A shop house — a shouse — puts a working shop and a finished home under one roof, usually with a clear-span structure that lets you split the building wherever you want it split.
That flexibility is the whole appeal, and it is also why stock plans so often miss. A shouse has variables an off-the-shelf plan cannot guess: how wide the shop bay needs to be, how tall the door has to be, and how much of the building is living space versus working space.
Below are stock shouse layouts you can download today, and what a custom design costs if none of them fit.
Shop House Plans
Shop-Dominant Layouts
These four give more square footage to the shop than to the house. If the building is really a workspace you happen to live in, start here.
BG-20013 Lawson — 3 Bed, 2 Full + 2 Half Bath, 3,043 Sq Ft
3,043 sq ft heated · two story · 3,874 sq ft shop · loft · den · open concept
$1,450.00
The largest shop in the group and the largest in the catalog for a plan this size — the shop is bigger than the house. Built for equipment, a business, or both.
PL-2822 Gary — 4 Bed, 6.5 Bath, 3,994 Sq Ft
3,994 sq ft heated · two story · 2,700 sq ft shop plus a 1,500 sq ft garage · wine cellar · walkout basement · wraparound porch
$1,349.99
The only plan here that separates the shop from the garage, so vehicles and work do not share a door. Also the most finished house of the eight.
BG-20050 Stratford — 3 Bed, 2.5 Bath, 1,881 Sq Ft
1,881 sq ft heated · single story · 2,513 sq ft shop · three-car garage · pool house · wet bar
$1,250.00
A modest single-story house attached to a shop a third larger than it. The best ratio here for someone who wants the workspace without a big mortgage.
JRW-10005 Nelson — 1 Bed, 1 Bath, 628 Sq Ft
628 sq ft heated · single story · 1,700 sq ft shop · two tall overhead doors · separate storage garage
$1,250.00
The most shop-dominant layout in the catalog — the living quarters are roughly a third of the shop. The photos on the listing are of a finished build rather than renderings.
House-Dominant Layouts
These four lead with the house and attach a working shop. If this is your home first and a workspace second, start here.
PL-2854 Marissa — 3 Bed, 3 Bath, 3,190 Sq Ft
3,190 sq ft heated · two story · 1,932 sq ft garage and shop · four-car · loft · attic · mud room
$1,349.99
The biggest house of the eight with a shop large enough to still be a real workspace. Four-car capacity makes it the pick if vehicles are the priority.
BG-20083 Devon — 3 Bed, 2 Full + 2 Half Bath, 2,783 Sq Ft
2,783 sq ft heated · two story · 1,361 sq ft garage · three-car · half bath in the garage · loft · den
$1,450.00
A half bath inside the garage is the detail that matters here — it is what stops a workshop sending people back through the house.
BCO-40193 — 3 Bed, 3 Bath, 2,400 Sq Ft
2,400 sq ft · single story · 24′ x 45′ garage and workshop · 80′ x 30′ footprint · full-width 55′ front and rear porches
$1,349.99
The only plan here that publishes its footprint, which makes it the easiest to check against a lot before you buy. Three full baths on one level.
BCO-40193-K Kriss — 3 Bed, 2.5 Bath, 2,035 Sq Ft
2,035 sq ft heated · single story · 1,150 sq ft garage · daylight basement · cold-formed steel kit available
$849.99
The cheapest entry point of the eight, and the only one with a daylight basement — useful on a sloped lot where a flat shop pad would mean moving a lot of dirt.
Custom Shop House Floor Plans
Shop houses are the hardest building type to buy off the shelf, because the shop half is where every owner differs. A layout that works for a woodworker does not work for someone storing a 40-foot RV.
These are the decisions a stock plan has already made for you, and the ones people most often need changed:
- Shop bay width and depth. A two-car workshop and a three-bay equipment shop are different buildings.
- Door height. A standard overhead door is fine for vehicles. An RV, a boat on a trailer or a lifted truck usually needs fourteen to sixteen feet of clear height, which changes the sidewall and the roof.
- The living-to-shop split. The same footprint can be two-thirds home, or two-thirds shop. That one ratio changes every interior wall.
- Whether the shop is heated and insulated. A conditioned shop shares the home’s mechanical system and needs a vapor barrier and a thicker wall assembly. An unconditioned one does not.
- A mezzanine or loft over the shop. Adds storage or a second living area without adding footprint, but it has to be designed in from the start.
- Where the shop door faces. Driveway approach, turning radius and setback often decide this before anything else does.
What A Custom Shouse Design Costs
Custom design is priced by the square foot, and shop space costs a quarter of what living space does — which is why a custom shouse is cheaper to draw than its size suggests.
