What that building actually costs.
Pole barns, metal buildings, barndominiums, carports. Priced by size, split into shell and turnkey, with the source cited for every number. We don't sell buildings. We price them.
A 40×60 pole barn costs $21k to $48k as a shell or kit, and $84k to $135k finished. Same building. The gap is concrete, wiring, insulation, doors and site work. See the full breakdown.
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Priced against
Verified July 2026. Every figure on this site links to the source it came from.
Prices by building type.
Every span below is a real spread from shell to turnkey, at the largest size each guide prices. Not an average. Open a guide to see the cost broken out by size and by what's actually included.
Pole Barn Cost
50×100 (5,000 sq ft) 50×100 (5,000 sq ft): shell $45k to $100k, turnkey $175k to $260k. Pole barns run $7,000 to $260,000 depending on size and finish. See real prices by size, what drives the cost, and where kit sellers hide the extras. Open the guide
Metal Building Cost
50×100 (5,000 sq ft) 50×100 (5,000 sq ft): shell $70k to $120k, turnkey $150k to $250k. Metal buildings run $9,000 to $250,000 depending on size and finish. Real prices by size, what steel commodity swings do to your quote, and kit traps to avoid. Open the guide
Barndominium Cost
3,000 sq ft home 3,000 sq ft home: shell $60k to $150k, turnkey $210k to $450k. Barndominiums cost $65 to $200+ per square foot finished, or $24,000 to $150,000 for a bare shell. Real prices by finish level and where the money actually goes. Open the guide
Steel Building Cost
60×150 (9,000 sq ft) 60×150 (9,000 sq ft): shell $135k to $225k, turnkey $270k to $550k. Steel buildings run $36,000 to $360,000 for commercial red-iron construction. Real prices by size, red iron vs. light gauge, and what clear-span actually costs. Open the guide
Carport Cost
30×40 Large / Enclosed 30×40 Large / Enclosed: shell $10k to $18k, turnkey $14k to $36k. Metal carports run $1,800 to $36,000 depending on size and how it's installed. Real prices by size, material choices, and why three quotes can vary so much. Open the guide
Quonset Hut Cost
50×100 (5,000 sq ft) 50×100 (5,000 sq ft): shell $30k to $100k, turnkey $100k to $220k. Quonset huts run $3,600 to $220,000 depending on size and finish. Real prices by size, the hidden costs kit sellers leave off, and what endwalls actually cost. Open the guide
Read a quote like a builder.
The most useful thing to know about building prices is that "$30,000 pole barn" and "$95,000 pole barn" are often the same building. One number is the kit on a truck. The other is that kit standing on a concrete slab, wired, insulated, with doors that work.
Sellers quote whichever number helps them, so we split every price on this site into two columns and keep them apart. Shell or kit means materials and basic erection. Turnkey means you can park in it. The gap between those columns is where the surprise lives, and it's wider than most buyers expect going in.
Site work is the other ambush. Grading, tree clearing, a gravel driveway, and a culvert are almost never in an advertised price, and they can add $3,000 to $20,000 before a single post goes in the ground.
- 01
Concrete
A slab is frequently the single largest line after the frame, and it is the one most often quoted separately or not at all.
- 02
Site work
Grading, clearing, drainage and a driveway happen before anything is built, and they rarely appear on a kit price.
- 03
Doors and openings
Every opening is a hole in the structure that has to be framed, headed and sealed. Large overhead doors carry the cost twice.
- 04
Insulation and wiring
The difference between a shed and a shop. Both are finish-out costs, and both are outside almost every advertised shell price.
No reviews. Receipts instead.
Spanrate is new, and it has never sold a building, so there are no testimonials on this page and there won't be invented ones. Here is what there is instead: the work, counted.
- 13 cost guides
Every building type priced by size, not by a single average that flatters the cheap version.
- 66 cited sources
Across 43 independent publishers, manufacturers and agencies. Every number links back to where it came from.
- 2 columns, always
Shell and turnkey are never blended into one figure. The gap between them is the whole point.
- 0 buildings sold
No builder or dealer pays to appear here, and we don't sell buildings. Our only revenue is clearly marked affiliate links to materials and tools.
What buyers ask first.
How much does a pole barn cost?
A pole barn costs $7,000 to $65,000 as a bare shell or kit, and $30,000 to $260,000 finished, depending almost entirely on size. A 40x60, the most common size we price, runs about $84,000 to $135,000 turnkey as of mid-2026.
What is the cheapest building to put up?
Per square foot, a carport is the cheapest structure you can buy, starting near $1,800 for a single-car open cover. If you need walls and a roof you can lock, a post-frame shell beats a steel-frame building at small sizes, and steel catches up as the span gets wider.
Why do two quotes for the same building differ by 40 percent?
Usually because one is a shell and the other is finished, and neither says so on the cover page. Concrete, electrical, insulation, doors, and site work move a quote the most, and they're the line items most often left out of an advertised price.
Is a barndominium cheaper than a regular house?
The shell is. The finish-out isn't. Barndominium shells run $24,000 to $150,000, but interior finish costs roughly what any house costs per square foot, because it's the same drywall, cabinets, plumbing, and labor. Most budget overruns happen on that half.
Do steel building prices change through the year?
Yes. Steel and lumber are commodities, and quotes track them. A price from January is not a price in September, which is why every quote should say how long it's honored. Ask for that in writing.
Price your building in about a minute.
Pick a type, enter a size, choose a finish level. You'll get an honest range with the cost drivers shown, built from the same data behind the guides.