Barndominium Builders in Florence, SC

Barndominium builders looking at Florence see what Pee Dee landowners already know: the land is level, the parcels can be large, and the roads make deliveries easy. Florence is the county seat of Florence County and its main city, with 39,899 people in 2020. It sits in the South Carolina coastal plain in the northern part of the county, about 80 miles east of Columbia, 70 miles west of Myrtle Beach and 110 miles from Charlotte.

Florence started as a rail junction. Three lines met here, the Wilmington and Manchester, the Northeastern, and the Cheraw and Darlington, and the town was named for Florence Harllee, daughter of the railroad president who built his home at the junction. It was chartered in 1871 and incorporated on December 24, 1890, two years after Florence County was created. Today the junction is highway: I-95 crosses the area, and Florence is the eastern end of I-20, 83 miles from Columbia. For a barndominium, that means steel, trusses and lumber come in on interstate routes rather than winding back roads.

Who reviews a barndo plan in Florence County?

Outside city limits, the Florence County Planning Department is the office that matters. It covers planning, building inspection, engineering, code enforcement and E-911 addressing, and it maintains the county's comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance and land development ordinance. The county administers the international building and residential codes, and it has a Planning Commission and a Board of Zoning Appeals if a parcel needs a decision beyond a standard permit. A new rural address usually starts with E-911 addressing, so we fold that into the early paperwork.

Inside Florence, Lake City or Johnsonville, the municipality's own rules come into play, so we check the parcel's jurisdiction first. Either way, the 2021 South Carolina Residential Code has been mandatory statewide since January 1, 2023, and the energy code is the 2009 IECC set by statute.

Carolina bays in the fields

The Pee Dee is Carolina bay country. SCDNR counts about 5,000 mapped bays in South Carolina: oval depressions, often less than 10 feet deep, with long axes running northwest to southeast and sandy rims on the northeast and southeast edges. Undisturbed bays collect rainwater and hold wetlands, and many have since been ditched and drained for farmland or partly filled to make level sites. A humate-cemented sand layer at the base can hold water above the water table.

Florence County has one of the protected examples. Woods Bay State Park, near Olanta, covers about 1,590 acres and protects some of the last remaining large Carolina bays, with a boardwalk through cypress-tupelo swamp. If a field you are buying sits low and oval on an aerial photo, it may be an old bay, and the pad height and drainage plan matter more than the floor plan.

Soils: farm-good is not always build-easy

Coastal plain farm ground around Florence often looks like the USDA Norfolk series: loamy sand on top to about 14 inches, then sandy loam to sandy clay loam, well drained, with a seasonal high water table 40 to 72 inches down from January to March. Norfolk ground is mostly cleared for corn, cotton, peanuts, tobacco and soybeans. Lower flats look more like Lynchburg, which is somewhat poorly drained with a seasonal high water table only 6 to 18 inches down from November to April. Same county, very different septic and slab plans.

Septic comes first

Rural Florence County lots are mostly on septic. SCDES requires its approval and a septic permit before the county can issue a building permit on land without public or community sewer. On wetter soils the evaluator may limit where the drain field goes, which can set where the barndo and shop sit on the lot.

Weather

Florence's 1991 to 2020 normals show 48.12 inches of precipitation a year over about 118 days, with August the wettest month at 5.51 inches. The record high is 108 degrees F and the record low is 1 degree F. Summer heat is the bigger design issue for a metal building, so we plan insulation and HVAC to handle long, humid summers and keep condensation off the roof panels.

Rivers on two sides

The Great Pee Dee and the Lynches River both run through Florence County, and Jeffries Creek, a Pee Dee tributary, flows through the city south of its center. Land near any of them gets a flood map check before purchase.

Thinking about a barndominium on Florence County land? Call (803) 784-7083 or

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