Gently rolling Blackland Prairie grassland with deep dark cracking clay soil in the foreground and post oak along a fence line.
Dallas County 2024 IRC as adopted here

Barndominium Builders in Irving, TX

Irving is one of the most physically constrained cities in the Metroplex, and there is a concrete reason for it. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport sits against the city's western flank, Las Colinas is dense commercial, and freeways carve up the rest. Irving's population has moved about a tenth of a percent since 2020 while Frisco and McKinney grew by seventeen and twenty percent. The zoning ordinance says it in numbers: R-40, the largest single-family district in the city, requires 40,000 square feet, and most of Irving sits on 6,000 to 10,000 square foot lots. And Irving's Unified Development Code excludes any type of metal exterior on a detached accessory building of 150 square feet or larger in a residential district. A true barndominium is not an Irving project, and we will say so plainly. A large detached garage or shop on an Irving lot is, and the rules for it are exact.

Irving at a glance

County
Dallas County
Population
257,076
Where we build
Irving, Dallas, Garland, Grand Prairie, Mesquite

ZIPs 75038, 75039, 75060, 75061, 75062, 75063

Site visits
First visit set on your parcel, anywhere in Dallas County
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Building conditions in Irving

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 Irving , Dallas County, Texas : design wind speed 105 mph. BUILD CONDITIONS IRVING, TXDallas County2024 IRCDESIGN WIND SPEED105 mphIrving's own filled-in Table R301.2 reads 105 mph 3-second gust at 33 ft above ground, Exposure C.Dallas and Arlington each publish 115 mph, so the figure does not carry across city lines in DFW.ZONING · R-40, R-15, R-10, R-7.5, R-6 SINGLE…40,000 sq ft in R-40, the largest si…Irving has 35 base districts and three overlays, and none of theoverlays is an aircraft-noise district. The AG district's list of…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITCity of Irving Inspections DepartmentCity Hall, 825 W. Irving Blvd., 2nd Floor, Irving, TX 75060. Mondayto Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Phone (972) 721-2371. Inspections are…
Build conditions for Irving, 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 building code
Irving runs the 2024 International Residential Code and the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code, both adopted by Ordinance No. 2026-11253, passed 26 March 2026 and effective 1 May 2026. That ordinance repealed and replaced the whole of Chapter 8B of the Land Development Code.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, Sections 8B-3, 8B-5 and Section 5; Land Development Code Chapter 8B

Aircraft noise zones in the residential code
Irving writes DFW's noise footprint straight into its residential code. Amendment R301.1.5 creates a "65-70 DNL noise zone" and an "over 70 DNL noise zone" mapped on an aircraft noise impact map on file with the building official, and provides that the building official shall not issue a building permit for any building or structure inside those zones unless the plans are certified by a bona fide acoustical consultant. The required outdoor-to-indoor reduction is 25 decibels in the 65-70 zone and 30 decibels in the over-70 zone. A building that straddles a line is treated as being in the more restrictive zone.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, IRC amendment adding Subsection R301.1.5 "Zones"

Metal exteriors are excluded on residential accessory buildings
Irving's Unified Development Code requires any detached accessory building of 150 square feet or larger in an "R" district to be built with commonly-used residential materials forming a finished, weather-proof exterior — masonry, veneer, stucco, all-weather stone, wood, vinyl or cementitious siding — "specifically excluding any type of metal exterior." A detached garage carries the same restriction in its own section.

