Barndominium Builders in Boerne, TX

Barndominium builders around Boerne are working on the Edwards Plateau in Kendall County, of which Boerne is the county seat and largest city. Interstate 10 and US 87 run 31 miles southeast from Boerne to downtown San Antonio, and the town sits at about 1,447 feet. It is Hill Country in the literal sense: limestone underfoot, cedar and live oak on the slopes, and creeks that can rise fast.

The ground is hollow in places

Two commercial caves sit close to town. Cascade Caverns is about 3 miles southeast and Cave Without a Name is about 10 miles northeast, and both are described as actively growing limestone-solution caves. That tells you what the rock is doing below a lot of Kendall County land. On a barndominium site, it means we expect rock in footings and trenches, we look for voids and soft spots when the pad is cut, and we treat the septic layout as a design problem rather than an afterthought.

The broader Hill Country has a thin layer of topsoil and many exposed rocks and boulders, which is also why the region is so prone to flash flooding. Water does not soak in; it runs. Grading around a barndo here is about steering runoff around the slab and away from the shop doors.

Two waterways to respect

Cibolo Creek, a 96-mile tributary of the San Antonio River, flows through Boerne. Boerne City Lake, formed by the John D. Reed Dam and opened in 1978, was built partly for flood control on the creek.

The Guadalupe River runs along the Kendall-Comal county line east of Boerne, through Guadalupe River State Park. Upstream, near Comfort in Kendall County, a flash flood on July 17, 1987 swept a bus of children away at a low-water crossing and 10 died. Low-water crossings on the way to a rural lot are worth noting before you buy, both for daily access and for getting concrete trucks in.

Rain records that shape the site plan

Boerne averages 37.52 inches of rain a year, but averages hide the extremes. The wettest single day on record dropped 9.04 inches on October 2, 1913, and July 2002 brought 28.43 inches in one month. Remnants of hurricanes moving inland can produce very heavy rainfall here. The temperature range runs from 112 degrees F (August 23, 1925) down to minus 4 (January 31, 1949), and snow averages just 0.1 inch a year.

For a metal building that means a roof and gutters sized for downpours, a finished floor set comfortably above the surrounding grade, and insulation and HVAC that handle triple-digit heat and the occasional hard freeze.

Rules outside Boerne city limits

Boerne has a council-manager government and its own codes inside the city. Kendall County also includes Fair Oaks Ranch and the communities of Comfort, Bergheim, Kendalia and Waring. In unincorporated areas of counties covered by Texas Local Government Code Chapter 233, Subchapter F, Section 233.153 sets the 2008 International Residential Code (or the county seat's version) as the standard for new houses, does not require county approval before work begins and does not authorize county zoning. A city building code adopted for its extraterritorial jurisdiction controls there instead. Septic permits run through the authorized agent TCEQ lists for Kendall County.

A county filling in

Kendall County went from 33,410 residents in 2010 to 44,279 in 2020, up 32.5 percent, and housing units roughly doubled from 9,609 to 18,330. Boerne itself grew 70.5 percent, from 10,471 to 17,850. Many newer Hill Country subdivisions carry deed restrictions on exterior materials, so we read them early.

Our Boerne-area site checklist

• Rock depth and any cave or void indicators
• Low-water crossings on the access road
• Floodplain status near Cibolo Creek or the Guadalupe
• Septic site and soil evaluation
• Recorded deed restrictions and HOA rules
• Slope, runoff path and pad elevation

Thinking about a barndo in the hills around Boerne? Call (254) 401-5175 or

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