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

Georgetown County's quiet hours run from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., built into two of the ten enumerated violations under the county's noise ordinance, Code § 13.8-2(c). Subsection (c)(2) targets radios, musical instruments, phonographs and similar sound equipment operated so as to disturb people who are not voluntary listeners; if the device is audible at fifty feet during the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. window, that audibility alone is prima facie evidence of a violation, meaning the county does not need to separately prove annoyance once the distance test is met.

Subsection (c)(4) applies the same overnight window to yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling or singing on public streets, and extends beyond the nighttime hours to cover any time such noise disturbs people in an office, dwelling, hotel or other residence. Both provisions sit under the general excessive-noise prohibition in subsection (b), which reaches any loud, unnecessary and unusual noise that disturbs a nonvoluntary listener anywhere in the unincorporated county. A magistrate can also weigh the subsection (d) factors, including proximity to residential sleeping facilities and whether law enforcement has fielded prior complaints about the same noise.

The quiet-hours window applies only in unincorporated Georgetown County, the Waccamaw Neck outside Pawleys Island town, Murrells Inlet, Sampit and Plantersville; the City of Georgetown, the Town of Pawleys Island and Andrews enforce their own late-night noise limits.