Barndominium Builders in Unicoi, TN

Barndominium builders who work in Unicoi have to start with the ground, because this town sits in a true mountain valley. Unicoi lies in the North Indian Creek Valley, which locals call "The Valley Beautiful," with Buffalo Mountain rising to the west and the outer Unaka Mountains to the east. Cherokee National Forest surrounds the town. Johnson City sits on the far side of Buffalo Mountain to the north, and Erwin, the Unicoi County seat, is down the valley to the southwest. If you own a piece of that valley, or a cove off it, a steel or post-frame home with a shop can fit it well, as long as the plan follows the terrain.

We design and build barndominiums, shop houses and mountain barndos for landowners in and around Unicoi. Here is how we think through a build in this valley.

A young town in an old valley

The area was first called Greasy Cove. It became Swingleville when the Swingle brothers opened a post office in 1851, then Limonite, then Unicoi City once the railroad reached the valley in the late 1880s. The name comes from the Cherokee word "Unaka," meaning white. Unicoi did not incorporate as a town until the mid-1990s, when residents voted to incorporate after Johnson City bought the Buffalo Valley Golf Course and annexation became a worry. The town covers about 16 square miles, all land, and counted 3,833 residents in 2020, up from 3,632 in 2010. That is a lot of room for a small population, and much of it is rural.

Two drainages, two kinds of lot

Water sorts land here. North Indian Creek flows southwest toward Erwin and on to the Nolichucky River. The northern part of town drains the other way, into Buffalo Creek, which runs northeast to the Watauga River. Before we site a slab, we look at which creek a parcel drains to, where the low ground is, and whether the house pad sits above any area that could be mapped as floodplain. A shop door that faces downhill toward a creek is a drainage problem waiting to happen.

The town's elevation is about 1,923 feet, and Unicoi County as a whole lies entirely within the Blue Ridge Mountains. Its high point, Big Bald, reaches 5,516 feet. Mountain lots mean wind exposure on ridges, cold air pooling in hollows, and snow and ice on steep driveways. We plan grades and turnarounds so a delivery truck and a concrete truck can actually reach the pad.

Mountain soils: shallow on the slopes, deeper on the terraces

The USDA describes two very different soils typical of this kind of country. The Unicoi series, found in the Southern Blue Ridge of Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, is shallow: unweathered bedrock typically sits 7 to 20 inches down, on slopes that usually run 15 to 75 percent. Land like that is mostly woodland and is hard ground for a drainfield or a deep footing. The Statler series, by contrast, forms in loamy alluvium on low terraces along streams in or flowing out of the Unaka Mountains, with slopes mostly 0 to 5 percent, and is well drained. Gentle creek terraces like that are where a lot of valley homes end up. Your parcel's actual soil comes from the survey and the state's site visit, not from a general description, but knowing the difference helps you shop for land.

Septic comes before the floor plan

Most rural lots here will need a septic system. In Tennessee, a septic permit is required to build, modify or repair a system, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) sends an Environmental Scientist to evaluate the site. That scientist may ask for a soils map from a private soil consultant. TDEC asks owners to stake the four corners of the house pad, including porches and garages, mark property corners, and mow the site without cutting or filling the soil. On a shallow, rocky mountain lot, that visit decides where the house can go, so we schedule it early.

What fits a Unicoi lot

• A compact two-story barndo that keeps the footprint small on sloping ground
• A shop house with the bay set into the hillside and living space above
• A single-story barndominium on a creek terrace with a wide porch facing the ridges
• A separate equipment barn for a hobby farm or wood lot

Call (423) 607-8447 or

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to talk through your Unicoi property.