$2.00 per square foot of living space, $0.50 per square foot of shop, garage and porch. Minimum 1,200 square feet of living space.
| Living space | Shop, garage and porch | Design cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1,200 sq ft | 3,000 sq ft | $4,500 |
| 2,000 sq ft | 2,500 sq ft | $5,250 |
| 3,000 sq ft | 4,000 sq ft | $8,000 |
You get ten sheets — dimensioned floor plans, foundation plan and detail, roof plan and framing, wall section, plus HVAC, electrical and plumbing. First draft in 7 to 10 business days, final within another 3 to 5. Two rounds of changes are included, and anything your builder or permit office needs adjusted in the first month is free.
Custom designs are drawn from your sketch or your description, not from a stock plan. If a stock plan is close but not quite right, a modification is the cheaper route and starts at $400.
Create Your Own Custom Shop House Design →
What is a SHouse?
A shop house is a structure that combines a house and a workshop or garage. While traditional residences may include a garage, typically, the garage accounts for a fairly small percentage of the overall square footage.
With a shop house, the workshop or garage accounts for a large percentage of the square footage. It may even be around half the total structure.
Consider a shop house if:
- You want to live and work on your professional trade in the same building.
- You want to live and work on your hobbies in the same building.
- You have large vehicles you need to store and/or work on, and need room for them all plus any large equipment you might have.
Why Are Barndominiums Ideal For Shop House Plans?
Not all shop houses are barndominiums, and not all barndominiums are shop houses. But you will notice there is a sizeable overlap in these two categories of homes.
Barndominiums are well-suited to shop house design for a few reasons:
- Barndominiums can be constructed with large, unobstructed spaces inside. Many barndos have open floor plans, which is part of their appeal. Naturally, that kind of floor plan lends well to a shop house.
- The high walls and ceilings in a barndo pole building make it easier to store tall equipment and vehicles. These homes can also feature extra large windows, providing plenty of natural illumination for you to work by.
- A well-insulated barndo can be energy-efficient. That can be beneficial if you want your workshop or garage to be heated. In fact, studs in pole barn homes are placed farther apart than those in traditional homes, giving you more space for insulation.
- A metal barndominium is low-maintenance and durable. That means you can spend more time working on your projects rather than making repairs to your home.
- Barn-style homes are cost-effective to build. That means you may be able to afford more square footage and features than you could with a traditional home. That gives you more space for your workshop or garage.
What are the Main Benefits of Shop Homes?
Now let’s talk about some of the advantages of living in a shop house. If a shouse would be suited to your needs and goals, you probably already can picture them pretty well. But let’s go ahead and lay them out for you anyway, just so you fully understand why shop houses have become so popular.
- You can work on your projects anytime without commuting. You no longer have to hop in your vehicle and drive to a shop. You just need to walk from your living quarters to your shop.
- You can skip paying rental fees. Perhaps right now, you are renting space in a garage or workshop. Not only do you have to keep driving there, but you have that extra monthly expense. You will be able to stop paying it once you have a shop house.
- Your workshop is entirely your own. Renting a workshop often means doing so as shared space. If you are tired of people moving around tools or messing up the layout or equipment in a shared workshop, you will be relieved to finally have a workshop that is yours and yours alone. You also will not have to deal with anyone else being around while you work.
- You have room for storage. A shop house not only gives you room to work, but also offers you considerable storage space. You can use this space for workshop equipment, vehicles, other large, bulky items that would be hard to store elsewhere, as well as just general purpose storage.
- Your workshop can be climate-controlled. One more fantastic thing about owning a shop house is that if you want, you can run heat and air conditioning in the shop portion of the house, or even install radiant flooring. Contrast this with a typical garage or workshop, which is usually not climate-controlled, making it uncomfortable to spend time in.
Do Shouses Have Any Drawbacks?
While shop houses have numerous benefits, shop house designs do have the potential for drawbacks as well.
For one thing, giving more square footage to the shop or garage means you may need to reduce the square footage you can dedicate to living spaces. On the other hand, if you prefer to have equal space for both the work shop and living area, consider going a step further with a shopdominium floor plan.
There is also the matter of noise. It is pretty easy for the noise from the workshop to carry to other parts of the house. So, you may need superior soundproofing inside the home so as not to disturb others while you are working in your shop. Thankfully, with the money you save by choosing a metal prefab barndo, you should have no problem adding this feature.
How Much Does it Cost to Build a Shouse?
Is a shouse within your budget?
The exact costs can vary based on a number of factors, but below are typical costs for each component. We are assuming that you are building a shop house that measures around 40’ x 60’.
- Concrete foundation and framing: $25,000
- Steel framing kit: $55,000
- Buildout and finishes: $70,000
- Miscellaneous expenses: $15,000
This adds up to approximately $165,000.
