Build your home, your way.
Your home. Your budget. Your build.
Find land, design your home, compare real materials and connect directly with local contractors. Plan and manage your entire build with transparent pricing.
A free account to save projects and use the build workspace.
Front elevation
- Footprint
- 60′ × 36′
- Conditioned
- 2,160 sq ft
- Garage
- 624 sq ft
- Under roof
- 3,224 sq ft
Floor plan
3 bed · 2 bath
- Conditioned
- Garage
- Covered porch
Live estimate
Sample design
- Building
- $309,017
- Site work & soft costs
- $134,571
- Contingency (10%)
- $44,359
- Base total, before land
- $487,946
Low $373k High $747k
Illustrative planning estimate — standard finish, Middle Tennessee (Franklin baseline) factor. Recalculates as you design. Not a quote.
How it works
Five free steps, one continuous project.
The first four work without an account. The fifth needs a free one, so your project has somewhere to live.
- No account
Land
Browse land for sale by place, price and acreage — or skip ahead with land you already own, or none yet.
- No account
Design
Start from a preset, then set the footprint, rooms, garage, porches and finishes on a dimensioned 2D plan.
- No account
Estimate
Every change recalculates an itemized low, base and high planning estimate with a material takeoff.
- No account
Plans
Open the Plans page and a 15-sheet conceptual plan set is drawn from your design, ready to view and download as a PDF.
- Free account
Build
Save the project to a build workspace: vendors and bids, budget, schedule, tasks, checklists, files and financing.
What you get
A working toolset, not a catalog of static plans.
The design, the estimate, the drawings, the financing picture and the budget all read from one model of your building, so a change in one place shows up everywhere.
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Land listings search
Land for sale that we add to Dropyard by hand, with a due-diligence checklist for every lot. Until properties are added you see clearly labeled demo lots — never passed off as real.
Demo lots for now
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A real 2D designer, deliberately constrained
One-story rectangular footprints, four presets, an attached garage or shop and porch modules. Rooms are true rectangles — drag a partition and everything stays snapped, in bounds and non-overlapping.
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Itemized estimate with scenarios
Low, base and high figures per line from a versioned rate catalog — plain arithmetic you can inspect. Save alternative configurations and see where the difference comes from, line by line.
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15-sheet conceptual plan set
Floor plan, roof plan, elevations, foundation, framing and MEP concept sheets, drawn in your browser as a vector PDF from your design’s geometry, with a material takeoff CSV and a cost report.
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Financing planner
Turns the planning estimate into a rough construction-loan picture: down payment, loan amount and an illustrative monthly payment from a rate you type in. An illustration, not a loan offer.
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Trade-by-trade vendor checklist
Every trade from surveyor to final clean, each with a scope-of-work template. You add your own vendors and bids; the bundled examples are labeled demo vendors.
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Budget: baseline, bids, actuals
Your estimate stays as the baseline. Enter real bids, contracts and invoices as they arrive and watch the variance, kept separate from the calculated numbers.
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Milestone schedule & task board
A phase-by-phase checklist from due diligence to handover, with editable dates, dependencies and a simple status board. No promised approval timelines.
The plan set
Fifteen sheets, drawn from your design.
Every sheet is drawn in your browser from the same model as your estimate, so dimensions and areas agree across the set. Where the model cannot support real design — structure, electrical, plumbing, HVAC — the sheet is a labeled concept for a professional to complete.
Each set carries its issue date and a short design reference code, and comes with a material takeoff CSV and a cost report. Thumbnails below are drawn from the sample preset.
- G0
G0 Cover
Sheet index, project data and disclaimers
- A1
A1 Site concept
Schematic placement only — not a survey
- A2
A2 Floor plan
Dimensioned rooms, doors and windows
- A3
A3 Roof plan
Roof planes, ridges and pitch
- A4
A4 Elevations
Exterior views from the model
- A5
A5 Wall section
Typical assembly, concept only
- S1
S1 Foundation layout
Slab concept layout
- S2
S2 Foundation details
Typical detail concepts
- S3
S3 Roof framing
Framing concept diagram
- E1
E1 Electrical
Fixture and outlet concept
- P1
P1 Plumbing
Fixtures and preliminary routing
- M1
M1 HVAC
Zoning and equipment locations
- Q1
Q1 Takeoff
Preliminary material quantities
- B1
B1 Budget
Estimate snapshot and assumptions
- V1
V1 Trade scopes
Scopes and vendor selection checklist
On every sheet
CONCEPTUAL PLANNING DOCUMENT — NOT ENGINEERED, NOT PERMIT-READY, NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION. Field verification and review by qualified local professionals required.
