, 13VAC5-63-130 requires acceptance of a qualified third-party report — real protection on a rural build with one county inspector.
- Repeat plan review is waived by right for identical construction documents already approved in the same locality under the same edition of the code.
Cons
- The farm-building exemption cannot be used for a dwelling, and localities take a notarised affidavit that says so in the owner's own words.
- Design criteria vary sharply by locality, so drawings are not portable across a county line without re-checking snow, wind and frost figures.
- A number of localities publish no design criteria at all, which pushes those figures into plan review and into the engineer's judgment.
- Zoning can still stop the project: district, minimum lot area, setbacks, accessory-structure size caps and whether you may live in the shop are all local.
- Aesthetic control survives the code preemption through proffers, conditional use permit conditions, overlays and historic districts — and at least one city restricts corrugated metal as a finish citywide.
- On an unsewered parcel the septic authorisation gates everything, and heavy clay soils can multiply the drainfield.
- Owner-builders get no relief at all from permits, inspections or the certificate of occupancy, and selling without one carries a criminal penalty.
- Fees are entirely local and the spread is wide, from a flat per-square-foot rate to percentage-of-valuation schedules with additional levies stacked on top.
Are barndominiums legal in Virginia?
Which building code applies to my barndominium, and can my county change it?
Is a permit really handled at the county level in Virginia?
Can I build my barndominium as a farm building and avoid the permit?
What is the wind speed or snow load I should design to in Virginia?
Can I act as my own contractor and build it myself?
Can a Virginia locality ban metal siding on my house?
Do I need a septic permit before the building permit?
Does the size of the shop change the septic system?
What happens if I build without a permit and try to fix it later?
Does agricultural zoning mean the county cannot tell me what to build?
Is a modular barndominium treated differently from a manufactured home?
Questions answered? Tell us what you want to build and we will put real numbers against it.
Keep reading
The pages that answer the next question this one raises.
Permitting and approvals
How the septic authorisation, zoning approval and building permit sequence actually runs on a Virginia parcel.
Read itRockingham County
Seven towns that issue zoning permits while the county issues every building permit, and a farm-building line in the fee schedule.
Read itWashington County
The county permits for Damascus and Glade Spring while Abingdon runs its own department at roughly double the published fee.
Read itPetersburg
The one Virginia city found to restrict corrugated metal as a finish material citywide, and to require an approved architectural theme.
Read itChesapeake
An independent city with its own farm-use affidavit requiring both the Zoning Administrator and the Building Official to sign.
Read itPulaski and Floyd counties
Floyd County has no zoning ordinance at all, which changes what is left to argue about on a rural build.
Read itWant a real number instead of a range?
Start your plans and we will come back with a budget for what you actually want to build, not a national average. Send the parcel ID or an address when you have one and we will price it against your land. That conversation costs nothing.