As you can see, that is an extremely reasonable cost estimate to build a spacious home with a combined workshop! You would pay a good deal more than that to purchase most traditional homes.
Here are some of the factors that can push costs up or down for building a shop house:
- The square footage of the home
- The overall design and layout
- The finishing options you choose
- Features and finishing
- Insulation type and thickness
- Cost of materials at the time you buy them
- The cost of the contractors and sub-contractors you use
There may be other factors that can also raise or lower your costs.
How to Build Your Own Shop Home
We have gone over the benefits of shop houses, and also explored what you can expect to pay to build a shop house. How can you get started building a shop house of your own?
1. Research.
Before you can dive in with building a shop house, you need to research the local building codes and zoning regulations. Make sure that a shop house is legal on the land where you want to put it, and that you understand all the requirements that it will need to meet to be up to code.
This is also a good time for you to start thinking about what you want and need in your shop house floor plan.
2. Choose a shop house design.
The next thing you will need to do is find a shop house design that will suit your needs. There are a wide range of floor plans for farm shops; you may be able to purchase one of the existing designs from a metal building company and have all that you need.
If you want to customize it, you can work with one of the designers at the company that sold you the plan. You also can commission them to design you a custom plan from scratch.
3. Apply for building permits.
Once you have your shouse floor plans, the next step is to apply for your building permits. Your local building department can tell you what you need to submit in order to get approved.
If you have difficulty completing this step on your own, check with your building company. Some of them offer applying for building permits on your behalf as one of their services to help speed things along.
4. Finance your project.
After you are approved and you get your building permits, you can start shopping around for a loan. When you are ready to apply, you should bring full documentation for your shop house project to the lender. That includes documents such as your building permits, your blueprints, and your site survey.
By providing this documentation, you increase your chances of approval. As this is a construction project and a non-traditional home type, it is extra important to do all you can to prove your project is feasible.
5. Prepare your building site.
During this process, you will need to begin readying your building site for construction. The steps depend on the site in question as well as the construction method being utilized, but may include:
- Adding utilities to the site such as plumbing/water, electrical, sewer, and an access road.
- Removing obstacles that would be in the way of construction (trees or large rocks, etc.)
- Making the building site level.
- Adding a foundation.
Sometimes this step is relatively quick and straightforward. Other times it may be very involved.
6. Start construction phase.
The next step is the one you have been waiting for. It is time to build your shop house. Shouse kits are fast and easy to order online. Buy your kit, and the prefab components for your metal shop house will be shipped to your building site for assembly.
Here are some of the advantages of the prefabricated building system for shop houses:
- The price to construct your home is minimized, as this is a cost-effective way to build.
- The time involved to construct your home is also less than what you would need to commit to build a stick-built home.
- The prefabrication process takes place in an indoor facility with controlled conditions. This allows for more precisely engineered components, making for a higher quality structure and lower amounts of material waste.
- There is less chaos to deal with at the building site, and reduced cleanup required afterwards.
It usually takes around six months to build a barndominium. Once the building process is completed, you can move in your furniture and appliances, and start living in your shop house.
Get Your Own Shouse Kit
Shop houses have taken off in popularity lately for many good reasons. They offer unparalleled convenience for those who want to be able to work on their trades or projects right in their own homes. To explore metal building shop house designs now, click on any of the links below to visit our recommended metal building companies.
Shouse FAQ
Can I turn a stock plan into a shop house?
Often yes. A plan with an attached garage can frequently be extended into a shop bay, and that is a modification rather than a custom design — it starts at $400 instead of being priced per square foot.
How big should the shop be in a shop house?
Most owners land between 1,200 and 2,400 square feet of shop. Below about 1,000 it stops working as a real workspace. Above about 3,000 it is usually a commercial building with living quarters attached, which changes how it is permitted and financed.
Do I need a custom plan for an RV bay?
Usually. The clear height an RV needs drives the sidewall height and the door header, and most stock plans are drawn for standard vehicle doors. It is the most common reason a shouse buyer ends up commissioning a custom design.
Choose Your Floor plan
Choose from over 1,200 ready-to-build stock plans, available for instant download. Most stock plans can be modified to fit your specific lot starting at $400.
Best for: Residential Homes – Ready To Build
CREATE Your CUSTOM DESIGN
Have your plan drawn to fit your lot and your exact layout — no compromises. $2 per square foot for heated/living areas and $0.50 for unheated spaces.
Best for: Residential Homes – Complete Design Control
Start With A Kit
Steel kits are best for DIY customers, commercial buildings, workshops, or those looking for max savings. They are delivered to you, and you or your contractors erect the kit.
Best for: DIY Customers, Shop Houses & Garages
