Bartow County Inland wind zone

Barndominium Builders in Bartow County, GA

Bartow County is one of the largest counties in Georgia by area, 458.91 square miles at 237 people per square mile, with 457 farms working 69,569 acres and just over half of them under 50 acres. Its zoning ordinance carries a rule most barndominium buyers have never heard of: every single-family dwelling in the county must have a roof pitch of at least 5:12, and the zoning department checks it before you reach the building permit counter. Bartow runs its own building inspection department out of Cartersville and works to the 2024 IRC with Georgia Amendments.

Bartow County at a glance

County
Bartow County
Population
120,800
Cities and towns
Cartersville, Adairsville, Emerson, Euharlee, Kingston, White, Taylorsville
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Building conditions in Bartow County

What actually changes from one Georgia jurisdiction to the next: who issues the permit, what wind speed the structure has to be engineered to, and what the ground is like. These are the numbers your drawings have to satisfy.

Build conditions for Bartow County, Bartow County: design wind speed Confirmed per parcel, inland. BUILD CONDITIONS BARTOW COUNTY, GABartow CountyINLAND WIND ZONEOUTSIDE WBDR DESIGN WIND SPEED Confirmed per parcelGeorgia jurisdictions fill in their own design criteria table; we confirm the figure with BartowCounty before plans are sealedZONING · A-1 (AGRICULTURE)2-acre minimumSingle-family dwellings are a permitted use on tracts of not less…PERMIT TIMING30 daysSec. 18-166 duty to act — no deemed-approved remedyWHO ISSUES THE PERMITBartow County Community Development — Building I…135 West Cherokee Avenue, Suite 120, Cartersville
Build conditions for Bartow County, drawn from the sourced facts on this page. Every figure above is cited in the quick-facts panel below, with its source and vintage.
Minimum roof pitch
5:12 on any single-family dwelling — checked by the zoning department before a building permit is issued

Bartow County Zoning Ordinance Sec. 10.1.4, adopted 21 July 2021 as amended through 16 Mar 2022; and Bartow County Building Inspections, Single-Family Residential Permitting Procedures, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Minimum heated floor area
1,200 sq ft of heated living space, and a later addition cannot be used to reach the minimum

Bartow County Zoning Ordinance Sec. 10.1.2, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Zoning district and minimum lot
A-1 Agriculture, 2-acre minimum. No A-1 lot may be created, split or reduced below two acres.

Bartow County Zoning Ordinance Sec. 7.1 and Table 8.1.1, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Building code enforcement
Bartow County Building Inspections enforces the 2024 IRC, IBC, IMC, IPC, IFGC, IFC and ISPSC with Georgia Amendments, the 2023 NEC and the 2015 IECC

Bartow County Building Inspections department page, bartowcountyga.gov, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Permit decision
Within 30 days of an application deemed complete, by county ordinance

Bartow County Code of Ordinances Sec. 18-166, via Municode, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Farms and acreage
457 farms on 69,569 acres — about a quarter of the county — and 232 of those farms are under 50 acres

USDA NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture, Bartow County profile, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Also worth knowing before you build in Bartow County

Barns need no permit — houses do
A structure housing animals or used for agricultural practices and not open to the public needs no building permit. A residence is neither, and gets none of that exemption.

Bartow County Code of Ordinances Sec. 18-162(2), via Municode, fetched 31 Aug 2026; O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(e)

Septic before permit
No building permit issues until a septic tank permit or sewer tap is in hand, along with driveway and water approvals. A well requires a lot of at least one acre.

Bartow County Code of Ordinances Sec. 18-118; Bartow County Single-Family Residential Permitting Procedures, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Time limit on an unfinished build
Permits expire 12 months after issue, and leaving a home framed or dried-in with no substantial progress for more than six months is a violation

Bartow County Code of Ordinances Secs. 18-168 and 18-129, via Municode, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Ground conditions
Ridge and Valley country at the Cartersville Fault, where four geologic provinces meet. Limestone and dolostone under the valleys, thin soil over rock on the ridges, and 600 to 2,400 ft of elevation across the county.

Bartow County Geography and Climate page, bartowcountyga.gov; New Georgia Encyclopedia, Valley and Ridge Geologic Province; USGS geologic units for FIPS 13015. Fetched 31 Aug 2026

Growth and building activity
120,800 people as of July 2025, up 11.0% since the 2020 census, with 1,030 building permits issued in 2025

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Bartow County, Georgia, V2025 vintage, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Accessory buildings and ADUs
On an A-1 lot of two acres or more a shop may go up before the house, but the ordinance says it cannot contain living space. A separate accessory dwelling unit is allowed once a house exists, capped at 1,000 sq ft or half the main house.

Bartow County Zoning Ordinance Sec. 7.1 and Sec. 5.3.5, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Below the slab

The expensive surprises are in the ground, not the building

Most of Bartow County rates poorly for dwellings in the soil survey, and the reason is water sitting close to the surface rather than weak ground. That makes the pad elevation and the drainage plan the two line items most likely to move your budget. We price the dirt before we price the building.

What we build in Bartow County

All nine services are available across Bartow County. The three below are where a project on a Bartow County parcel usually starts — the permit, the drawings, and the build itself. What a build costs depends far more on the parcel than on square footage, so we price against your land rather than publishing a rate card.

Permitting & Engineering

Sealed structural engineering and the permit that depends on it, from submittal through final inspection.

Custom Plans

Barndominium floor plans drawn to your land, your family, and the 2024 Georgia residential code.

Turnkey Builds

Start to finish barndominium construction: we handle permits, slab, shell, and full interior finish.

All nine services we build in Bartow County

What a build looks like

Three stages every Bartow County project passes through, from a raw parcel to a finished home. Site work first, because that is where the budget is decided.

