Gently rolling Blackland Prairie grassland with deep dark cracking clay soil in the foreground and post oak along a fence line.
Grayson County No county building code

Barndominium Builders in Grayson County, TX

Grayson County is where the drive north up US 75 stops: 933 square miles between the Collin County line and the Red River, most of it outside any city, and the county the DFW acreage search actually ends in. What applies here is not what applies in Frisco. Chapter 233 of the Local Government Code is the whole of a Texas county's authority over structures, and it holds no general building-code subchapter. So the sequence changes. The septic permit is the gating item and often the only permit that looks hard at the building; the county issues a Development Certificate for construction rather than a building permit; and Grayson's own sewage order is stricter than the state floor in ways that decide which tracts are worth an offer. Inside Sherman, Denison, Van Alstyne, Howe, Whitesboro and Pottsboro that city's code applies instead — and Sherman and Denison sit about a dozen miles apart on different editions.

Grayson County at a glance

County
Grayson County
Population
153,613
Where we build
Sherman, McKinney, Denton

ZIPs 75090, 75092, 75020, 75021, 75495, 75459, 76273, 75076 and more

Site visits
On-site visits across Grayson County, Sherman and the land beyond it
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Building conditions in Grayson County

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 Grayson County , Texas . BUILD CONDITIONS GRAYSON COUNTY, TXGrayson CountyNO COUNTY BUILDING…ADOPTED RESIDENTIAL CODENO COUNTY BUILDING…This jurisdiction publishes no design wind speed. It is settled in writing with the authority overyour parcel before the frame is ordered.ZONING ·1.5 acres on a private well, 1 acre…Texas counties have no general zoning power, and Local GovernmentCode Sec. 233.153(d)(2) confirms that even an opted-in county may…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITGrayson County Development Services100 W Houston Street, 3rd Floor, Sherman, TX 75090. (903) 813-5275.County main line (903) 813-4200, Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm.…
Build conditions for Grayson 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.
The county fire code stops short of a house
Grayson County adopted the 2021 International Fire Code with local amendments on 5 September 2023, and the Fire Marshal states it applies to new construction of commercial buildings, public buildings and multifamily dwellings of four or more units, which need a county construction permit before work begins. A one- or two-family barndominium is not in that list.

Grayson County Fire Marshal, Fire Code Information, co.grayson.tx.us/page/firecode.info

A Development Certificate, not a building permit
The county's own Planning and Zoning instructions state that Grayson County requires the completion of a Development Certificate for construction, placement or remodel of a building. It is $50 filed online, $150 on paper, and it is the county's addressing, driveway and floodplain gate rather than a code review of the structure.

Grayson County Planning & Zoning, MyGovernmentOnline Steps, and the Grayson County Development Services Fee Schedule adopted 14 April 2026

Septic sets the floor on lot size, and it is stricter than the state
Texas requires one acre on a private well and half an acre on public water. Grayson County's own order raises that to 1.5 acres on a well, or 1 acre if every system on the tract is subsurface drip, and requires an aerobic treatment process on any parcel under 2.5 acres. It also caps the tract at one structure per 1.5 acres, rounded down.

Grayson County On-Site Sewage Facilities Order Sec. 10(D) and 10(E), adopted 19 April 2022

Ten acres buys you nothing here
The widespread belief that ten acres exempts a house from the septic rules is wrong statewide, and in Grayson County it is foreclosed in the county's own words: the order requires an application, permit, authorization to construct and inspection for any residential on-site sewage facility, regardless of the size of the tract of land.

Grayson County On-Site Sewage Facilities Order Sec. 10(B), adopted 19 April 2022

The shop bay does not enlarge the drainfield
Texas sizes a single-family septic system off bedrooms or the living area of the home, whichever gives the larger figure, so a 1,800 square foot three-bedroom living space with a 2,200 square foot shop is a 300 gallon-per-day house rather than a 375. Grayson County's order adopts Chapter 285 in full and lists its own stricter rules exhaustively, and none of them redefines living area.

TCEQ form TCEQ-0235 item 8 and 30 TAC Ch. 285 Table III, with Grayson County's OSSF Order Sec. 8 to 10

Sherman and Denison, a dozen miles apart, on different codes
Sherman adopted the 2021 International Residential Code and the 2023 National Electrical Code by Ordinance 6691 on 5 February 2024, deleting the code's automatic sprinkler section R313.2 and adding an engineered shear wall plan requirement for every new residential building. Denison publishes the 2024 International Residential Code and the 2023 NEC. There is no statewide answer in Texas, and this is why.