City of Irving Unified Development Code Sections 3.1.5 and 3.1.3, as amended by Ordinance 2026-11220 adopted 14 January 2026

Every foundation must be engineer-sealed
Irving amends IRC R401.2 so that every foundation and footing regulated by the code, along with any size addition to an existing post-tension foundation, must be designed and sealed by a Texas-registered engineer. It is not limited to expansive-soil sites or to houses — a detached shop or accessory building with a footing is caught by the same words.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, IRC amendment to Chapter 4 Section R401, Subsection R401.2

Published design criteria
Irving fills in Table R301.2 with its own numbers: ground snow load 9 lb/ft², design wind speed 105 mph 3-second gust at 33 feet above ground in Exposure C, seismic design category A, weathering moderate, frost line depth 6 inches, termite "Very Heavy", winter design temperature 22°F, ice barrier underlayment not required, air freezing index 150, mean annual temperature 64.9°F. The Manual J design criteria block and footnote n are deleted.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, IRC amendment filling in Table R301.2

Climate zone 2A, and the edition is what decides it
Because Irving adopted the 2024 editions, both its structural code and its energy code sit on the 2021 climate-zone map, which puts Dallas County in Zone 2A. Dallas County was 3A on the older map, so an Irving insulation spec taken from a pre-2021 edition would be wrong. Irving also deletes the IRC's own energy chapter and points it at the 2024 IECC, so unlike Fort Worth there is no split between the structural zone and the insulation zone.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, Sections 8B-3 and 8B-5 and the IRC Chapter 11 deletion; 2024 IRC and 2024 IECC climate-zone assignments for Dallas County

Also worth knowing before you build in Irving

Termite rating bans foam below grade
Irving publishes a termite infestation probability of "Very Heavy" in its own Table R301.2 — the same rating Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington each publish. That rating is the trigger in the IRC that bars foam plastic insulation below grade at the foundation, which changes how a slab edge gets detailed here.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, Table R301.2 as filled in by the city

What the largest residential lot in Irving looks like
R-40 is the most generous single-family district in the city and it requires 40,000 square feet per dwelling unit — just under an acre — on a lot at least 150 feet wide and 150 feet deep, with 50-foot front and rear yards and lot coverage by principal buildings capped at 20 percent. Detached accessory uses in R-40 must sit at least 80 feet back from the front lot line. Most of Irving is zoned R-6, R-7.5 or R-10, meaning 6,000 to 10,000 square feet.

City of Irving Unified Development Code Section 2.4, area regulations for the R-40, R-15, R-10, R-7.5 and R-6 districts

Detached garage limits
A detached garage in a single-family district may not exceed 800 square feet or 10 percent of lot area, whichever is greater, up to a hard ceiling of 1,200 square feet. It must have at least two partially or fully enclosed side walls, sit at least 5 feet off an interior side or rear property line, and stand no more than one story and 18 feet tall — and never taller than the house. An attic or loft is allowed provided it contains no heated or air-conditioned floor space.

City of Irving Unified Development Code Section 3.1.3, Detached garage in an "R" district

The half-acre threshold on detached shops
For detached accessory buildings other than a garage or carport, Irving caps the total at 10 percent of lot area or 2,500 square feet on lots under half an acre — and imposes no maximum square footage at all on lots of half an acre or greater. Height starts at 10 feet and buys one extra foot for each additional foot of side and rear setback, to a maximum of 20 feet at a 15-foot setback. These buildings are defined as containing no door wider than 6 feet.

City of Irving Unified Development Code Section 3.1.4, Detached accessory buildings other than a detached garage or carport

Published permit fees
Irving's consolidated fee schedule, effective 15 October 2022, charges detached residential garages, residential alterations and storage buildings over 400 square feet at $0.33 per square foot of the area of work with a $130 minimum. A storage building larger than 6 feet in any dimension but under 400 square feet is a $65 single-trade building permit. New single-family construction is $0.11 per square foot plan review plus $0.41 per square foot permit. A re-inspection is $75, a foundation-only permit adds 10 percent of the regular fee, and starting work without a permit adds an investigation fee equal to 100 percent of the regular fee.

