What gets built
A pole barn on Austin-area acreage is farm and equipment framing: laminated posts on a line, trusses across them, sheeting on girts and purlins, and a floor of dirt, gravel or concrete under the part you work in.
A metal equipment building set back from a county road beside a cut hay field in Central Texas. Illustrative photograph, not a project record.
An independent local metal building contractor who works your county prices it, and only the one who walks the site can put a number on it. Posts or red iron comes down to the span, what the building holds, and the ground it stands in, which runs from deep sand in Bastrop and Lee counties to shrink-swell clay in Williamson County.
The permit answer changes across the same map, county by county.
Inside Bastrop
City building permit after site development plan approval
The City of Bastrop requires a commercial permit under the International Building Code for any non-residential or lodging structure or a residential structure with three or more dwellings, approved by the Building Official, and the city's Development Process page states that building permits are not issued before site development plan approval.
Source City of Bastrop Development Services, 1311 Chestnut Street, read 2026-09-20.
Unincorporated Bastrop County
County development permit for any external development; no building permit or CO
Bastrop County requires a development permit for any external development in the unincorporated area, issued by Development Services in three classes: Class A outside the floodplain, Conditional Class A, and Class B inside it.
Source Bastrop County Development Services, and the Development Services application fees, read 2026-09-20.
Bastrop County, read at the county's and the city's own pages. Every county answers this on its own sheet. The whole record is on that county's sheet.
Post-frame fits an open farm building on acreage. Red iron fits a wide clear span or a building that will run a business. Posts carry the roof on laminated columns with trusses between them; red iron carries it on rigid frames bolted to a foundation.
The state measures the building by size and span. Occupations Code 1001.056 exempts from engineering licensing the plans for a building of no more than one story and 5,000 square feet with no clear span greater than 24 feet on the narrow side, where no engineering services are offered to the public; over that span, only the trusses, beams or other roof supporting members have to be engineered or pre-engineered. It also exempts a private building used exclusively for farm, ranch or agricultural purposes, which most pole barns here are. Section 1001.056(c) withdraws that exemption for a residential slab on expansive soil, and it names a residential slab. Past those limits the path runs in the order set out on building a metal building in the Austin area.
SourceTexas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1001, engineers, read 2026-09-20.
Sand east, clay west. The 1979 Bastrop County soil survey puts the Patilo-Demona-Silstid sands at about 32 percent of that county naming permeability and a high water table among their urban limitations; Patilo is roughly 52 inches of loose fine sand with a perched water table at 48 to 72 inches after heavy rain. Lee County's 2007 survey puts its sandy and loamy savannah uplands at about 48 percent of that county, naming high shrink-swell potential, low soil strength and seepage.
Across central Williamson County the 1983 survey puts the Branyon-Houston Black-Burleson clays at about 27 percent of the county, with high shrink-swell potential and corrosivity to steel pipe, and records dry-season cracks 0.4 inch to four inches wide reaching 20 inches deep. West of Interstate 35 its limestone is a good base for foundations but hard to excavate, the typical Eckrant profile reaching fractured rock at 11 inches. Two post problems 20 miles apart: the hole, the pier or the slab is settled before the posts are ordered.
SourcesUSDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Bastrop County, Texas (1979), woodland, general soil map and the Patilo series, read 2026-09-20; USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Lee County, Texas (2007), introduction and general soil map units, read 2026-09-20; USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Williamson County, Texas (1983), general soil map unit 1 and the Houston Black series, read 2026-09-20; USDA Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of Williamson County, Texas (1983), general soil map units 2, 3 and 6, the Eckrant series, and parent material, read 2026-09-20.
Size the building around the tallest thing that parks in it and the widest thing that has to turn inside it: a tractor with a cab, a round baler, a sprayer. Those set the eave height and the door opening. The floor is a separate decision from the frame: concrete can go under the work bay while hay and equipment stay on gravel. The clearing, the pad and the drainage are on the pad grading and site prep guide.
Each county publishes its own answer and no two of the five match. Bastrop County requires a development permit for any external development in the unincorporated area, and says it issues no building permits or certificates of occupancy and has no county building code for any use other than single-family homes and duplexes.
Caldwell County excludes agricultural structures not intended for common public use, and agricultural improvements generating fewer than 50 daily trips, from commercial site construction. Lee County takes a Development Permit for any structure larger than 100 square feet. Williamson County's pages state that it issues no building permits and has no authority to issue a certificate of occupancy. Read that as what the county publishes, not as a building with no rules: the floodplain, septic and driveway permits still apply.
The permit outside the cities, from each county's own site, read 2026-09-20.
On a phone this table scrolls sideways.
| County | The threshold its own site states | What that takes |
|---|---|---|
| Bastrop | Development permit for any external development; an accessory building of 25 square feet or less on no foundation, outside the floodplain, needs none | A plan set stamped by a Texas-licensed professional engineer for non-single-family work |
| Caldwell | Agricultural structures not intended for common public use, and agricultural improvements under 50 daily trips, are excluded | No building code adopted; silent on a residential-lot accessory building |
| Lee | Development Permit for any individual structure larger than 100 square feet; 100 square feet or less needs none | Valid one year; a 9-1-1 address first; no plan review or inspections mentioned |
| Williamson | No county building permit, building code or certificate of occupancy listed | A $25 Certificate of Compliance checks for a 100-year floodplain |
| Burnet | Building permit in two classes: Class A outside a flood hazard area, Class B inside one | Class A $25, no inspection of the structure; Class B $400 with an elevation certificate |
SourcesBastrop County Development Services, and the Development Services application fees, read 2026-09-20; Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, and the subdivision and development fee schedule, read 2026-09-20; Lee County Development Services Department, read 2026-09-20; The source was read and does not list this.Williamson County, frequently asked questions, infrastructure and developers, read 2026-09-20; Williamson County, floodplain management, and the Certificate of Compliance form, read 2026-09-20; Burnet County, on-site sewage facilities and development permits, read 2026-09-20.
