A barndominium with a carport trades an enclosed garage for a roof on posts. You give up walls, doors and a place to lock things up, and in return you skip the most expensive parts of a garage while still keeping the vehicles out of the weather. The barndominium house plans with a carport featured below run from a 480 sq ft two-car carport to one of 1,180 sq ft, on houses from 1,683 to 2,750 heated square feet.
Four barndominium floor plans with a carport are set out in detail below, with the full range of eleven in one table after them. Before those comes the part most plan collections skip: what a carport actually changes compared with a garage, including what happens if you decide to enclose it later.
Carport Or Garage — What Actually Changes
A garage is a room. A carport is a roof. Leaving out the room removes most of the cost: no exterior walls around the parking, no insulation, no overhead doors or openers, and on an attached garage, no fire-separation wall between the parking and the house.
The building code draws the line precisely. The International Residential Code, which most US jurisdictions adopt with local amendments, says in section R309.2 that a carport must be open on at least two sides, and that one which is not is treated as a garage. That definition matters twice. It is why an open carport generally is not held to the separation rules written for attached garages, such as gypsum board on the garage side of the shared wall. And it is why enclosing a carport later is a garage project rather than a weekend of siding: once it is closed in, the garage rules apply, and it needs a permit. Confirm the details with your building department, because local amendments vary.
What you give up is just as concrete. Anything parked or stored in a carport is visible and within reach. Wind drives rain and snow in through the open sides. There is no heated corner for a workbench or a chest freezer in January. And in some markets buyers expect a garage, so ask a local agent how a carport plays where you are building before you commit.
Where a carport earns its place is on a rural lot in a mild climate, where the priority is shade and a dry walk to the door rather than security. It also has no door opening to clear: its height is set by the beam, which suits tall trucks and trailers that would need an oversized garage door.
The Same House, With And Without A Carport
PL-62301 Luna and PL-62301-A Anna are the same house. Both have 1,683 heated square feet, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, 816 square feet of porches, a 12-foot eave and a 6:12 roof. Anna adds a 1,180 sq ft carport and a separate storage building. Nothing else in the catalog measures the land cost of a carport as cleanly: Luna is 51 feet wide, and Anna is 71. On this design, the carport costs twenty feet of lot width.
The published depths differ too, 49 feet for Luna against 41 for Anna, so compare the two drawings rather than assuming the carport only adds width. Luna is featured among the barndominium plans without a garage, which is the page to use if covered parking is not part of the plan at all.
One thing to confirm before pricing AnnLuna is published as post frame, and Anna’s specs say stick frame — but Anna’s plan set includes a pole layout plan, which is a post-frame drawing. Ask the designer which framing the house uses. It changes the builder you hire as well as the bid.
If a plan you like has no carport, the designer can add one. A modification request returns a free quote within 72 hours, and on PL and BCO plans minor modifications cost $400 for up to three changes and major modifications $1,000 for up to five; the designer decides which a carport needs. Luna and Anna show the change has been drawn before.
Barndominium Plans With A Carport
Ordered by carport size, largest first. Every plan here is priced as a PDF set or as five printed sets shipped, and both prices are given.
PL-62301-A Anna
1,683 sq ft heated · 1,180 sq ft carport · 816 sq ft porches · separate storage building · 3 bed · 2 bath · 71′ x 41′ · Single story
$849.99 PDF / $1,099.99 printed
The largest carport in the collection, and the only plan with a separate storage building beside it. At 1,180 square feet the carport is 70 percent of the size of the heated house, and more than double the two-car carports elsewhere in the collection, which run 480 to 547 square feet.
Inside, an open living area with vaulted ceilings runs into a kitchen with an island and a walk-in pantry, with the laundry room beside it. The primary suite has its own bathroom and walk-in closet; the other two bedrooms each have a walk-in closet and share a full bathroom. There are porches front and back.
The storage building’s size is not published. It is the part that makes a carport workable, since the carport itself locks nothing up, so confirm its size before you buy if you are counting on it.
Photos Of A Completed Anna Build
BG-20120 Morris
2,750 sq ft heated (1,594 first floor, 1,156 second) · 994 sq ft carport · 1,400 sq ft porches · 3 bed · 2.5 bath · 75′ x 60′ · Two story
$1,450 PDF / $1,800 printed
The only two-story plan in the collection, and the clearest example of a carport doing the job of a garage entry. The carport sits on the side of the house and opens into a mudroom with storage lockers, then a service corridor holding the mechanical room, a walk-in pantry and a laundry room with a utility sink. You come in from the car the way you would from an attached garage. You just do not close a door behind it.
