Flat green Gulf Coastal Plain near Houston with a slow bayou, live oaks draped in Spanish moss, and cumulus building overhead.
Montgomery County 2012 IRC as adopted here

Barndominium Builders in Conroe, TX

Conroe is the one place in our Houston service area where the land question has a yes in it. The city grew past 119,000 while Montgomery County passed 781,000, and that growth is running north and east into open Piney Woods acreage rather than filling in the last quarter-acre lots. Three different rule sets sit within a few miles of each other. Inside the city limits Conroe runs an adopted residential code with permits, plan review and inspections, but no zoning ordinance at all. Its five-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction is a platting regime, not a building-code one. And in unincorporated Montgomery County the Permit Department states in writing that building codes are not enforced on single-family homes, which leaves septic, floodplain and the licensed trades doing the work instead. Which of the three your tract falls in changes the whole sequence, and it is the first thing to settle.

Conroe at a glance

County
Montgomery County
Population
119,564
Where we build
Conroe, Montgomery County, Houston, Liberty County

ZIPs 77301, 77302, 77303, 77304, 77306, 77384, 77385

Site visits
Site visits arranged across Conroe and out into Montgomery County
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Building conditions in Conroe

What actually changes from one Texas jurisdiction to the next: who issues the permit, whether the residential code is enforced there at all, what 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 Conroe , Montgomery County, Texas . BUILD CONDITIONS CONROE, TXMontgomery County2012 IRCADOPTED RESIDENTIAL CODE2012 IRCThis jurisdiction publishes no design wind speed. It is settled in writing with the authority overyour parcel before the frame is ordered.ZONING · NONE — CONROE HAS NO ZONING ORDINANCENo zoning district minimum lot area…The city's Planning division publishes this in terms, and will issuea Letter of No Zoning on request from the City Planner's office.…IMPACT FEESNoneThe city's Building Inspections and Permits FAQ states that Conroedoes not have any impact fees at this time. Water and sewer tap fee…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITCity of Conroe Building Inspections…700 Metcalf St, Conroe, TX 77301 · (936) 522-3610 ·Permits@cityofconroe.org. For land outside the city limits the…
Build conditions for Conroe, drawn from the sourced facts on this page. Every figure above is cited in the quick-facts panel below, with its source and vintage.
Adopted residential code
Conroe's building chapter adopts the International Residential Code at Sec. 14-61, brought in by Ord. No. 2106-12 on 8 November 2012, and the city's own Adopted Codes sheet records the 2012 edition adopted by the State of Texas as the version in force, with local amendments at Sec. 14-62 on top of it.

City of Conroe Code of Ordinances Ch. 14, Art. II, Div. 2, Secs. 14-61 and 14-62, and the City of Conroe Adopted Codes sheet published by Building Inspections and Permits

No zoning inside the city
Conroe has no zoning ordinance. The city's Planning division says so directly and will issue a Letter of No Zoning on request, so there is no residential district, no permitted-use table and no zoning minimum lot area to design a barndominium around inside the city limits.

City of Conroe, Land Use & Area Plans, Community Development / Planning, and the Building Inspections and Permits FAQ

Unincorporated Montgomery County
The Montgomery County Permit Department states in a signed letter that building codes are not enforced for single-family residential structures in unincorporated Montgomery County, that the county has no zoning regulations, and that it does not issue certificates of occupancy. The same letter lists what the county does require: septic permits, development permits, food service permits and fire code permits.

Montgomery County Permit Department letter, Building Codes/Fire Codes/Zoning in Unincorporated Areas of Montgomery County, signed T. Scott Nichols, Director, revised 14 May 2025

Two different flood elevations, a few miles apart
Conroe's own amendment to R403.1.7.3 requires the lowest floor of a new home in a one-percent-chance flood area to sit at least one foot above the base flood elevation. Unincorporated Montgomery County requires two feet above base flood elevation, and applies it to any structure in or within 100 feet of the Area of Special Flood Hazard, with an elevation certificate from a licensed surveyor or engineer to prove it.

