Georgetown County, SC Swimming Pools & Spas: Pool Permits (2026)

Georgetown County treats a residential pool exactly like any other structure that needs a permit under Sec. 7-10(a): the building official has to sign off before work starts, and the code lists swimming pool construction by name alongside plumbing, electrical, mechanical and gas work as activities that cannot begin without one. The only carve-out in Sec. 7-10(b) is for pure home improvements, defined narrowly as painting, replacing windows and doors, repairing plumbing fixtures, or replacing rotten wood, none of which cover building a pool.

Fees follow the county's standard valuation-based schedule in Sec. 7-20(b). A pool project valued at $1,000.00 or less costs a flat $30.00 permit fee; between $1,001.00 and $50,000.00, the fee is $30.00 for the first $1,000.00 plus $6.50 for every additional thousand dollars or fraction of it, so a mid-size in-ground pool valued well into the tens of thousands of dollars can carry a permit fee in the hundreds of dollars before a shovel touches the ground.

Starting the pool before the permit is issued triggers Sec. 7-20(a)'s double-fee penalty: the county charges twice the normal permit fee once it discovers unpermitted work underway, on top of requiring the permit application itself. The Georgetown County Building Department, supervised by the county building official, handles both the permit and the inspections that follow, and that authority covers only the unincorporated county, not the City of Georgetown, Andrews, or the Town of Pawleys Island, each of which runs its own building department.