The primary bedroom is on the main floor, with a walk-in closet and its own bathroom. The living room rises the full two stories, overlooked by a mezzanine loft, and upstairs there is also an office, a sitting nook and two more bedrooms with walk-in closets sharing a bathroom. Covered porches wrap three sides of the house, 1,400 square feet of them.
Morris costs more than the rest at $1,450 for the PDF set. It also has the tallest first-floor ceiling here at 10′-1″, under a low 4:12 roof. If the loft is the draw, the barndominium plans with a loft collection has more of them; if it is the second floor, see the two-story barndominium plans.
PL-64013-D Dennis
2,000 sq ft heated · 960 sq ft carport · 1,000 sq ft porches · 3 or 4 bed (see below) · 2 bath · 74′ x 60′ · Single story
$849.99 PDF / $1,099.99 printed
A 40×50 living space, 2,000 heated square feet on one floor, with a 960 sq ft carport alongside that adds nearly half the house’s area again under cover. Front and rear porches total 1,000 square feet. Inside, the living area opens straight into the kitchen, with 9-foot ceilings, dedicated storage and a combined mechanical and laundry room. More houses of this footprint are on the 40×50 barndominium plans page.
Check the bedroom count before you buy. The published specs list three bedrooms; the plan description lists four. The floor plan drawing is the tiebreaker, because the drawing is what gets built, so study it on the plan page and ask the designer if it is unclear. If you need four bedrooms for certain, SV-5510 Lucas and SV-5601 Kenny in the table below are both four-bedroom plans with a carport.
BCO-40046 Ray
1,800 sq ft heated · 480 sq ft two-car carport · 240 sq ft porch · 3 bed · 2 bath · 84′ x 42′ · Single story
$849.99 PDF / $1,099.99 printed
The smallest carport of the four and the most conventional: a two-car carport on a 30×60 living space. It is a useful reference point, because 480 square feet is what a two-car carport takes on these plans. Lucas, Tanya and Kenny all come in between 483 and 547.
The house is one level: three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and an open kitchen, dining and living area, with a mudroom as the way in from the carport and a separate utility room. Ten-foot ceilings sit under an 8:12 roof. Adding the carport and front porch to the 30-by-60-foot living space brings the overall width to 84 feet, which matters if you are working to a lot line. The 30×60 barndominium floor plans collection has the same footprint without the carport.
If 1,800 square feet is tight, BCO-40046-W Wilson is the same design at 1,980 heated square feet and 90 feet wide, with the same 480 sq ft carport.
Every Carport House Plan In The Collection
Eleven plans carry a carport. The four above are the widest spread of carport size and house type; the table has the rest, largest carport first.
| Plan | Heated sq ft | Carport sq ft | Bed / bath | Stories | PDF price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PL-62301-A Anna | 1,683 | 1,180 | 3 / 2 | 1 | $849.99 |
| BG-20120 Morris | 2,750 | 994 | 3 / 2.5 | 2 | $1,450 |
| PL-64013-D Dennis | 2,000 | 960 | 3 or 4 / 2 | 1 | $849.99 |
| PL-64011 Silverwood | 1,218 | 629 | 2 / 2 | 1 | $849.99 |
| SV-5601 Kenny | 2,655 | 547 | 4 / 3.5 | 1 | $849.99 |
| LP-3205 Starnes | 1,380 | 500 | 3 / 2 | 1 | $849.99 |
| BCO-40199-T Tanya | 1,380 | 500 | 3 / 2 | 1 | $849.99 |
| SV-5510 Lucas | 2,627 | 483 | 4 / 3 | 1 | $849.99 |
| BCO-40046 Ray | 1,800 | 480 | 3 / 2 | 1 | $849.99 |
| BCO-40046-W Wilson | 1,980 | 480 | 3 / 2 | 1 | $849.99 |
| HPZ-22007 Keith | 1,408 | 441, optional | 2 / 2 | 1 | $1,345 |
Three of them need a note. Tanya is the only metal-shell plan in the set; every other one is stick or post frame, so it is the plan to look at if you want a metal building at the same $849.99 price. Keith’s carport is optional, drawn as a separate sheet in the plan set, so the house can be built with or without it. And Silverwood appears on the no-garage page as well, because its 629 sq ft carport is fully open.