Sherman Code of Ordinances art. 3.02 and 3.03, Ordinance 6691; City of Denison Adopted Codes, cityofdenison.com/167

Also worth knowing before you build in Grayson County

No plat, no septic permit
The county's subdivision regulations state that no OSSF permit, culvert permit nor other required permit shall be issued for a lot in a subdivision for which a plat has not been approved. Two of the plat exemptions carry a sharper warning still: land divided under the agricultural-use or phased-subdivision exemptions is not eligible for an E911 address or an OSSF permit.

Grayson County Subdivision Regulations sec. 8.3, 8.4 and 8.10, July 2023 with amendments added 9 April 2024

There is a free way to find out where you stand
Rather than guess whether a tract needs platting, an owner may file an Application for Formal Determination of Exemption Status with the Director of Development Services. No fee is required, and the director must give a written determination within ten business days.

Grayson County Subdivision Regulations sec. 8.9, added 9 April 2024

What the septic permit costs
Grayson County publishes $310 for a conventional on-site sewage facility permit at up to 1,000 gallons per day, rising through five bands to $1,550 at 5,000 gallons per day, with $20 added for an aerobic system, $100 for a reinspection and $10 per permit going to the state under Health and Safety Code Chapter 367.

Grayson County Development Services Fee Schedule adopted 14 April 2026, and OSSF Order Sec. 12

How the address gets assigned
Before the county will issue an address, the driveway entrance must be physically staked with the owner's last name on it and the correct size culvert installed. The precinct foreman inspects the driveway, and the address number is assigned within five to seven business days. Failing to mark the entrance costs a $100 reinspection fee.

Grayson County Planning & Zoning, Instructions for E911 Addressing

A licensed plumber is required even where nothing else is
The rural exemption in the Texas plumbing licence law expressly excludes plumbing performed in conjunction with new construction. It is one of two statewide requirements that survive the absence of a county building code, and it applies on land with no permit and no inspector.

Texas Occupations Code Sec. 1301.052

The state energy code reaches past the city limit
A builder working outside the limits of any municipality must certify that the house complies with the state energy code and keep that certification for three years. Texas houses run on the energy chapter of the International Residential Code as it existed on 1 May 2015.

Texas Health and Safety Code Secs. 388.003(a) and 388.004

Floodplain rules exist where building codes do not
Every Texas city and county must adopt floodplain ordinances or orders to stay eligible for the National Flood Insurance Program, which is why a tract in a special flood hazard area needs county floodplain approval whether or not any building code applies. Grayson County adopted its Flood Damage Prevention Order on 2 August 2022 and charges $500 for a floodplain development review.

Texas Water Code Sec. 16.3145, and the Grayson County Development Services Fee Schedule adopted 14 April 2026

Climate zone 3A, whichever edition you look at
Grayson County is climate zone 3A, mixed-humid, on the pre-2021 map and on the 2021 and 2024 map alike. It is not one of the eight Texas counties whose insulation spec depends on which edition a jurisdiction adopted, so the zone is the same in Sherman on the 2021 code and Denison on the 2024 code.

DOE/PNNL-33270 climate zone assignments and the published IRC county tables for the 2018 and 2024 editions

A city's code stops at the city line
In Collin County v. City of McKinney the Dallas Court of Appeals held that a home-rule city may not enforce its building codes or building inspection requirements in its extraterritorial jurisdiction, while confirming it may still require a landowner to plat. That decision binds the Fifth District, which includes Grayson County.

Collin County, Texas v. The City of McKinney, No. 05-17-00546-CV (Tex. App.-Dallas, 10 May 2018), and Town of Lakewood Village v. Bizios, 493 S.W.3d 527 (Tex. 2016)

The population, and the shape of the growth
Grayson County's population estimate rose from 136,157 on 1 July 2020 to 153,613 on 1 July 2025, a gain of 12.8 percent, spread across 933 square miles of land. That is slower than Collin or Denton, and it is the reason the land is still there.

U.S. Census Bureau county population estimates co-est2025-alldata, and the 2024 Census Gazetteer county file

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 Grayson County

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 Grayson 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.

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What a build looks like

Three stages every Grayson 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 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 Grayson 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 Grayson County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Grayson County

Grayson 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 Grayson County service area, covering Grayson 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 Grayson 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 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.

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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.

