Barndominium Builders in Piney Flats, TN

Barndominium builders working in Piney Flats deal with a quirk of local geography: three jurisdictions meet near the middle of the community. Piney Flats is an unincorporated community in Sullivan County on US Route 11E, part of the Tri-Cities region. Johnson City has annexed areas along US 11E south of the Allison Road and Piney Flats Road intersection. Bluff City has annexed areas north of that intersection and along parts of Allison Road and Piney Flats Road. Everything else is county land. So the first job on any Piney Flats barndo is finding out exactly whose rules apply to your parcel.

We design and build barndominiums, shop houses and steel-frame homes for Piney Flats landowners. Here is how the process works here.

When the land is county land

If your parcel is outside both cities, Sullivan County Planning and Codes is your office. The county says building permits are required for all types of residential housing, new homes included. It adopted the 2018 International Residential Code and the 2018 Energy Code, effective April 1, 2018. Sullivan County has had zoning since 1988, so a parcel's zoning district matters here in a way it does not in every rural Tennessee county. The county also notes that other permits may apply: septic, sewer fees, stormwater management, floodplain permits, and driveway connections through TDOT or the county. On US 11E, a driveway onto a state highway is a real line item in the schedule.

Electrical permits in Sullivan County are issued by the State of Tennessee, not the county, so that inspection runs on its own track.

Zoning and metal-sided homes

Because the county is zoned, we read the district rules for your parcel and any recorded deed restrictions before we finalize the exterior. Some subdivisions near the lake have covenants about siding, roof pitch or outbuildings. A barndo can be clad in board-and-batten, stone or brick wainscot, and the shop can be set back or turned so the big doors face away from the road. We would rather design to the rules than ask for a variance.

Lake country to the south

Boone Lake is part of the landscape around this end of Sullivan County. The TVA lake covers about 4,400 acres in Sullivan and Washington counties, with arms reaching about 16 miles up the South Fork Holston River and about 15 miles up the Watauga River. Its level swings about 20 feet over a year. Land near the water can carry floodplain mapping, steep banks and stormwater limits, so we check the flood maps and plan erosion control before the first load of gravel arrives.

Septic site visits

Where sewer is not available, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation evaluates the site for a septic system. TDEC asks owners to make the site easy to find with signage visible from the main road, mark property lines with stakes no more than 200 feet apart on long lines, stake the house corners, and mow the evaluation areas. We help get the lot ready so the visit happens once.

A historic neighbor

Rocky Mount, the log home that served as the first territorial capital of the Southwest Territory from 1790 to 1792, sits in Piney Flats. Today it is a state-owned living history museum listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a good reminder that people have been building homesteads on this ground for a long time.

What Piney Flats owners build

• A barndominium with a deep shop for boats and lake gear
• A single-story barndo with a wide front porch on a few acres off 11E
• A two-story steel-frame home with a lofted bonus room
• A detached shop with guest quarters next to an existing house

Call (423) 607-8447 or

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to start planning your Piney Flats build.