# Custom Home Builder in Hillsdale, Michigan — Strouss Construction

> Custom homes, additions, barndominiums and pole barns in Hillsdale, Michigan, from Baw Beese Lake to the rolling townships around the county seat.

Hillsdale sits about forty minutes south of Jackson down M-99, so getting a crew and material here is routine for us. Strouss Construction has been family owned since 1949 and the fourth generation runs it now.

In town, around the college and the older streets near downtown, you are working next to homes built in the 1800s on tight lots with mature trees and city water and sewer. Lots on Baw Beese Lake add narrow frontage and a slope down to the water. Out in the townships you get room, a well, a septic field and a long driveway.

## Nineteenth Century Housing Stock
The older part of Hillsdale is full of tall farmhouse styles, Queen Annes and small Greek Revivals, many with balloon framing, plaster over lath and a block or fieldstone basement. Additions there are mostly a roofline and foundation problem. You are tying new framing into old framing that is not level, and matching a porch or a window pattern so the front of the house still reads right from the street.

## Post Frame Country
Outside the city the county rolls into farm ground and glacial hills with parcels measured in acres. Post frame homes and barndominiums make sense out there because you have the setbacks and road frontage for them, and people want the shop attached. Pole barns for equipment, second garages and machine sheds are steady work in Cambria, Scipio, Adams and Wheatland townships. Footings go below frost, which here means around forty two inches down, and soils run from sandy loam to heavy clay.

## Where We Build Around Hillsdale
Baw Beese Lake, Downtown Hillsdale and the Hillsdale College area, Hillsdale Township, Cambria Township, Scipio Township, Jonesville and Fayette Township

## What We Build in Hillsdale
- **New Homes & Barndominiums** ([details](https://stroussconstruction.com/services/new-homes-barndominiums.md))
- **Additions & Remodeling** ([details](https://stroussconstruction.com/services/additions-remodeling.md))
- **Garages & Barns** ([details](https://stroussconstruction.com/services/garages-barns.md))
- **Commercial Construction** ([details](https://stroussconstruction.com/services/commercial-construction.md))

## FAQ
### Can I build a barndominium on acreage outside Hillsdale?
In most of the rural townships around Hillsdale, yes, and post frame homes are common out there. The rules are set township by township, so setbacks, minimum square footage and whether a home can be post frame all depend on where you are, and the building permit itself comes through the Hillsdale County Building Inspection Office. Inside the city of Hillsdale it is a different conversation. We look at the parcel and the zoning before we draw anything.

### Do you take on additions to the older homes near downtown and the college?
Yes. That end of Hillsdale is mostly nineteenth and early twentieth century houses on narrow lots, so the work is as much about access and matching as it is about framing. We plan how a truck gets to the back of the property, how the new foundation meets the old one, and how the addition looks from the sidewalk. We look at those houses ourselves before we put a number on anything.

### Can you build on Baw Beese Lake?
Yes. Baw Beese lots tend to be narrow with a slope down to the water, so the design starts with the grade, the setbacks and where equipment can stage. A walkout lower level often fits the slope naturally. We walk the lot before anything is drawn, because on lake frontage the site makes half the decisions.

### How deep do foundations go in Hillsdale County?
Footings have to get below the frost line, which in this part of Michigan means around forty two inches down. On top of that the soils here swing from sandy loam to heavy clay within a mile, so we confirm what the ground actually is before the excavator shows up rather than after.

## Contact
Phone (517) 750-0031 · https://stroussconstruction.com/contact