Please read before you rely on it
What Dropyard is — and what it is not.
The plan set
Conceptual only — not engineered, permit-ready or approved for construction. Licensed professionals and your local authority must review and complete required design.
The estimate
Planning estimate, not a contractor quote or binding bid. Site conditions, specifications and local market prices may materially change cost.
Dropyard is a planning tool — not an architect, engineer, contractor, lender, broker or law firm.
Read the full disclaimerQuestions
Straight answers.
The limits matter as much as the features. If something here is unclear, get in touch.
Is it really free?
Yes. Dropyard is free for owners and will stay free for owners. Land search, the designer, the estimate, the plan set, the financing planner and the build workspace cost nothing, and there is nowhere on the site to enter a card.
A free account to save projects and use the build workspace.
Then how does Dropyard plan to make money?
The plan is a partner program: contractors and trades would pay to be listed as verified vendors and to receive project requests, and lenders would pay for referrals. Owners would not be charged.
None of that exists yet. No vendor or lender pays Dropyard today, nobody is verified, Dropyard sends no leads or messages to anyone, and every vendor and lender shown in the product is a fictional, labeled demo entry.
Is the plan set permit-ready?
No. The plan set is conceptual only — not engineered, permit-ready or approved for construction. Licensed professionals and your local authority must review and complete the required design.
Its job is to communicate what you want, clearly and to scale, to the people who will finish the design: a structural engineer, your building department and licensed trades. Every sheet carries that statement in its footer.
How accurate is the estimate?
It is a planning range, not a quote. Costs come from a versioned rate catalog of illustrative placeholder values, adjusted by a regional factor and finish tier, and shown as low, base and high. Site conditions, specifications and local market prices may materially change cost.
Once you have real bids, you enter them in the build workspace and track them against the original estimate, which is kept as your baseline.
How is the plan set made, and is it saved anywhere?
It is drawn in your browser by the same code that measures your design — no AI is involved. Opening the Plans page draws the set for the design as it is now, and each set carries its issue date and a short design reference code.
Dropyard does not store plan sets. If you want to keep a particular version, download the PDF before you change the design.
Where do land listings come from?
We add each property to Dropyard by hand. Details can go out of date and a lot may have sold since it was added, so confirm availability and details with the listing contact or a licensed real estate professional.
Until properties have been added, Dropyard shows a small set of fictional demo lots under a clear banner. They are not for sale.
Do you verify zoning, utilities or whether a lot is buildable?
No. A listing gives us a point on a map and a few facts — not surveyed boundaries, setbacks, covenants, flood status, soil conditions, septic suitability or utility access.
Each lot comes with a due-diligence checklist where every item starts as “Unknown / Verify”, with a short explanation of who can confirm it.
Are the vendors and lenders real?
No. Every vendor and lender that ships with Dropyard is a fictional demo entry, labeled as such, included to show how the tools work. They cannot be hired or borrowed from, and Dropyard does not contact anyone on your behalf.
You add your own vendors, contacts and bids, and those stay private to your project. Dropyard does not vet or recommend vendors.
Is the financing planner a loan offer?
No. It is a calculator that turns your planning estimate into a rough construction-loan picture — down payment, loan amount and an illustrative monthly payment from a rate you type in.
It is an illustration, not a loan offer, pre-approval, rate quote or financial advice. Dropyard is not a lender or broker, and the lenders listed alongside it are fictional demo entries.
Do I need an account?
Not for land search, the designer, the estimate, the plan set or the financing planner. Your draft is kept in your browser.
You create a free account when you want to save a project and use the build workspace.
Who is Dropyard for?
People in the United States planning to build a one-story barn-style home — especially first-time owner-builders who want a clear process — and small builders who want a quick planning tool to use with clients.
If you need a multi-story or irregular floor plan, this version of the designer will not model it.
Start with the land, or start with the plan.
Search for a lot or go straight to the designer. Land search, the designer, the estimate and the plan set all work without an account, and your draft is saved in your browser.
A free account to save projects and use the build workspace.