City of Conroe Code of Ordinances Sec. 14-62 amending IRC R403.1.7.3, and the Montgomery County Environmental Health permitting FAQ

Where the growth actually is
The Census Bureau puts Conroe at 119,564 people in 2025, up from 91,156 in 2020, a rise of about 31 percent in five years. Montgomery County went from 625,369 to 781,194 over the same period. The difference from the built-out Metroplex suburbs is that this growth still has somewhere to go: north and east of the city is genuine Piney Woods acreage rather than infill.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 sub-county and county population estimates (sub-est2025 and co-est2025-alldata)

Septic is the gating item on acreage
Montgomery County Environmental Health Services holds the on-site sewage programme as the authorised agent, under a county order adopted 8 December 2020 and approved by the TCEQ. A new residential septic permit is $350 plus the $10 state fee, $480 plus $10 in the floodplain. Texas has no percolation test: soil is classified by texture class, and system capacity keys off bedrooms and living area rather than the total footprint, so a large shop bay does not by itself enlarge the drainfield at state level.

Montgomery County Environmental Health Services OSSF pages and Permitting Fee Schedule effective 2 June 2025, and the TCEQ order authorising Montgomery County to implement its own OSSF order

Also worth knowing before you build in Conroe

What the city permit costs
Conroe charges residential building permit fees on the total square footage of the building area or work area at $0.64 per square foot, plus a non-refundable plan review fee of $0.32 per square foot covering the first three submittals. The certificate of occupancy for new construction is included with the construction permit.

City of Conroe Code of Ordinances, Appendix A Fee Schedule, Chapter 14 Buildings and Building Regulations, as amended by Ord. No. 2756-25, 13 November 2025

No impact fees
Conroe's Building Inspections and Permits FAQ states that the city does not have any impact fees at this time. Water and sewer tap fees are charged separately under Appendix A, starting at $1,875 for a three-quarter-inch water tap and $1,875 for a four-inch sewer tap.

City of Conroe Building Inspections and Permits FAQ, and Code of Ordinances Appendix A Fee Schedule, Chapter 70 Utilities, Sec. 70-74

Climate zone does not depend on the edition
Montgomery County sits in climate zone 2A on both the pre-2021 and the 2021 climate maps, so the insulation basis is the same whichever code edition is being quoted. Conroe adopts the energy efficiency chapter of the IRC as it existed on 1 May 2015 for single-family construction.

City of Conroe Code of Ordinances Sec. 14-41 (Ord. No. 2343-16, 13 October 2016), with the IRC and IECC county climate zone tables, on which Montgomery County reads 2A on both the pre-2021 and the 2021 maps

The county permit that does exist
A development permit is required for all proposed development in unincorporated Montgomery County, including clearing, grading and filling as well as buildings. A new residential structure over 200 square feet outside the floodplain is $200, or $300 inside it, and the permit expires 180 days after it enters the county system. There are no county final inspections on a home built outside the floodplain.

Montgomery County Environmental Health permitting FAQ and Residential Permitting page, with the Permitting Fee Schedule effective 2 June 2025

The five-mile ring around the city
Conroe is over 100,000 people, so its extraterritorial jurisdiction reaches five miles beyond the city limits under Local Government Code Sec. 42.021. Texas courts have held that a city cannot enforce its building codes out there, in Town of Lakewood Village v. Bizios and Collin County v. City of McKinney, but the McKinney court confirmed in the same breath that a city can require a landowner to plat. So the ETJ is a platting regime, not a building-code one.

Local Government Code Sec. 42.021, Town of Lakewood Village v. Bizios, 493 S.W.3d 527 (Tex. 2016), and Collin County v. City of McKinney, No. 05-17-00546-CV (Tex. App.—Dallas 2018)

Licensed trades, in the city ordinance itself
Conroe writes the trades into its own code: Sec. 14-62 adds P2501.3 requiring all plumbing work to be done under the supervision of a master plumber licensed by the State of Texas, and M1401.5 requiring all air conditioning and heating work to be supervised by a state-licensed air conditioning contractor. The plumbing requirement carries onto rural land too, because the Occupations Code rural exemption expressly excludes plumbing done in conjunction with new construction.

