Barndominium Builders in Conway, AR

Barndominium builders in Conway are working in one of the faster-growing parts of central Arkansas. Conway, the seat of Faulkner County, grew from 58,908 residents in 2010 to 64,134 in 2020, and the Census Bureau's estimate for July 2025 is 72,328. The city sits in the southwestern corner of the county about 30 miles from Little Rock on Interstate 40, which runs along its northern and eastern edges. That combination of commuting distance and open land just outside town is exactly what pulls people toward a shop house or a barndo on a few acres.

Conway is nicknamed the City of Colleges, home to the University of Central Arkansas, Hendrix College and Central Baptist College. The Census QuickFacts page puts the owner-occupied housing rate at 45.4 percent for 2020-2024, which fits a college town with lots of renters. Buyers who want room for equipment, horses or a workshop often look past the city to the surrounding county.

Two Sets of Rules: City Lot or County Acreage

Building inside Conway

The City of Conway's Building Permits & Inspections office administers the city's adopted construction codes, reviews plans and performs field inspections. Applications go through the city's online Civic Access Portal. The office publishes separate Residential Building Permit Guidelines and Accessory & Prefabricated Building Guidelines, and the second document is worth reading early if your plan includes a pre-engineered metal building kit or a detached shop. The city's Planning & Development department also maintains public GIS web maps that help with a first look at a parcel.

Building in the county

Faulkner County covers 664 square miles and counted 123,498 residents in 2020, up from 113,237 in 2010. Wikipedia describes it as the place where the Ozarks meet the Arkansas River Valley. Outside Conway, the county includes towns and communities such as Greenbrier, Vilonia, Mayflower, Quitman, Guy, Wooster, Enola, Mount Vernon, Holland and Damascus. Hilly, wooded tracts and open valley pasture call for very different site prep, so we price clearing, grading and driveway work after walking the lot.

Septic and Wells on Faulkner County Acreage

Most rural barndominium sites around Conway will need an onsite septic system. Under Arkansas Department of Health rules, a system cannot be built without a construction permit from the department or its local authorized agent, and it cannot be used until it passes inspection and receives an operation permit. A construction permit is good for one year. State setback rules that shape a site plan include:

• 100 feet between the septic system and any domestic water source, stream or lake high-water mark
• 10 feet from the house, any other building and all property lines
• Wells at least 50 feet from any lot line and 100 feet from any septic system on the same or neighboring lots

On a narrow tract, those distances decide where the house, shop, well and drain field can go before we draw a single wall. We lay them out together.

Weather Numbers for a Conway Build

Wikipedia's climate table for Conway (1991-2020 normals) shows 51.19 inches of precipitation a year and about 2.3 inches of snow. The extremes are wide: a record high of 115 degrees F and a record low of minus 15. Those swings, plus humid summers, are why insulation and condensation control get as much attention in a metal-skinned home as the steel itself.

Faulkner County also has a real tornado history. A UA Cooperative Extension fact sheet counts 55 tornado events and 27 deaths in the county from 1950 through 2016, and Conway itself was hit by an F4 on April 10, 1965. We can design an interior safe room or reinforced storm shelter into the slab and floor plan from day one.

Planning Your Conway Barndo

Send us the parcel and your rough wish list: living space, shop bays, porch, garage doors. We will check city versus county jurisdiction, septic room and setbacks, then build a written estimate around a shell, dry-in and finish-out schedule. Call (501) 392-9924 or

Get a Free Estimate

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