McKinney

Collin County
Denton

Denton County

Building in Grayson County: common questions

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

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Do I need a building permit for a barndominium on unincorporated land in Grayson County?
Not a building permit in the sense a city means it. Chapter 233 of the Local Government Code is the whole of a Texas county's authority over structures and it holds no general building-code subchapter, so there is no county plan review of a house and no county building inspector. What the county does require is a Development Certificate for construction, placement or remodel of a building, a permit and inspection for the septic system, and floodplain approval where the tract is in a flood hazard area. The commissioners court has never adopted an order or resolution under Chapter 233 Subchapter F. Every one of the 106 agendas it posted in 2009 and 2010 was read in full, and the county answered “Building Code — N” on the capability return in its own hazard mitigation plan while the cities in the same appendix named theirs. Had it opted in, the subchapter would still allow no county permit, no county fee and no county inspector: the builder contracts the three required inspections privately. Development Services is on (903) 813-5275.
I have given up on Collin County. What do I actually do first in Grayson?
In this order. First establish which jurisdiction the tract is in, because inside Sherman, Denison, Van Alstyne, Howe, Whitesboro or Pottsboro you are under that city's own adopted code and its own building official, and the answer is completely different. Second, settle the platting question: no septic or culvert permit is issued for a lot in a subdivision whose plat has not been approved, and the county will give you a free written determination of exemption status within ten business days if you ask for one. Third, get a site evaluation for septic, because that is what decides whether the tract works at all. Fourth, the Development Certificate, the driveway culvert and the address. Floodplain approval runs alongside if the tract needs it. Read the title commitment for recorded restrictions at any point, because in Texas those do the work zoning does elsewhere.
How much land do I actually need?
More than the state minimum. Texas sets half an acre on a public water supply and one acre on a private well. Grayson County's own on-site sewage facilities order raises the well figure to 1.5 acres, or 1 acre if every system on the tract is subsurface drip irrigation, and it requires an aerobic treatment process on any parcel under 2.5 acres. So a two-acre tract on a well is legal but commits you to aerobic treatment and a maintenance contract, while crossing 2.5 acres puts conventional treatment back on the table. The order also limits the tract to one structure per 1.5 acres, rounded down, which matters if a guest house or a second dwelling is in the plan.
Does my shop bay make the septic system bigger?
No, not on the state rule and not here either. TCEQ sizes a single-family system off the number of bedrooms or the living area of the home, whichever gives the larger figure, and the shop is not living area. A house with 1,800 square feet of three-bedroom living space and a 2,200 square foot shop is sized as a three-bedroom, 300 gallon-per-day house rather than the 375 a total-footprint reading would give, and on heavy clay that is the difference between roughly 3,000 and 3,750 square feet of drainfield. An authorised agent is allowed to be stricter, and some Texas counties count a loft or an attached apartment as living space. Grayson County's order adopts Chapter 285 in full and lists its own stricter rules exhaustively, and none of them touches how the house is measured. It is still worth one phone call before a plan is drawn.
Is there a percolation test?
There is no percolation test in Texas at all. A site evaluator or a professional engineer classifies the soil by texture into classes Ia through IV and each class carries a loading rate in gallons per square foot per day. Heavy clay at 0.10 needs a large drainfield. But a site can fail at the other end just as easily: TCEQ's rule says Class Ia sandy and gravelly soils do not provide adequate treatment of wastewater through soil contact, and the remedy is imported soil or secondary treatment with disinfection. So sand is not automatically good news, and the site evaluation is the first thing to buy on any tract, before the offer if you can manage it.
What about land on Lake Texoma?
Treat lakeside acreage as a title question before a building question. Around a Corps of Engineers reservoir the government holds two different kinds of interest: land it owns outright, and flowage easements over land that stays in private hands but which the United States has bought the right to flood. A flowage easement runs with the land and passes to every later owner, and it restricts what may be built inside it, which is how a tract that looks buildable turns out not to be. Nothing about that shows up on a listing. Get the title commitment, read every easement recited in it, and take any question about the easement's terms to the Corps office that manages Lake Texoma rather than to the seller.
Everyone says rural Texas has no rules. Is that right?
It is half right, and the half that is wrong is the expensive half. There is genuinely no county residential building code by default and no county inspector for a house. But a licensed plumber is required on new construction even where nothing else is, because the rural exemption in the plumbing licence law expressly excludes plumbing done in conjunction with new construction. A builder outside any municipality must certify the house against the state energy code and keep the certification for three years. Every county regulates its floodplain. The septic permit and inspection apply on any size tract. And recorded deed restrictions bind whether or not a public body is enforcing anything, which in Texas is where most of the real constraint lives. Read the title commitment.

Building in Grayson County?

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