Barndominium Floor Plans with Loft in Maryland

A loft is the feature that makes a barndominium's tall clear-span room feel like a barn: an open platform over part of the great room, reached by a stair, used as an office, a play area or a guest space. In Maryland it comes with a useful twist. Because every new home here is sprinklered, the code allows a larger loft than it does in an unsprinklered house, up to half of the room below instead of a third, if the loft stays open. The layouts below are concept plans, not permit drawings.

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What actually changes with this feature

The look is the easy part. These are the decisions that follow from it.

Seven feet above and below

The code requires a clear height of at least 7 feet both above and below the mezzanine floor. With a typical floor structure, that puts the loft floor roughly 8 feet up and needs at least 7 feet of clear height under the roof steel above it, which is why lofts suit barndominiums with 14- to 16-foot sidewalls or a steep roof pitch.

Open to the room, or it is not a loft

A mezzanine must stay open to the room it sits in, apart from walls up to 36 inches high, columns and posts, or up to 42 inches under the sprinklered half-area allowance. Up to a tenth of the loft can be enclosed. Close more of it in and it is treated as a story, with the rules that follow. A sprinklered building of no more than two stories can enclose a loft entirely, but those relaxations are not available to a loft using the half-area allowance, which has to stay open.

A real stair to get there

The loft's way out follows the code's stair rules: a stair at least 36 inches wide, risers no taller than 7-3/4 inches, treads at least 10 inches deep and 6 feet 8 inches of headroom. The code accepts a ship's ladder or alternating-tread stair as the way out only for a loft of 200 square feet or less, so anything larger gets a full stair. Place the stair so it lands in the great room without crossing the kitchen work zone.

A loft bedroom needs an escape window

If the loft is used for sleeping, it is a sleeping room and needs its own emergency escape and rescue opening of at least 5.7 square feet net clear, with the sill no more than 44 inches above the loft floor, plus a smoke alarm. On a barndominium that usually means a gable-end window at loft level.

The sprinkler bonus

In a sprinklered Maryland home, a loft can cover half the room below

The residential code treats an open loft as a mezzanine. Normally the mezzanines in a room may cover no more than one-third of that room's floor area. The code raises that to one-half where the dwelling has an automatic sprinkler system, provided the loft is open to the room except for closets and bathrooms and any walls along its open side are no more than 42 inches high. Maryland requires sprinklers in every new one- and two-family dwelling and bars counties from weakening that rule (Public Safety Article §12-504), so a new barndominium here starts with the larger allowance available. Over a 30 by 40 great room, that is the difference between a 400-square-foot loft and a 600-square-foot one.

Common ways to build this

Three common ways to lay this out. Yours does not have to match one exactly — this is a starting point for the conversation, not a catalog.

Office loft over the great room

1,600 sq ft main floor / 400 sq ft open loft

A single-level three-bedroom plan with an open loft over one end of the great room, used as an office or reading area. The stair rises along the side wall and the loft rail looks down over the living area.

Half-room loft in a sprinklered plan

1,200 sq ft great room and kitchen / 600 sq ft loft

A 30 by 40 great room with a loft covering half of it, kept open along its long side and with low walls no higher than 42 inches, using the sprinklered-dwelling allowance. The loft holds a play area and a guest sleeping zone with a gable escape window.

Loft over the bedroom wing

1,800 sq ft main floor / 500 sq ft loft over the bedrooms

The bedrooms keep a standard ceiling, and the space above them becomes a loft that looks back over the vaulted great room. The loft floor is simply the bedroom ceiling structure, which keeps the framing economical.

Ways to build this

This layout can go together several ways. These are the service lines most relevant to it.

Custom Plans

Custom barndominium plans in Maryland: floor plans, 3D views and a permit-ready drawing set built around your land, your shop and your budget.

Steel Construction

Steel barndominium construction in Maryland: red-iron frames designed for your site, erected on engineered foundations and finished as homes.

Pole Barn Homes

Pole barn homes in Maryland: wood post-frame barndominiums built as permitted houses, from shell to finished home, with or without a shop.

Barndominium with a Loft: common questions

7 questions worth settling before this layout goes any further. If yours is not on the list, put it in the survey.

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How big can a barndominium loft be?

Normally up to one-third of the floor area of the room it is in. In a dwelling with an automatic sprinkler system the code allows up to one-half, provided the loft stays open to the room apart from closets, bathrooms and walls no higher than 42 inches. Every new home in Maryland has sprinklers.

When does a loft count as a second story?

When it stops meeting the mezzanine rules: too large a share of the room, or enclosed beyond the openness limits. Then it is treated as a story, which changes the framing, the stair and the escape-window rules for the whole upper level.

How much ceiling height do I need for a loft?

At least 7 feet clear above and below the loft floor. In practice that means sidewalls of about 14 feet or more, or a steep roof pitch, in the part of the building where the loft sits.

Can I sleep in the loft?

Yes, if it is treated as a sleeping room: it needs an escape window meeting the minimum size and sill height, a smoke alarm, and a proper stair.

Can the loft be reached by a ladder?

Only a small one. The code allows a ship's ladder or alternating-tread stair as the way out of a loft of 200 square feet or less. A larger loft needs a stair meeting the minimum width, riser height, tread depth and headroom.

Does a loft need a railing?

Yes. The open edge of a loft more than 30 inches above the floor below needs a guard at least 36 inches high. Many plans use a steel cable or glass rail to keep the view open.

Will a loft be hot in summer?

It sits in the warmest air in the house, and NOAA's state climate summary describes Maryland summers as warm and humid. Plan the loft with its own supply and return air, or a ceiling fan and an operable gable window, rather than relying on the great room's system alone. Licensed trade contractors handle the HVAC.

Keep reading

The pages that answer the next question this one raises.

2 story barndominium floor plans

When a loft grows past the mezzanine rules and becomes a second floor, with stairs and upstairs bedrooms.

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Modern barndominium floor plans

Open ceilings, exposed steel and big glass: the style most lofts are designed around.

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Want this layout tested against your program and your parcel? That is where a build actually starts.

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Sources

Start with a concept layout

Tell us what you want to build and we will talk through this layout for your program: how it sits on your parcel, where the septic area and any Critical Area line fall, which county or town office permits it, and a realistic budget range. The layouts on this site are concept plans, not permit drawings. That first conversation costs nothing.

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