Barndominium Builders in Loris, SC

Barndominium builders looking for acreage near the Grand Strand end up around Loris sooner or later. Loris is a small city in northern Horry County on the Atlantic coastal plain, with 2,449 residents in 2020, almost unchanged from 2,396 in 2010. While the county as a whole grew 30.4 percent over the same decade, Loris stayed a country town, which is exactly why land around it suits a house with a big shop.

Loris was founded on December 7, 1887, as a stop on the Wilmington, Chadbourn and Conway Railroad. The Bank of Loris opened in the first brick building in 1907, phone lines to Conway arrived in 1909, and the town had about 1,000 people by the 1930s. Today U.S. 701 and SC 9 Business (Main Street) carry traffic through town. The Loris Bog-off fills downtown on the third weekend in October, a nod to chicken bog, a Pee Dee dish.

Loris also sits higher than most of the county. Its elevation is about 95 feet, compared with 16 feet at Conway and 26 at Myrtle Beach, and Horry County's highest point is only 124 feet. That does not make a parcel flood-proof, but it changes the conversation.

The Rain Record

Hurricane Florence set South Carolina's tropical cyclone rainfall record here: 23.63 inches near Loris in September 2018. More than 100 people were rescued from homes and cars in Loris. A storm like that tests every low driveway, culvert and slab edge, so on Loris land we design for how the site sheds water, not just for the flood map line.

Questions we ask about a Loris-area tract

• Where does water go in a big rain, and which way does the field drain?
• Is any part of the parcel in a mapped flood plain?
• Is there a low oval area that could be an old Carolina bay?
• Where is the driest ground for the septic field?
• Can a long steel delivery reach the pad in wet weather?

Carolina Bays in Horry County

Horry County holds protected bay sites such as the Cartwheel Bay and Lewis Ocean Bay heritage preserves. SCDNR describes Carolina bays as shallow oval depressions, often under 10 feet deep, aligned northwest to southeast with sandy rims on their northeast and southeast sides. A cemented sand layer at the bottom lets them hold water above the water table, and many were ditched for farming. On a farm tract, the rim is usually better ground for a house than the bottom.

Horry County Paperwork

Unincorporated land around Loris is permitted by Horry County out of its Conway office. The county requires sealed engineering under the 2021 IRC for a new single-family home, along with a wind design summary sheet, floor plans, elevations, two site plans and an energy sheet. Roof plans must show load and uplift locations. A home in a flood plain needs a pre-construction elevation certificate. Expect 7 to 10 working days for plan review.

If you plan to act as your own general contractor, Horry County requires a disclosure form to be recorded with the Register of Deeds before the permit is issued. We can walk through how that differs from hiring a builder.

Septic Before Permit

There is little sewer on the farm roads outside Loris. SCDES requires septic approval and a permit before a county can issue a building permit on unsewered land, and Horry County asks for that final DHEC septic approval once plans are approved. Coastal plain farm ground is often Norfolk-type soil, loamy sand over sandy clay loam, well drained with a seasonal water table 40 to 72 inches down in late winter. Wetter flats can be much shallower. The evaluation decides what goes where.

Getting Around

The Coast RTA bus system serves Loris, and Twin City Airport handles light aircraft. For construction, U.S. 701 is the main route in for steel and lumber.

Have land near Loris? Call (803) 784-7083 or

Get a Free Estimate

.