Barndominium Builders in Montgomery, TX

Barndominium builders in Montgomery, Texas work around one of the oldest towns in the region. W. W. Shepperd laid out Montgomery in July 1837 on 200 acres in the Lake Creek Settlement, and it became the first seat of Montgomery County soon after the county was created on December 14, 1837, the third county formed in the Republic of Texas. Today the town is small, with 621 residents in 2010 and 1,948 in 2020, but it sits next to Lake Conroe on State Highway 105 at about 300 feet of elevation, and the land around it draws people who want acreage and a shop.

Small town, big county

Montgomery covers about 5 square miles. Almost everything beyond that sits in unincorporated Montgomery County, a county of 1,076.9 square miles, about 3.22 percent of it water. The county borders Walker, San Jacinto, Liberty, Harris, Waller and Grimes counties, and the Sam Houston National Forest overlaps part of it. Buyers here are often choosing between a lot in a lake-area subdivision and raw acreage farther out. The two lead to very different barndo projects.

Subdivision lot or raw land

Subdivision lots near the lake usually have water and electric at the road and sometimes shared sewer, but they also tend to carry deed restrictions. Some limit metal exteriors, require a minimum amount of masonry, cap outbuilding size or require garage doors to face away from the street. A barndominium can still fit, often with wainscot, board-and-batten accents or a gable-front design, but the restrictions come first.

Raw acreage gives you freedom on design and room for a long shop, but you take on the site work: clearing, a driveway and culvert at the road, a well or water service, electric service and a septic system. In Texas, septic systems are permitted under the state's on-site sewage rule, 30 TAC 285, through authorized local agents, and TCEQ keeps a county lookup to find the agent for your tract. A soil evaluation sets the system type, and the system type sets how much ground you need to hold for the drain field.

Lake Creek, Lake Conroe and flood checks

Montgomery grew out of the Lake Creek Settlement, and the town sits next to Lake Conroe. Land near creeks and the lake can include mapped floodplain. We check the flood map for every tract and, where needed, plan the slab height and fill with the county's floodplain rules in mind before the building is designed. On upland tracts, the rolling ground often gives natural drainage that makes the pad easier.

Designing for the setting

A barndo near Montgomery can look at home next to old farmhouses and pine woods rather than like an industrial box. Some ways to get there:

• Deep front porches with exposed posts
• A steeper roof pitch than a standard shop building
• Mixed exteriors: metal on the shop, wood-look or stone on the living side
• Windows placed for cross-breezes and trees for afternoon shade

The flag story

The city calls itself the birthplace of the Texas Lone Star Flag. Flag historians question the claim, which rests mainly on one family's account, but it shows how much local history matters here. It is one more reason to give a barndo a look that fits the area.

Getting there

Highway 105 runs through town as Eva Street and connects Montgomery east toward Conroe and the I-45 corridor, which makes acreage here workable for people who commute toward Houston.

Call (832) 850-5283 or

Get a Free Estimate

to talk about your Montgomery tract.