City of Conroe Code of Ordinances Sec. 14-62, and Texas Occupations Code Sec. 1301.052

Trees are a permit item here
Piney Woods ground comes with a clearing ordinance. Conroe charges $25 per lot for residential lot clearing, $200 per tree for a protected tree removal permit and $250 for a forest management permit, and the city asks that the Permit Department be called before a site is cleared or altered.

City of Conroe Code of Ordinances Appendix A Fee Schedule, Chapter 102 Vegetation, and the city's Land Use & Area Plans page

Foundations are decided by the soil test, not by the city
Conroe does not amend IRC R403.1.8, so the adopted code's expansive-soil provisions apply as written and hand a slab on expansive soil to an engineer. Unlike Arlington, Conroe does not require an engineered foundation on every new home, so the trigger here is what the soil report says about the particular tract rather than a blanket city rule.

City of Conroe Code of Ordinances Ch. 14, Art. II (no amendment to R403.1.8 appears in the article), with Texas Occupations Code Sec. 1001.056(c)(2)

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Below the slab

The expensive surprises are in the ground, not the building

What moves a Texas budget is usually below grade, and it is soil rather than rock: shrink-swell clay. The Blackland Prairie and the Gulf Coast clays move enough between a wet season and a dry one to drive the foundation design across the state's largest markets, which is why several DFW cities require an engineer's seal on the foundation of every new house. Those are the same conditions that decide whether a septic field passes its soil and site evaluation, so the grading plan, the foundation and the drainfield get resolved together rather than one at a time. We price the dirt before we price the building.

What we build in Conroe

All nine of our services — kits, custom plans, post-frame and steel construction, site preparation, permitting and engineering, through to turnkey builds — are available across Montgomery County. What a project costs depends far more on the parcel than on square footage, so we work from your land rather than from a rate card.

See what we build

What a build looks like

Three stages every Conroe 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 lot with cleared grass, a live oak and cedar elm treeline, and a pale gravel 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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Conroe

Montgomery 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 Conroe service area, covering Montgomery County and the surrounding rural acreage. This map marks the territory we serve, not a branch location.

Keep reading

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

Barndominium Cost Guide

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

Read it

Is It Legal in Texas?

Classification, zoning, the HOA gate, and why "nonresidential farm building" does not cover a home.

Read it

How Long Does It Take?

Census build-duration data, and what actually sets the permit clock where you are building.

