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Texas Best Construction Review: Barndominium Prices and Build Quality

Updated July 2026 · Barndo Finder research

Texas Best Construction is a family-run barndominium builder based in Red Oak, Texas, just south of Dallas. It builds turnkey barndominiums within roughly 60 miles of Red Oak, builds shells within roughly 100 miles, and sells stock floor plans through a sister site. Reported pricing of $165 to $185 per square foot for finished living space sits inside the normal Texas range, and public reviews are mostly positive on build quality with some complaints about communication.

Key takeaways

• Texas Best Construction sells shell-only builds, turnkey builds, and stock floor plans. It is a real builder with 60+ completed projects in its gallery, not a kit reseller.
• Pricing is not published on the company's own site. A third-party directory reports $165 to $185 per square foot for living space and $60 to $70 for shop and porch areas.
• Service area is tight: turnkey within about 60 miles of Red Oak, shells within about 100 miles. If your land is in West Texas, this is not your builder.
• A directory snapshot shows a 4 out of 5 Google rating across 43 reviews. Praise centers on build quality and energy efficiency. Complaints center on communication.
• The company offers no in-house design team, no financing, no permit help, and no grading. You handle those pieces yourself.
• Stock plans through Best Barndo Plans run $1,050 to $1,375 each.

What does Texas Best Construction actually sell?

Texas Best Construction sells three things: shell-only barndominium construction, full turnkey construction, and stock floor plans. The construction work is the core business. The plans are a side product sold through bestbarndoplans.com, a sister site the company runs. If you are still deciding between those routes, our shell versus turnkey breakdown walks through the tradeoffs.

Photo: 1845 Barndominiums

Josh and Brandy Helm own the company. They have operated as general contractors since 2006, and by their own account they built their first barndominium for themselves in 2015 before pivoting to build them for clients. The company also does masonry, stucco, restoration, and remodel work, which tells you it started as a general contracting shop rather than a barndo-only outfit.

Builds use steel framing with hybrid wood elements. Clients get access to a Buildertrend portal to track their project, which is standard software for organized residential builders and a mild green flag. The company was also named among the best barndominium builders in Texas by NewHomeSource, a builder directory.

What it does not sell matters just as much. Directory listings report no in-house design team, no permit assistance, no grading services, and no financing. You bring your own plans or buy one of theirs, you arrange your own construction loan, and you handle dirt work before they show up. Our guide to the barndominium build process covers the permit and site work steps you will own. That is a normal setup for a builder this size, but first-time owners sometimes assume the builder handles everything. This one does not.

How much does a Texas Best barndominium cost?

The company does not publish pricing on its own website. The site directs you to request a quote. A third-party directory listing (BarndominiumZone) reports $165 to $185 per square foot for living space with standard finishes and $60 to $70 per square foot for shop and porch areas. Treat those as reported figures, not a quote.

Here is how those numbers compare to our Texas estimates. Our figures are Barndo Finder directory estimates pending verified quotes, drawn from the state cost table.

The reported living space number lands in the upper middle of our Texas turnkey range. That is what we would expect from a DFW-area builder doing standard finishes. It is not cheap, and that is fine. In our experience, turnkey quotes under $100 per square foot are usually shell quotes wearing a turnkey costume. A builder whose reported numbers start at $165 is at least pricing like someone who intends to finish the interior.

Run the math on a common build: 2,000 square feet of living space plus a 1,200 square foot shop. At the reported rates, that is $330,000 to $370,000 for the living space and $72,000 to $84,000 for the shop, so roughly $400,000 to $455,000 before land, septic, well, and site work. Those last four lines are real money. Budget them separately or your budget is fiction. Underbudgeting site work is one of the most common regrets owners tell us about.

What do reviews say about Texas Best Construction?

Public reviews lean positive on the work itself and mixed on communication. A 2026 directory snapshot shows a 4 out of 5 Google rating across 43 reviews and a 3 out of 5 on Yelp from a single review. That Google sample is big enough to mean something. The Yelp sample is not.

The positive pattern: reviewers praise build quality and energy efficiency. Owner Josh Helm is active in barndominium Facebook groups and posts educational content, including cost breakdowns on YouTube and the Build Show Network. Builders who explain their pricing in public tend to be builders who can defend their pricing in a contract meeting.

