Barndominium Builders in Travelers Rest, SC

Barndominium builders working north of Greenville find that Travelers Rest sits at a turning point in the landscape. The city is about 10 miles north of Greenville and about 20 miles south of the North Carolina line, at an elevation of 1,116 feet. North of town, US 276 climbs past Caesars Head State Park toward Brevard, and US 25 heads into the Blue Ridge toward Asheville, about 54 miles away. Greenville County's northern border follows the ridgelines and crests of the Blue Ridge, so the further out you go from Travelers Rest, the steeper and higher the land gets.

A town built for travelers

In 1794 the South Carolina General Assembly paid for a wagon road from Greenville north through the Blue Ridge to Asheville and East Tennessee. Travelers Rest became the first well-equipped stop for people preparing for the climb. Through the 1800s and early 1900s the area was mostly known as Bates Township. An 1891 incorporation lapsed, and the city was incorporated again in 1959. Today it is the trailhead town for the Swamp Rabbit Trail, and Furman University's campus was annexed into the city in 2018.

A growing small city

Travelers Rest had 4,576 residents in 2010 and 7,788 in 2020, with a 2025 estimate of 9,135. Its 2020 median age was 22.9, pulled down by the Furman campus. Growth inside the city means more lots under city zoning, while the open, rolling and wooded land that makes a good barndominium site is mostly outside city limits in unincorporated Greenville County.

Who issues the permit

• Unincorporated land around Travelers Rest is permitted by Greenville County Planning and Codes Compliance. Applications go through the eTrakit portal with a tax map number, and permit technicians check floodplain status, road frontage and setbacks.
• Inside city limits, check with the City of Travelers Rest about zoning and permits before design; city lots are smaller and closer to neighbors.
• Covenants are the owner's responsibility in Greenville County, and newer subdivisions in the area may restrict exterior materials.

Sloped lots and foothill soils

The higher the site, the more the slope drives the design. Two USDA soil series show the range of ground in this part of the county:

• Pacolet, a Piedmont upland soil, is very deep and well drained, with a clay or clay loam subsoil. It is commonly found on 15 to 25 percent slopes and has medium to rapid runoff.
• Hayesville, a soil of the Southern Appalachian ridges and side slopes, occurs from about 1,400 to 4,000 feet, with a loam surface over red clay or clay loam.

On slopes like these we look at where the pad can be cut with the least fill, how the driveway climbs to it, and how the runoff from a large roof gets down the hill without eroding the cut bank. A walkout or stepped slab is sometimes simpler than leveling the whole footprint.

Colder than downtown

Wikipedia's climate figures for Travelers Rest show an annual mean daily maximum of 71.0 degrees and a mean daily minimum of 48.0, with January averaging a 30.0-degree low and July an 88.3-degree high. Those are slightly cooler numbers than the Greenville suburbs to the south. For a barndominium that means:

• Insulating the slab edge and keeping water lines inside the heated envelope
• Specifying a heat pump that holds up on freezing nights
• Keeping the roof pitch steep enough to shed ice and leaves from surrounding hardwoods

Barndominium layouts for foothill land

On wooded tracts north of town, a barndominium with a shop works well for owners who keep trail bikes, kayaks, a tractor or a small sawmill. Porches on the view side, a loft over the shop for guests, and the shop doors on the uphill side for easy vehicle access are all options we can plan for.

Call (864) 326-0632 or

Get a Free Estimate

and tell us where the land is. We start with the slope, the access and the permit path.