The interior of a shouse where a finished living area with warm flooring meets a shop bay with polished concrete and a tall roll-up door.

Shouses in Colorado: Shop and Home Under One Roof

A shouse is a shop and a house under one roof: a big heated or unheated bay for equipment, trailers or work, and a finished home beside it or above it. In Colorado the shop side raises questions a plain house does not. A new well on a parcel under 35 acres may be limited to use inside the house, which matters if the shop needs water. A shop built as its own detached building needs its own electrical permit. And a tall shop roof beside a lower living wing is where snow drifts. We plan around all three from the first sketch.

Stamped drawings where your jurisdiction requires them
Drawn to your jurisdiction's snow, wind and frost values
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Shouses: how the work runs

Four stages, in this order. The sequence matters more than it looks: getting the design values, the water and septic answers and any permits settled before anything is fabricated is what keeps a Colorado build from stalling.

1

Shop first, then the house

We start from what the shop has to hold: the largest vehicle or trailer, the door size, the clear height and whether it is heated. That fixes the span and eave height. The living space is then planned beside or above it, with a fire-rated separation where the jurisdiction requires it and a mudroom between the two so the shop stays in the shop.

2

Water, septic and the shop

A shop sink, a floor drain or a wash bay all depend on the water and wastewater you can actually get. The Division of Water Resources issues household-use-only well permits for use inside one single-family dwelling with no outside watering or livestock, and a new well on a parcel under 35 acres may be limited that way. Shop drains and the septic system are designed together, with the septic permit from your local public health agency.

3

Structure to your jurisdiction's figures

The whole building is drawn to the snow load, wind speed and frost depth your county or city publishes, with particular attention to the step between a tall shop roof and a lower living roof, where snow slides and drifts. Where your building department wants sealed drawings, a Colorado-licensed professional engineer provides them.

4

Build, then finish each side to its own standard

The shell goes up once. The living side is then insulated, finished and inspected as a home; the shop side is finished to whatever you need, from bare steel to a heated, insulated workshop. Electrical and plumbing work is done by licensed electricians and plumbers under their own permits.

A red oxide primed structural steel frame partly erected on a concrete slab, showing bolted knee joints and anchor bolts.
The shop changes the paperwork

Under one roof or across the yard is a permitting decision, not just a layout one

Colorado's state electrical and plumbing permit office requires a separate permit for each detached structure on the same property — its own examples include a garage, a studio and a barn. A shop built into the house is one building; a shop across the yard is two. The water question follows the same line: a household-use-only well serves the inside of one dwelling, so a shop hose bib or a livestock tank may not be allowed on it. Settle where the shop sits before the plan is drawn.

Where we deliver shouses

In Colorado the lines that matter are city limits, county lines and contour lines. Inside a city or town you have its zoning and its building department; out in the county, some counties enforce a building code and some rural ones do not; and in the mountain counties the snow load climbs with elevation, so two parcels in the same county can be drawn to very different roofs. Cross one of those lines and what changes is whether the build is inspected, who reviews the drawings and whose snow, wind and frost values they answer to. The septic permit from the local public health agency and the well permit from the Division of Water Resources go with you almost everywhere.

Barndominium builders across Colorado.

Every city and county we build in has its own answer on permits, septic, water and design values. The service area pages set out what each one publishes.

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What actually decides the price

Square footage is the number everyone leads with, and it is rarely the one that moves a barndominium budget. These four do.

  • Shop span and door size

    A shop is defined by its biggest door and its clear span. A 14-foot overhead door for a motorhome needs a taller eave and a heavier header than a 10-foot door for a pickup, and a column-free shop floor costs more than one with a post in the middle. Those two choices move the frame more than the living side does.

  • Snow where the roofs meet

    The step between a tall shop roof and a lower living roof is where drifting snow concentrates. At Mesa County's 30 lb ground snow load around Grand Junction it is a design detail; at the 90 to 100 lb it prints for Powderhorn and Mesa Lakes it can drive the whole roof layout. A single roof line over both sides is often the cheaper answer at elevation.

  • Heated shop or cold shop

    A heated, insulated shop costs more to build and less to live beside; an unheated shop is cheaper but needs a properly insulated wall between it and the house. Where your jurisdiction has an energy code, conditioned space is what it regulates, so deciding which part of the shop is heated is part of the design, not an afterthought.

  • What the well permit allows

    A domestic well on a parcel of 35 acres or more may serve up to three homes, water an acre of lawn and garden and water livestock. A household-use-only well does none of the outside work. If the shop needs water, or a horse needs a tank, the parcel size and the well permit decide what is possible and what it costs to get there.

The interior of a shouse where a finished living area with warm flooring meets a shop bay with polished concrete and a tall roll-up door.

Shouses in Colorado: common questions

8 questions we get asked most often about building in Colorado. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.

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What is a shouse?
A shop house: one building with a working shop and a finished home. Some put the living space beside the shop, some above it on a mezzanine or second floor. It is a barndominium with the emphasis on the shop, and in Colorado it is popular with buyers who need room for trailers, equipment or a business.
Can the shop have water on a household-use-only well?
Possibly not. The Division of Water Resources describes household-use-only permits as for ordinary household uses inside one single-family dwelling, with no outside water use or livestock watering. A sink inside the house side is one thing; a wash bay or a hose bib in the shop may not be. If the shop needs water, check the parcel's well permit, or the size of the parcel for a new one, before you design around it.
Does a detached shop need its own permits?
Often, yes. Colorado's state electrical and plumbing permit office requires a separate permit for each detached structure on the same property, and a county or city with a building code will usually permit it as its own building too. A shop built into the same building as the house avoids that duplication, which is one reason buyers choose a shouse.
Is a fire wall needed between the shop and the house?
Usually some separation is, where a building code applies. The residential code requires separation between a dwelling and an attached garage, and a shop that stores vehicles and fuel is treated at least that seriously. Your building department decides what it requires; we draw it in from the start rather than finding out at plan review.
Can I run a business out of the shop?
That is a zoning question more than a building one. Zoning codes commonly allow a home occupation with limits on employees, customers and signs, and may treat a commercial shop differently from a hobby shop; the terms are set by your county or city, not by the state. We check the zoning on your parcel before the shop is sized, because a business use can change what the building has to be.
Steel or post-frame for a shouse?
Both work. Steel gives you the widest column-free shop floor and handles tall doors well. Post-frame is often cheaper at moderate spans and easier to insulate on the living side. The shop's clear span, the snow load at your elevation and your soils report usually decide it.
Who does the electrical and plumbing work?
Licensed electricians and plumbers, under their own permits. In Colorado those trades are licensed by the state, and the state inspects wherever the local jurisdiction has no electrical or plumbing inspection program of its own. We coordinate the schedule; the trades hold the permits for their work.
How do I get started on a shouse?
Tell us where the land is, what the shop has to hold, and how much living space you want. From the location we find your jurisdiction's snow load and frost depth, whether there is a county building code, and what the well picture looks like. Start the survey and we will come back with how the shop and the house should fit together on your land.

Keep reading

The pages that answer the next question this one raises.

Barndominium With Shop

The plan-side version of the same idea: living space and a working bay under one roof.

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Are Barndominiums Worth It?

The shop-plus-living economics is the strongest case for this building type.

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40x60 Barndominium

The footprint that most comfortably splits into living and working halves.

Read it

Ready to put shouses against a real plan? Start there and the rest follows.

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Tell us about the land

Tell us where the parcel is and what you want on it, and we will come back with who has jurisdiction, what the land needs before it can be built on, and a realistic budget range. Starting the survey costs nothing.

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