Where a county has adopted one, the code reaches three kinds of building and a farm building is not among them. Local Government Code 233.061 lets a county over 250,000 in population, or one adjacent to such a county, adopt a fire code; 233.062 limits it in the unincorporated area to a commercial establishment, a public building and a multifamily dwelling of four or more units, and 233.063 requires a county permit before a covered building is constructed or substantially improved.
Travis County Code Chapter 201 is explicit: its commercial establishment definition excludes private garages, carports, sheds and agricultural buildings. Williamson County's fire code has run since November 2020 and Caldwell County's since August 13, 2026, on those same three categories; Bastrop County's pages list no fire marshal, no fire code and no fire code permit. Chapter 233 read in full names no exemption for a farm building: those buildings are simply not among the three types it covers. Use, not framing, moves a building across that line.
SourcesThe statute was read in full and grants no such authority.Texas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapter 233, county regulation of housing and other structures, read 2026-09-20; Travis County Fire Marshal, permits and plan reviews, and Travis County Code Chapter 201, read 2026-09-20; Williamson County Fire Marshal, construction permits, and the Williamson County Fire Code, second edition, read 2026-09-20; Caldwell County Fire Code adopted August 13, 2026, and the order adopting it, read 2026-09-20; Bastrop County Development Services, and the Development Services application fees, read 2026-09-20.
The records say what the state adopted and who enforces it, not whether a building is conditioned. The State Energy Conservation Office says the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code took effect November 1, 2016 for commercial, industrial and residential buildings taller than three stories, under its rule 34 TAC 19.53, and that it has kept that edition. Health and Safety Code 388.003(c) and (d) have each municipality administer and enforce the codes and allow local amendments.
Outside a city, no page read here states a separate rule: the statute adopts the codes in this state with no geographic carve-out and names municipalities as the enforcing bodies, so the office that permits the building answers it.
SourcesTexas Comptroller of Public Accounts, State Energy Conservation Office, commercial and multi-family construction, read 2026-09-20; Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, State Energy Conservation Office, local ordinances, read 2026-09-20; The statute and the agency pages were read and state no such rule.Texas Legislature Online, Health and Safety Code Chapter 388, Texas building energy performance standards, read 2026-09-20.
The USDA Farm Service Agency says its Farm Ownership Loans cover the purchase of farmland, the construction of farm buildings, and improvements to existing structures and infrastructure, as direct loans and as loans a lender makes with FSA backing. Applications go to the local FSA office, and the eligibility rules, including the farm management experience it asks for, are on the agency page below. No price for a finished building prints here, because no metal building contractor whose own site names Austin or these six counties publishes one: five were read, and each offers an estimate by form or phone. What moves the number is the footprint and eave height, the truss span, the post spacing, the doors and the site work.
SourcesUSDA Farm Service Agency, Farm Ownership Loans, and the Farm Loans Overview fact sheet (October 2025), read 2026-09-20; The builders' own pages were read and print no such price.Seven Texas metal building company websites, five of them naming the Austin area, read 2026-09-20.
An independent local metal building contractor who works your county sets the posts, frames the roof, hangs the steel and prices the building. Texas licenses no home builder or general contractor: the Department of Licensing and Regulation's list of 41 regulated industries has no program for either. That is why no contractor is called licensed anywhere on this site.
A Texas professional engineer seals the sheets where a record calls for one: Bastrop County's non-single-family development permit takes a plan set stamped by a Texas-licensed professional engineer, and Caldwell County's commercial site construction permit needs engineer-certified drawings. A farm building that stays a farm building can sit inside the statutory exemption entirely. Pricing it costs nothing either way.
SourcesTexas Department of Licensing and Regulation, regulated industries, and the Sunset Advisory Commission on the Texas Residential Construction Commission, read 2026-09-20; Texas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1001, engineers, read 2026-09-20; Bastrop County Development Services, and the Development Services application fees, read 2026-09-20; Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, and the subdivision and development fee schedule, read 2026-09-20.
It depends on the county. Lee County takes a Development Permit for any structure over 100 square feet; Bastrop County requires one for any external development outside its cities; Burnet County issues a $25 Class A permit outside a flood hazard area; and Williamson County states that it issues no building permits at all.
Often not. Occupations Code 1001.056 exempts the plans for a building of no more than one story and 5,000 square feet with no clear span greater than 24 feet on the narrow side, where no engineering services are offered to the public, and separately exempts a private building used exclusively for farm, ranch or agricultural purposes. Over that span, only the roof supporting members are engineered.
Not as a farm building. Local Government Code 233.062 limits a county fire code to a commercial establishment, a public building and a multifamily dwelling of four or more units in the unincorporated area, and Travis County Code Chapter 201 excludes private garages, carports, sheds and agricultural buildings from its commercial establishment definition.
Two different things. The 1979 Bastrop County soil survey describes Patilo soils as about 52 inches of loose fine sand, with a perched water table at 48 to 72 inches after heavy rain. The 1983 Williamson County survey records dry-season cracks up to four inches wide and 20 inches deep in Houston Black clays, and fractured rock 11 inches down west of Interstate 35.
Free estimate, six questions
The county tells a contractor which permit office your lot answers to. The building and the timing tell them what to look at first. Pricing it is free, and you owe nothing either way.
Your request goes to an independent local metal building contractor serving Central Texas, not a national lead list. Pricing it is free, and you owe nothing either way.
Last reviewed 2026-09-20.