The negative pattern: complaints in Google and Yelp feedback cite communication and customer service issues, including slow responses. We did not find a pattern of structural complaints, abandoned jobs, or payment disputes in public sources. The company's BBB profile shows it is not BBB accredited and BBB lists no rating due to insufficient information. That is neutral, not a red flag. Plenty of good small builders never bother with BBB accreditation.

One honest caveat: 43 Google reviews over roughly two decades of contracting is a modest count. It supports a directional read, not a verdict. Ask any builder, this one included, for 3 references from builds completed at least 1 year ago, then call them.

Where does Texas Best Construction build?

The service area is a circle around Red Oak, Texas, which sits about 20 miles south of Dallas. Directory listings report turnkey construction within about 60 miles of Red Oak and shell-only construction within about 100 miles. That covers the DFW metroplex, Waxahachie, Corsicana, and the northern edge of the Waco corridor.

Photo: Sawyer Metal

It does not cover Houston, Austin, San Antonio, or anything in West Texas. Texas is 800 miles across. A 100-mile radius is a small slice of it. If your land is outside the circle, browse other Texas barndominium builders in the directory, or read our review of 1845 Barndominiums, another Texas builder we have covered. We track 335 barndominium-specific builders across 40 states, and border-country readers can also check Oklahoma builders and Arkansas builders, where our turnkey estimates run $130 to $195 and $125 to $190 per square foot.

What about Texas Best barndominium floor plans?

The company sells 12 stock floor plans through its sister site, Best Barndo Plans, priced from $1,050 to $1,375. Most plans list at $1,225. Plan names include Wilderness Ridge, Lonestar Landing, and Cactus Canyon. The site does not list square footage per plan on its main page, so check the individual plan sheets before buying.

That pricing is normal for stock barndo plans. Custom architectural plans typically run several times that. Two things to check before you buy any stock plan, from this company or anyone else: whether your county or lender requires an engineer's stamp for your site, and whether the plan's foundation spec matches your soil. North Texas clay moves. A plan drawn for one site is not automatically buildable on yours, and stamping plus foundation redesign can add real cost.

The useful part: you can buy the plans even if you build outside their service area with another contractor. That makes the plan side of the business relevant to readers far beyond DFW.

Who is Texas Best Construction a good fit for?

It fits owners with land within about 60 miles of Red Oak who want a hands-on local builder and have their financing and site work already sorted. The owner-operated structure means the person whose name is on the company is close to your job. The Buildertrend portal, the public cost content, and the reported pricing that starts at realistic numbers all point to a builder who runs the business like a business.

It also fits shell buyers within the 100-mile circle who plan to finish the interior themselves. A shell from an established GC beats a mail-order kit for most owner-finishers, because the slab, frame, and dry-in are the parts you least want to get wrong. Kit marketing overpromises on how easy the rest is. The shell route with a real builder splits the difference.

Who should look elsewhere?

Skip this builder if your land is outside the service circle, if you need design and permitting handled for you, or if you need builder-arranged financing. The company offers none of those. Our financing overview covers the loan options you would line up on your own. Buyers who want a single company to take them from raw land to move-in, including grading, septic coordination, and plan design, should look at larger design-build outfits and expect to pay for the convenience.

Buyers chasing the lowest possible number should also look elsewhere, and then be careful where they land. A quote meaningfully below $140 per square foot turnkey in Texas usually means the scope quietly shrank. Compare line items, not totals. Our cost table shows what full-scope turnkey pricing looks like state by state.

Our take

Texas Best Construction looks like a legitimate, established, owner-run builder with a tight service area and pricing that matches the honest end of the Texas market. The 4 out of 5 Google rating across 43 reviews, the public cost breakdowns, and 60+ gallery projects support that read. The known weakness in public feedback is communication, so set expectations in writing: response times, a weekly update cadence, and change-order procedure, all in the contract.

We have not collected verified quotes from this builder yet, so treat the reported $165 to $185 per square foot as a starting assumption and get it confirmed in writing against a full spec sheet. If you are still weighing whether a barndo makes sense at these prices at all, our look at whether barndominiums are actually cheaper runs the numbers.

Get competing quotes before you sign

Get 2 or 3 quotes before committing to any builder, including this one. A single quote tells you a price. Three quotes tell you the market, and they give you leverage on scope and schedule. Request quotes from vetted barndominium builders in your area at /quote, or browse the full builder directory first.