City of Irving Consolidated Fee Schedule, Inspections Department, effective 15 October 2022, items 1, 2, 11, 16, 40 and 41

Almost nothing is permit-exempt
Irving rewrote the IRC's permit exemption list so that the only detached accessory structures exempt from a building permit are one-story structures not exceeding 6 feet in any dimension, height included, measured from adjacent grade to the highest point of the roof. Storm shelters are excluded from even that. In practice any real shop, garage or shed in Irving is permitted work.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, IRC amendment to Section R105.2 Work exempt from permit

Local amendments include three outright deletions
Section 214.212(c)(1) of the Local Government Code lets a Texas city add, modify or remove code requirements, and Irving has used all three powers. It deletes IRC Section R309 automatic sprinkler systems in its entirety and hands the question to the 2024 International Fire Code and the city's own fire prevention chapter; it deletes Section R306 flood-resistant construction in its entirety; and it deletes IRC Chapter 11 energy efficiency in favour of the 2024 IECC. It also adds an exception letting open, non-combustible carport structures stand within 3 feet of a property line without fire-resistive construction.

City of Irving Ordinance No. 2026-11253, IRC amendments to Sections R306, R309, R302.1 and Chapter 11

The 1972 airport hazard zoning ordinance still runs
Irving's Airport Zoning Ordinance, adopted as Ordinance 2356 on 24 August 1972, incorporates twenty pages of hazard zoning maps dated December 1970 and establishes primary, horizontal, conical, approach and transitional imaginary surfaces above an airport elevation fixed at 606 feet above mean sea level. No structure may be erected above those surfaces, a separate permit is required before building anything that could be an airport hazard, and the city holds sole jurisdiction to enforce it inside Irving. It expressly does not relieve an owner from filing notice of proposed construction with the Federal Aviation Administration.

City of Irving Code of Ordinances Chapter 3, Article IV, Division 4, Sections 3-61 to 3-69 (Ordinance 2356, adopted 24 August 1972)

Contractor registration
General contractors and the fence, sign, concrete, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, irrigation, house-moving and fuel-tank trades must all register with the City of Irving before a permit will issue, and a registration expires one year after the date it was granted. A homeowner may pull a permit for work at a residence for which they hold a homestead tax exemption and in which they live, without registering and without hiring a registered contractor.

City of Irving Land Development Code Section 8B-27(c), Permits; fees; registration

How little room is left
Irving covers 66.979 square miles of land and held 257,076 people on 1 July 2025, against 256,886 in 2020 — growth of about a tenth of a percent over five years. Immediately west, DFW International Airport reports its own real property at 17,183 acres, more than 26.9 square miles. Irving's zoning ordinance carves the airport out by name, providing that its repealed-district rules are not effective within the current or future boundaries of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 sub-county population estimates and 2024 Gazetteer place file for Irving city, Texas; DFW International Airport published facts page; City of Irving Unified Development Code Section 2.1.4(d)

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 Irving

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 Dallas 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 Irving 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 Dallas 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 Dallas County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Irving

Dallas 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 Irving service area, covering Dallas 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 Irving 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.

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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.