How Much Does A Barndominium With A Carport Cost To Build?
Planning figures for a finished barndominium run $65 to $160 per square foot of heated space, and where a build lands in that range depends on region, finishes and who builds it. Treat these as ranges to plan against, and get local bids before you fix a budget. On that basis:
- Anna, 1,683 heated sq ft: roughly $109,000 to $269,000
- Ray, 1,800 heated sq ft: roughly $117,000 to $288,000
- Dennis, 2,000 heated sq ft: roughly $130,000 to $320,000
- Morris, 2,750 heated sq ft: roughly $179,000 to $440,000
Those figures cover the heated house. The carport sits outside them: every plan here lists it as unheated area, and it is not built to a finished-house standard. What it costs depends on the span, the post spacing, whether it gets a concrete slab and how its roof ties into the house, and there is no published per-square-foot figure for carports reliable enough to plan on. Ask each bidder to price the carport as its own line, so you can see it.
The saving is easiest to see as what you are not building. On a garage of the same size you would be paying for exterior walls, insulation, overhead doors and openers, and on an attached garage a fire-separation wall between the parking and the house. A carport pays for the roof, the posts and usually the slab, and stops there.
Choosing Between These Plans
- The most covered area: Anna, at 1,180 sq ft, with a separate storage building for the things a carport cannot lock up.
- The primary bedroom downstairs, and a second floor: Morris, the only two-story plan in the set.
- Four bedrooms: Dennis may be one, but check the drawing first. Lucas and Kenny are four-bedroom plans for certain.
- A lot-width limit: Anna is the narrowest of the four at 71 feet. If that is still too wide, Luna is the same house without the carport at 51 feet.
- The lowest plan price: Anna, Dennis and Ray are all $849.99. Morris is $1,450.
- You need a room you can lock: a carport is the wrong answer. The barndominium plans with a detached garage keep the garage in its own building instead, and the breezeway plans join it back to the house under cover.
- You may enclose it later: tell the designer now. A slab and footings sized to carry walls cost far less at build time than as a retrofit, and the enclosed carport will have to meet the garage rules either way.
FAQ
Is A Carport Cheaper Than A Garage?
Almost always, because a carport leaves out most of what makes a garage expensive: the exterior walls, insulation, overhead doors and openers, and on an attached garage the fire-separation wall between the garage and the house. It still needs a roof, posts and usually a slab. There is no reliable published per-square-foot figure for carports, so ask your builder to price the carport as its own line item.
Is A Carport Considered A Garage Under Building Code?
Not while it stays open. The International Residential Code, section R309.2, requires a carport to be open on at least two sides and treats one that is not as a garage. Most US jurisdictions build on the IRC with local amendments, so confirm the rule with your building department, especially if you plan to add walls or a door later.
Can You Enclose A Carport Into A Garage Later?
Usually, but it is a permitted garage project, not just new siding. Once a carport is closed on more than two sides the code treats it as a garage, so it has to meet the garage requirements, including fire separation from the house if it is attached. It is far cheaper to plan for at build time: ask the designer to size the slab and footings to carry walls later.
How Big Is A Two-Car Carport?
On the plans in this collection, two-car carports run 480 to 547 square feet: 480 on BCO-40046 Ray, 483 on SV-5510 Lucas, 500 on BCO-40199-T Tanya and 547 on SV-5601 Kenny. The larger carports here, 960 square feet on Dennis, 994 on Morris and 1,180 on Anna, cover roughly twice that area or more.
Does A Carport Count Toward A Barndominium’s Square Footage?
Not toward its heated square footage. Every plan here lists the carport as unheated area, separate from the heated figure, and the heated figure is what finished-build planning ranges of $65 to $160 per square foot apply to. When comparing plans, compare heated area first, then look at the total under roof, which includes the carport and the porches.
More Barndominium Plans
For houses with no covered parking at all, see house plans without garages. To keep the vehicles in a separate enclosed building, see barndominium with detached garage plans. Plans that connect the house to another structure under a roof are in barndominium plans with a breezeway. And if bedroom count is the starting point, the 3-bedroom barndominium floor plans and 4-bedroom barndominium floor plans collections include several of the plans above.