Barndominium Builders in Hampton, TN

Barndominium builders who work in Hampton deal with a valley that is boxed in on every side. Hampton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Carter County, a few miles southeast of Elizabethton. It sits in a broad valley where the Little Doe River comes in from the southwest and Laurel Fork from the east to join the Doe River. Jenkins Mountain closes the valley on the west, the Iron Mountains on the north, Pond Mountain on the east and Cedar Mountain on the south. The CDP covers 4.36 square miles and had 2,030 residents in 2020, and Hampton lies within the Cherokee National Forest.

We plan and build barndominiums, mountain barndos and shop houses on Carter County land. In Hampton, the right design depends less on the floor plan and more on which of three kinds of ground you own.

Land type one: the valley floor

Flat ground near the Doe, the Little Doe and Laurel Fork is the easiest place to pour a slab and the place to be most careful. Severe floods on the Doe are not frequent, but the January 7 and 8, 1998 storm dropped seven inches of rain in twelve hours, killed seven people and caused heavy property damage in Carter County. Carter County Planning & Zoning lists FEMA floodplain review among its duties, so a valley-floor lot gets a flood check before anything else. If a parcel is in or near a mapped flood zone, we look at raising the finished floor, moving the pad to the highest part of the lot or choosing a different spot entirely.

Land type two: benches and coves on the mountainsides

The Unaka Mountains around Hampton have benches, foot slopes and coves that make good house sites. Soils on that kind of ground in the Southern Blue Ridge of Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia include the Tusquitee series. The USDA describes it as very deep and well drained, formed in colluvium washed down from granite, gneiss and schist, with more than 60 inches to bedrock, on slopes from 2 to 95 percent and generally at 2,000 to 4,200 feet. Deep, well-drained colluvium can be friendly for footings and septic, but the slopes are the catch. Expect cut-and-fill for the pad, a retaining wall or stepped foundation on steeper sites, and a driveway that has to carry a concrete truck and a steel delivery.

Land type three: near Watauga Lake

Watauga Lake sits northeast of Hampton, and several boat ramps are on the Hampton side. TVA finished Watauga Dam at the end of 1948. At full pool the lake covers 6,430 acres with 104.9 miles of shoreline at 1,959 feet, the highest of all TVA lakes, and the level varies about 9 feet in normal years. More than half of that shoreline lies within the Cherokee National Forest and cannot be developed, which is why private lake-view land is limited and why a shop bay sized for a boat and trailer is a common request. We plan around the full-pool line, sight lines and any access path down to the water.

How a Carter County permit comes together

Because Hampton is unincorporated, the building permit comes from Carter County Planning & Zoning, which handles residential building permit review and approval. Before you apply, the county wants you to confirm the project meets zoning. Carter County zones land into districts that run from A-1 Agriculture and A-1A and A-1B through R-1, R-2 and R-3 residential and business and industrial districts, so the parcel's district matters. The application packet asks for: 1. A property tax card from the assessor's office 2. A 911 address from Carter County 911 3. A TDEC septic construction permit, or proof of an existing system 4. A driveway connection agreement with the Carter County Highway Department 5. The square footage, number of stories and foundation type

The county building permit covers houses and accessory buildings, including minor footer excavation and driveway installation. A separate county stormwater permit applies to excavation and cut-and-fill, basements, footers, concrete slabs and logging, which on a mountain lot means almost every barndo. Permits are written weekday mornings from 8 to 11, and starting work before every permit is in hand doubles the permit fee. We assemble this packet before anyone moves dirt.

Septic and well records

Carter County points owners to TDEC's Johnson City Environmental Field Office for water well and septic permits and records. A TDEC Environmental Scientist visits the site and sets the system type, and may ask for a soils map from a private soil consultant. Mark the property lines with stakes no more than 200 feet apart on long lines, stake the corners of the house, porch and shop, and mow the house site. Leave the ground uncut until the evaluation is finished, and allow up to 45 days from a complete application.

A railroad town with old houses

Hampton was established in the late 1860s by Elijah Simerly, a state legislator and president of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, and named for his wife, Mary Hampton. His Italianate house, now called the Butler Mansion, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the town has a small historic district. Older lots near Main Street can hold old foundations or fill, so we probe before we pour.

Getting materials in

US 19E and US 321 both run through Hampton south of Elizabethton, and State Route 67 connects to Interstate 26 at Exit 24 by way of Elizabethton. The Doe River leaves the Doe River Gorge just southeast of town, and the Appalachian Trail crosses the eastern outskirts. Narrow side roads into the hollows are the usual bottleneck, so we check truck access early.

Call (423) 607-8447 or

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to talk through your Hampton land.