Aerial view of an undeveloped rural Georgia lot with cleared grass, pine treeline and a red clay access track.
Stage one

The parcel

Zoning, setbacks, flood zone and utility access get checked before anything is drawn.

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Stage two

Pad and permit

Clearing, grading and a compacted pad, while the submittal works through Bartow County.

A finished barndominium at dusk with warm interior lighting glowing through its large windows.
Stage three

Frame to finish

Shell erected and dried in, then systems, insulation and interior finish through to CO.

Those are the rules for Bartow County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Bartow County

Bartow County and the rural land around it. The buildable acreage for a project this size usually sits outside the city limits, which is frequently what changes who issues your permit.

Our Bartow County service area, covering Bartow County and the surrounding rural acreage. We build across this area from our office in Macon, GA — this map marks the territory we serve, not a branch location.

Keep reading

The questions that usually come next once you know what Bartow County allows.

Barndominium Cost Guide

Sourced per-square-foot ranges by tier and by size, with a calculator built on the same figures.

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Is It Legal in Georgia?

Classification, zoning, the HOA gate, and the agricultural exemption that does not cover a home.

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How Long Does It Take?

Census build-duration data, and the Georgia statute setting the permit clock.

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Sources for this page

The primary documents behind the Bartow County figures above. We would rather you checked them than took our word for it.

Nearby areas we build in

Others we cover in this part of Georgia. The permitting authority, the adopted design criteria and the zoning can all differ from one to the next.

Cherokee County

Cherokee County
Paulding County

Paulding County
Dawson County

Dawson County

Building in Bartow County: common questions

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

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Is it true Bartow County will not let me build a low-pitch barndominium?
It is true, and it catches people out. Section 10.1.4 of the county zoning ordinance requires every single-family dwelling in Bartow to have a roof pitch of at least 5:12. Most stock barndominium and post-frame packages sold online are drawn at 3:12 or 4:12, because a shallow roof is cheaper and it is part of what gives the type its barn look. Those plans cannot be permitted as a house here. The county checks it early too: its own permitting procedure tells you to get a zoning verification form confirming the roof pitch will be a minimum of 5:12 before you ever reach the building permit counter. We design to 5:12 or steeper from the first sketch in Bartow, which is easier than redrawing a roof after a kit has been ordered.
My parcel is zoned A-1 and used as a farm. Doesn't that make my building exempt from permits?
A barn is exempt. A house is not. Section 18-162(2) of the Bartow County code says no building permit is required for a structure used for housing animals or for other agricultural practices that is not open to the public, and section 18-162(1) exempts an accessory building under 400 square feet that is not used as living quarters. The moment a building is somewhere people live, it is neither of those things. Georgia law works the same way at state level: the farm building exemption at O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(e) applies only to structures not used for residential purposes. So a barndominium in Bartow needs a permit, meets the 2024 IRC with Georgia Amendments, and also has to clear the county's own 5:12 pitch, 1,200 square foot and porch rules for dwellings.
How much land do I need in Bartow County, and can I put the shop up first?
Two acres. The A-1 Agriculture district sets a two-acre minimum and the ordinance closes every route around it — no new lot under two acres, no splitting a sub-two-acre piece off an existing A-1 tract, no remnant under two acres, and no reducing an existing A-1 lot below two. Setbacks in A-1 are 40 feet at the front from the right-of-way, 10 feet at the sides and 25 feet at the rear, with a 50 foot height limit. You can put the shop up first: on an A-1 lot of two acres or more the county allows an accessory structure before the principal residence exists. The condition is written into the same paragraph — that structure cannot have living space in it. If you are planning to live in the shop while you build, that is the sentence to read twice.
What is the design wind speed in Bartow County?
Georgia does not set one figure statewide. Each jurisdiction fills in its own design criteria table, and Bartow has not published its number. What the county does say is telling: its plan design requirements make the wind speed the building is designed for a required item on the cover sheet, and state that determining the specifications required by the mandatory codes is the plan designer's responsibility rather than something settled at plan review. So we confirm the figure with Bartow County Building Inspections for the specific parcel before anything is sealed. Be careful with numbers you find online for this county — the widely repeated 70 mph figure is a HUD manufactured-housing wind zone and has nothing to do with what a site-built or post-frame house is designed to.
Who actually inspects the work, and how long does a permit take?
Bartow County Building Inspections, part of Community Development at 135 West Cherokee Avenue in Cartersville. Unusually, the county's building official is a certified CBO working under contract rather than a county staff member, which changes nothing about what the code requires but is worth knowing when you call. On timing, section 18-166 of the county code obliges the building official to act on an application within 30 days of it being deemed complete. That is a Bartow rule, not the state one, and it is a duty to decide rather than an automatic approval, so a complete first submittal is what actually saves time. Separately, state law requires the building official to tell you within five business days whether your application is complete.
Do I need a septic system, and what has to happen first?
Most A-1 parcels in Bartow are on septic, and the order matters. Section 18-118 says no building permit issues until you can show the other county approvals, and that list includes a septic tank permit or a sewer tap, plus a driveway permit and water. If a system already exists you need a verification letter from Environmental Health that it is functional. Bartow County Environmental Health handles the permit and the soil evaluation. If you plan to drill a well instead of taking county water, the county requires a lot of at least one acre, which the two-acre A-1 minimum already clears. The soil evaluation is worth doing before the house is sited rather than after: valley ground here is limestone and shale derived clay that drains slowly, and ridge ground is often thin over rock.

Building in Bartow County?

Start with the plan. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it, then confirm what Bartow County will actually let you put on the parcel and what wind load it has to meet. That conversation costs nothing.

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