Frequently asked questions

Usually you need at least a zoning approval, and often a building permit as well. Zoning is handled by your city, village, township or county and covers size, height and setbacks. The building permit comes from the certified building department for your address. Very small buildings can be exempt from the building permit but still need zoning; Portage County, for example, exempts residential accessory structures of 200 square feet or less from Residential Code of Ohio permits. Our permits guide walks through both states.

In both states, qualifying agricultural buildings are outside the state building code. Ohio exempts buildings incident to the agricultural use of the land that are not used in retail trade (ORC 3781.06). Pennsylvania excludes agricultural buildings from the Uniform Construction Code (34 Pa. Code 403.1). The exemptions stop at living space, non-farm businesses and, in Pennsylvania, buildings occupied by the general public. Zoning, floodplain and stormwater rules can still apply to an exempt building.

Yes. Handling permits and approvals is a standard step in our process, after the design and quote are settled and before site work begins. We prepare the drawings and applications the zoning office and building department need and work with them through approval. A few forms, such as some agricultural exemption paperwork, may need the property owner's signature, and we will tell you if yours is needed.

Call the zoning office for your parcel and ask for the accessory building rules: maximum floor area, height, setbacks, lot coverage and how many accessory buildings are allowed. The answers vary widely. Tallmadge allows up to 2,500 square feet of combined accessory floor area on a residential lot, while the City of Erie caps detached accessory buildings in residential districts at 720 square feet. Our sizing guide explains how to fit your needs within those limits.

Yes, because setbacks are measured from the property lines, and building inspectors generally will not locate them for you. The City of Lorain's accessory building application, for example, states that its inspectors are not responsible for establishing property lines. If the corner pins are missing or a fence or tree line is the only marker, a survey before design can prevent a building that sits too close to the line.

Look at where water stands after heavy rain, how a long delivery truck would reach the building spot, and whether overhead wires cross the route. Check FEMA's Flood Map Service Center for your address, and note septic fields, wells and any buried lines you installed yourself. None of this replaces our site evaluation, but it makes the first visit more useful. Our site preparation guide has a fuller checklist.

They are the same type of building under different names. The National Frame Building Association describes post-frame as an engineered wood-frame system that uses large solid sawn posts or laminated columns, set in the ground or on a concrete foundation, instead of stud walls. It also notes that the system was first developed as pole buildings or pole barns, mostly for farms, before moving into commercial and residential construction.

It depends on the design. For residential accessory buildings that follow the Residential Code of Ohio's prescriptive post-frame section, posts are no more than 8 feet apart and the trusses line up with the posts. Engineered post-frame buildings can use other spacings, and the National Frame Building Association notes that wider truss spacing saves material and construction time. The tradeoffs are covered in our roof trusses guide.

We build with treated posts, and the details that matter are the treatment level, the embedment and the footing. AWPA Standard U1 places sawn structural building posts in Use Category UC4B, its ground-contact category for critical, hard-to-replace components. Posts also need to sit below the frost line on a proper footing with uplift restraint. Our foundations guide compares embedded posts with other foundation options.

Ask about three things: the steel's gauge, its metallic coating and its paint system. Common metallic coatings are G90 galvanized and AZ50 or AZ55 aluminum-zinc. Steelscape, a coil producer, notes that the corrosion warranty on the metallic coating is separate from the finish warranty on the paint. Color, panel profile and trim also affect looks and maintenance. Our steel roofing and siding guide goes into the options.

It can. When warm, moist air reaches the underside of cold roof steel, water condenses and can drip onto whatever is stored below. Livestock, a damp floor, a heater without venting and fresh concrete all add moisture. The fix is a combination of insulation, a vapor control layer and ventilation suited to how the building is used. See our insulation and condensation guide for the options.

A storage loft is a common option, but it has to be designed in from the start, because the floor load changes the truss and post design. Ohio's prescriptive post-frame section, for instance, applies only to buildings with no attic storage. Living space is a bigger step: it brings in residential code requirements and ends any agricultural exemption for that part of the building. Our lofts and attics guide explains the choices.

