Georgetown County, SC Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Georgetown County folds its construction-hours limit into the general noise ordinance at Code § 13.8-2(c)(6) rather than a separate building code. Outside the unincorporated area's normal window of 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., the erection of a building, including excavation, along with any demolition, alteration or repair, is declared a prohibited noise under the section. Contractors cannot simply request a night-work waiver; the only carve-out is 'urgent necessity in the interest of public health and safety,' and even then a permit must come from the director of code enforcement.

That emergency permit runs for no more than three days at a time, though it can be renewed in additional three-day blocks for as long as the emergency continues, so routine scheduling pressure or a tight deadline does not qualify. Because this provision lives inside the noise ordinance, a magistrate weighing a complaint about after-hours construction can also apply the general factors in subsection (d), including the intensity and duration of the noise, how close it is to residential sleeping areas, and whether neighbors have already called it in.

The rule reaches only the unincorporated parts of the county, the Waccamaw Neck outside Pawleys Island town limits, Murrells Inlet, Sampit and Plantersville; construction inside the City of Georgetown or the Town of Pawleys Island answers to that municipality's own hours, not this section. Georgetown County Sheriff's Office deputies, designated the enforcing agency for the whole section under subsection (h), respond to after-hours construction complaints.