Horry County, SC Building Safety: Building Inspections (2026)

Under Horry County Code Section 6-95, the county's building inspection department will not authorize any additional construction work on a permitted project until a post-foundation survey is submitted. The survey must be prepared by a registered land surveyor licensed by the State of South Carolina and filed with the code enforcement department within ten working days after the foundation is installed, backfilled and rough graded. It must show buffers and easements, floodplain boundaries where applicable, the actual dimensions and shape of the lot, and the location, setbacks and dimensions of the proposed building or foundation.

Where an existing structure already has an accurate survey on file that lets the department verify the location of existing and proposed structures without a new survey, the requirement is waived. It is also waived outright on tracts of at least 22,000 square feet where the structure sits at least three feet from the setback lines. The building inspection department, created under Section 6-1 to promote health and safety for residents outside any municipality, enforces this stage alongside the adopted International Building Code and International Residential Code administrative provisions in Section 6-2.

Framing, electrical, plumbing and mechanical rough-in inspections that follow cannot be scheduled until this foundation survey clears, making it the gatekeeping step of the inspection sequence for new homes and additions across unincorporated Horry County, including Socastee, Carolina Forest and Longs.