Yes. Lean-tos on one or both sidewalls are a practical way to add covered storage for equipment, firewood or livestock, and overhangs protect walls and doorways. Because a lean-to roof sits below the main roof, it has to be designed for snow sliding and drifting off the taller roof. FEMA's snow load guidance lists stepped roofs among the shapes that collect drifts unevenly. See our lean-tos and overhangs guide.

We handle the permits and approvals, prepare the site, and then build. Site preparation covers clearing and leveling as needed and setting up drainage. During construction we keep you updated and keep the site clean and safe. When the building is done, we do our own quality inspection and then walk through the finished building with you to explain its features and answer questions.

The schedule depends on permit review, material lead times, weather, concrete work and the size of the building, so we talk through your timeline at the first consultation and keep you posted as the project moves. Permit review alone varies by office. Tallmadge, for example, says zoning review takes 5 to 14 working days, and Mahoning County says residential plan review usually takes one to two working days.

That depends on the building department and the use. Each building department sets its own inspection stages, so we confirm the list when the permit is issued and schedule each one before work moves on. The City of Lorain, for example, requires a rough-in inspection before anything is concealed. A qualifying farm building outside the building code may have no code inspections, but we still do our own quality inspection on every project.

The roof has to be designed for the snow your location can expect, and that varies across our service area. Mahoning County's regulations list a 25 psf ground snow load, the City of Cleveland lists 30 psf, and the City of Erie lists 40 psf. We use engineered trusses designed for the snow and wind requirements of your site, and we pay extra attention where a lower roof can collect drifting or sliding snow.

Whoever does the digging. Ohio law requires the excavator to notify the utility protection service at least two working days before excavating, and Pennsylvania requires a call to 811 at least three business days ahead. Public utilities will mark their lines, but lines you added yourself, such as a buried feed to a well pump or another outbuilding, are worth showing to your builder.

We are based in Tallmadge, in Summit County, and build throughout Northeast Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania. Our service area pages cover communities from Hudson, Stow, Kent and Medina to Cleveland, Canton, Youngstown and Erie, along with the local permit offices and building conditions in each. Surrounding communities are part of our service area as well, so if your town is not listed, send us the address.

Yes, we build in Northwestern Pennsylvania, including the Erie area. The permit process there works differently from Ohio. Pennsylvania enforces the Uniform Construction Code statewide, but each municipality either enforces it locally, often through a certified third-party agency, or has opted out. Zoning is a separate approval from the township, borough or city. We confirm the process with your municipality before design is final.

Sometimes, but city zoning often limits detached accessory buildings sharply. Canton allows a detached garage of 720 square feet, rising to as much as 1,000 square feet on larger lots, with a 15-foot height limit, and Akron caps accessory buildings at 15 feet to the peak. If you need a large building, a township or rural parcel usually offers far more room. We will tell you honestly if your lot is a poor fit.

Yes, and it is not uniform. Lake-effect snow falls heaviest in the primary snowbelt east of Cleveland and along the Erie shoreline, while areas such as northern Summit County fall in the secondary snowbelt. The National Weather Service puts Erie's average winter snowfall at about 100.9 inches. Design snow loads come from the building department for your address, which is why we confirm them on every project.

Yes. Quotes are free. Once we understand what you need and have looked at the site, we put together a design and a detailed quote that breaks down the costs, so you can see what you are paying for before construction begins. You can start by calling us or using the form on our contact page.

The property address, what the building will be used for, the size you have in mind, the doors you need and anything that has to fit inside, such as an RV, a tractor or a set number of stalls. Tell us about utilities, concrete and interior finish, and whether you want insulation. If you already know your zoning limits or have a survey, share those too.

We design each building around your needs and your site. During design we work out the dimensions, door placements, window locations and other features with you, and we provide detailed drawings so you can see the building before it is built. Options include insulation, door and window packages, concrete floors, lean-tos, lofts and interior partitions or stalls.

Make sure every quote describes the same building, designed for the same snow and wind loads, with the same work included. Check post treatment, steel coating, door models, concrete, site work and permits line by line, and get every quote in writing. Our guide to comparing quotes includes a checklist and the questions worth asking any builder, including us.