Read it

Nearby areas we build in

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

Montgomery County

Montgomery County
Houston

Harris County
Liberty County

Liberty County

Building in Conroe: common questions

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

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Do I need a building permit for a barndominium near Conroe?
It depends which of three jurisdictions your tract is in, and they can sit within a few miles of each other. Inside the Conroe city limits, yes: the city's building official issues a permit, reviews the plans and inspects the work under the adopted International Residential Code with the city's amendments at Sec. 14-62. In the city's five-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction, the city can require you to plat but Texas courts have held it cannot enforce its building code there. In unincorporated Montgomery County, the county Permit Department states that building codes are not enforced on single-family homes, so there is no county building permit and no county final inspection on a home outside the floodplain. That last case is not the same as no permits at all, and the county says so itself.
If Montgomery County does not enforce a building code, what still applies?
Four things, at least. The septic permit, which Montgomery County Environmental Health Services issues as the state's authorised agent and inspects before the system is covered. Floodplain regulation, which every Texas county has to maintain to stay in the National Flood Insurance Program under Water Code Sec. 16.3145, and which in Montgomery County produces a development permit required for all development in the unincorporated area. A plumber licensed by the state, because the Occupations Code rural exemption at Sec. 1301.052 expressly excludes plumbing performed in conjunction with new construction. And the state energy code, because Health and Safety Code Sec. 388.004 requires a builder outside any municipality to certify energy compliance and keep the certification for three years. Deed restrictions and any HOA or POA on the tract sit on top of all of that and are enforceable in their own right.
How does septic sizing work for a barndominium with a big shop?
Texas does not use a percolation test at all. Soil is classified by texture class, from sandy at one end to silty clay and clay at the other, and the loading rate for that class is what sets the size of the drainfield. Capacity is then set from the number of bedrooms or the living area of the home, not from the total structure footprint, so a large unconditioned shop bay does not by itself enlarge the field at state level. That is the state rule, and the authorised agent is allowed to be stricter than it. Montgomery County runs its own order, adopted 8 December 2020 and approved by the TCEQ, so the sizing question is worth putting to Environmental Health Services at (936) 539-7839 for your specific layout before the plan is drawn, particularly if a loft or an attached apartment is in it.
Conroe has no zoning. Does that mean I can build anything?
No, and the distinction matters. Conroe genuinely has no zoning ordinance, and will issue a Letter of No Zoning to confirm it. Unincorporated Montgomery County has no zoning either. What that removes is the district map, the permitted-use table and the zoning minimum lot area. What it does not remove is the adopted building code inside the city, the platting rules, the clearing and tree permits, the floodplain elevation requirements, and above all the deed restrictions recorded against the tract. In Texas, deed restrictions do much of the work zoning does elsewhere, and they are enforceable by neighbours and by property owners' associations. Read the title commitment before the land is bought, not after.
How high does the finished floor have to sit?
Inside Conroe, the city's own amendment to R403.1.7.3 sets the lowest floor at the lesser of one foot above the highest point of finish grade adjoining the building or one foot above the adjacent street, measured six feet out from the exterior walls, and requires at least one foot above the base flood elevation where the site is in a one-percent-chance flood area. In unincorporated Montgomery County the county is stricter: two feet above base flood elevation, applied to any structure in or within 100 feet of the Area of Special Flood Hazard, with an elevation certificate from a licensed surveyor or engineer required at completion to prove it. Both figures are published by the jurisdiction that sets them.
What design wind speed should the frame be engineered to?
Conroe does not publish one. Its building chapter adopts the code and amends it in a dozen places, but it fills in no Table R301.2 climatic and geographic design criteria, so there is no city ground snow load, wind speed, frost depth, seismic category or termite rating to cite. Unincorporated Montgomery County publishes none either, because there is no county residential code to publish them in. That means the criteria come from the engineer of record working from the code and the site, and it also means you should be sceptical of any builder who quotes you a Conroe wind speed as though the city had set it. What we do instead is have the values sealed by a Texas-licensed engineer for the actual parcel.
Will the foundation need an engineer?
Probably, and the reason is the soil under your tract rather than a city rule. Conroe leaves IRC R403.1.8 unamended, so the code's expansive-soil provisions apply as written and send a slab on expansive soil to an engineer, which the Engineering Practice Act reaches from the other direction at Sec. 1001.056(c)(2). Unlike Arlington up in the Metroplex, Conroe does not require an engineered, sealed foundation design on every new house. So the honest answer is that it depends on what the soil report says about the particular parcel, and on this ground east of the Blackland Prairie that is a real question rather than a foregone conclusion. Order the soil work before the slab is designed and the answer stops being a guess.
What does the city charge, and are there impact fees?
Conroe charges the residential building permit on total square footage of the building area or work area at $0.64 per square foot, with a non-refundable plan review fee of $0.32 per square foot that covers the first three submittals. The certificate of occupancy for new construction is included in the construction permit. Electrical, plumbing and fuel gas permits each carry their own $75 base fee plus inspection fees scaled by area. The city's FAQ states that Conroe has no impact fees at this time. Water and sewer taps are separate, starting at $1,875 for a three-quarter-inch water tap. Note that the permit fee counts the whole building including the shop bay, while the septic sizing counts only the living area, so the two numbers move on different measurements.

Building in Conroe?

Start with the plan. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it, then confirm what Montgomery 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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