Dallas

Dallas County
Grand Prairie

Dallas County
Carrollton

Dallas County

Building in Irving: common questions

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

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Can I build a barndominium in Irving?
Realistically, no — and we would rather say that than sell you a project the city will not permit. Irving's Unified Development Code requires any detached accessory building of 150 square feet or larger in a residential district to have a finished, weather-proof exterior of masonry, veneer, stucco, all-weather stone, wood, vinyl or cementitious siding, "specifically excluding any type of metal exterior," and a detached garage carries the same restriction. There is also no acreage: R-40, the largest single-family district in Irving, requires 40,000 square feet per dwelling, and most of the city sits on 6,000 to 10,000 square foot lots. If you want a genuine barndominium on land, the honest answer is to look outside Dallas County.
Where should I actually be looking for land near Irving?
Three directions, all of them within an easy drive. Head west on I-30 and I-20 into Parker County — Weatherford is roughly 50 miles from Irving, and the unincorporated county has no general residential building code at all. Go southwest to Johnson County, with Cleburne about 45 miles out. Or drop straight south on I-35E into Ellis County, where Waxahachie is about 35 miles away. All three are places where acreage is still being subdivided and where a metal-clad building is an ordinary sight rather than a code problem. We serve all three.
What can I build on a lot I already own in Irving?
A substantial detached garage or shop, provided it is not metal-skinned. A detached garage may reach 800 square feet or 10 percent of the lot area, whichever is greater, up to 1,200 square feet, at one story and no more than 18 feet tall, set back at least 5 feet from an interior side or rear line and never taller than the house. Other detached accessory buildings are capped at 10 percent of lot area or 2,500 square feet on lots under half an acre — and on a lot of half an acre or more there is no square-footage maximum at all. Height there starts at 10 feet and rises one foot for every extra foot of side and rear setback, to 20 feet at a 15-foot setback.
Does the airport actually affect my building permit?
It can, directly. Irving added Subsection R301.1.5 to its residential code creating a "65-70 DNL noise zone" and an "over 70 DNL noise zone," mapped on an aircraft noise impact map held by the building official. Inside those zones the building official shall not issue a building permit for any building or structure unless the plans and specifications are certified by a bona fide acoustical consultant as achieving the required outdoor-to-indoor noise reduction: 25 decibels in the 65-70 zone and 30 decibels in the over-70 zone. A building that sits partly in one zone and partly in another is treated as being in the more restrictive one. Separately, Irving's 1972 airport hazard zoning ordinance limits structure height against imaginary surfaces measured from an airport elevation of 606 feet above sea level.
Which building code does Irving enforce, and does it match Dallas?
It does not match Dallas. Irving adopted the 2024 International Residential Code and the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code by Ordinance No. 2026-11253, passed 26 March 2026 and effective 1 May 2026, while Dallas sits on the 2021 editions. That difference shows up in the numbers each city publishes: Irving's Table R301.2 gives a 105 mph three-second-gust design wind speed and a 9 lb/ft² ground snow load, where Dallas publishes 115 mph and 5 lb/ft². Both cities land in Climate Zone 2A, because the 2021 and 2024 maps agree on Dallas County — but an Irving spec taken from a pre-2021 edition would put the city in 3A and give you the wrong insulation.
Do I need an engineer for the foundation?
Yes, and there is no threshold to argue about. Irving amends IRC R401.2 to require that every foundation and footing regulated by the code, plus any size addition to an existing post-tension foundation, be designed and sealed by a Texas-registered engineer. That is broader than the state rule, which removes the private-dwelling exemption only for a slab on expansive soil. On Blackland Prairie clay you would want an engineered design anyway; in Irving the ordinance settles it. Retaining walls are treated the same way — designed, inspected and approved by a registered structural engineer, and not built of wood if they need a permit.
Who issues the permit, what does it cost, and how do inspections work?
The City of Irving Inspections Department, at City Hall, 825 W. Irving Blvd., 2nd Floor, Irving, TX 75060, open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on (972) 721-2371. Under the city's fee schedule effective 15 October 2022, a detached residential garage or a storage building over 400 square feet is charged at $0.33 per square foot of the area of work with a $130 minimum; a storage building over 6 feet in any dimension but under 400 square feet is a $65 single-trade permit. Almost nothing is exempt — the only detached accessory structures that escape a permit are one-story structures not exceeding 6 feet in any dimension including height. A general contractor pulls a combination permit covering every trade, must be registered with the city first, and schedules each inspection through the MGO Connect portal by 6 a.m. on the day requested. A re-inspection costs $75.
Are residential fire sprinklers required in Irving?
Not by the residential code. Irving deletes IRC Section R309, automatic sprinkler systems, in its entirety and provides that the 2024 International Fire Code and the city's own fire prevention chapter control instead. This is worth knowing because neighbouring cities each answered it differently — Arlington deleted the modern section but kept a 2005-vintage local sprinkler rule alive, and Waco simply removed the requirement. Any general statement that "the IRC requires residential sprinklers" is wrong in Irving, and the correct place to check is the fire code.

Building in Irving?

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