The Charleston Lowcountry and York County on the South Carolina side of the Charlotte metro, across Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Lancaster and York counties. Each town below has its own permit authority and its own housing stock, and both change what the work involves.
Water heaters, drains, leaks and the emergencies that will not wait for Monday — across the Charleston Lowcountry.
Charleston County · City of Charleston
Charleston County · Town of Mount Pleasant
Charleston County · City of North Charleston
Dorchester County · Town of Summerville
Berkeley County · City of Goose Creek
Charleston County · Charleston County
Charleston County · City of Charleston
Charleston County · City of Isle of Palms
Berkeley County · Town of Moncks Corner
Berkeley County · City of Hanahan
Berkeley County · Charleston / Berkeley / Dorchester
Berkeley County · City of Charleston
Charleston County · Charleston County
Charleston County · Town of Mount Pleasant
Charleston County · Town of Seabrook Island
Charleston County · Town of Kiawah Island
Colleton County · Colleton County
Charleston County · City of Folly Beach
York County · City of Rock Hill
York County · Town of Fort Mill
York County · City of Tega Cay
York County · York County
York County · Town of Clover
York County · City of York
Lancaster County · Lancaster County
The same trade behaves differently at the two ends of our service area. In the Lowcountry towns most houses sit over a crawl space, which makes a supply run reachable and makes the condition of that crawl space part of the plumbing conversation whether you wanted it to be or not. The water table is high, so a sump is ordinary equipment rather than a luxury, and the older parts of the peninsula and West Ashley still carry cast iron drainage.
In Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie, Clover, York and Indian Land the ground is firmer, the water table is lower, and a buried supply line is more often in a slab than under a floor — which changes a leak from a repair into a re-route. Freezing matters more inland as well: a hose bib or a garage run that survives a Charleston winter is not automatically safe two hundred miles north.
A plumbing permit is pulled by the licensed plumbing contractor performing the work, in that contractor's own name, and the office it is pulled from is set by the address rather than by the postal town.
Between them, the towns above fall under 21 separate permit authorities.
In the Lowcountry, permits come from the City of Charleston for Charleston, West Ashley and Daniel Island, the Town of Mount Pleasant for Mount Pleasant and Park West, the City of North Charleston for North Charleston, the Town of Summerville for Summerville, the City of Goose Creek for Goose Creek, Charleston County for James Island and Johns Island, the City of Isle of Palms for Isle of Palms, the Town of Moncks Corner for Moncks Corner, the City of Hanahan for Hanahan, Ladson falling to Charleston, Berkeley or Dorchester County depending on the address, the Town of Seabrook Island for Seabrook Island, the Town of Kiawah Island for Kiawah Island, Colleton County for Edisto Island and the City of Folly Beach for Folly Beach.
In York and Lancaster counties, from the City of Rock Hill for Rock Hill, the Town of Fort Mill for Fort Mill, the City of Tega Cay for Tega Cay, York County for Lake Wylie, the Town of Clover for Clover, the City of York for York and Lancaster County for Indian Land.
Ladson is the clearest case, but any address near a municipal line can fall to a different office than the postal town suggests — and on a plumbing job that office also decides when the rough-in inspection happens.
That is why we name the authority for your address at the estimate rather than promising a date. The permit queue belongs to the building department; the scope and the price belong to us.
It changes two things: which building department issues the permit and inspects the work, and what the house is likely to be built over.
A crawl space repair in West Ashley and a slab re-route in Fort Mill are the same fault and two different jobs.
Travel is a real cost on any job and we would rather say so than bury it. It is discussed at the estimate, not added afterwards.
The one listed against your town above, and we confirm it against the actual address before work is scheduled.
Addresses near a municipal boundary — Ladson is the clearest example — can fall to a different authority than the postal address suggests.