Roofing for Unincorporated Dorchester County homes: replacement, leaks and storm damage. In Unincorporated Dorchester County, the 2021 IRC is in force. Any permit the job needs is ours to pull.
This page covers the parts of the county that are not inside a city — where the county, not a municipality, runs building and permits. The Census does not publish population or housing totals for that remainder on its own, so this page quotes none for it: the county-wide figures further down include every municipality as well.
Outside a town's limits, Dorchester County Building Services issues the permit, and its fee schedule has a roofing permit priced from the signed contract value. The county also issues building permits inside the Town of Ridgeville. County permits go only to a contractor holding a Dorchester County contractor's license and county business license, or to an owner working on the family's own home.
No completed roof in Unincorporated Dorchester County is logged in our job records yet.
For Dorchester County as a whole — every city in it as well as the unincorporated land — the Census Bureau counts 67,865 homes, with a median year built of 2000. 1,072 of them (2%) went up before 1940 and 33,744 (50%) in 2000 or later. The 2000s were the busiest decade, adding 18,003 of today's homes (27%).
The Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development puts the service life of an asphalt shingle roof at about 20 years. By that measure, 50% of Dorchester County's homes — the 34,121 built before 2000 — are past their first roof, and 8% (5,658 homes) go back before 1970, two roof lives and more. The 18,003 homes from the 2000s are where first replacements come up now, while the 15,741 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with.
By building type: 45,413 detached houses (67%), 3,841 attached (6%). 5,841 homes (9%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 4,709 (7%) in buildings of ten units or more, where a resident rarely gets to choose the roofer. The count also takes in 7,969 mobile homes, which are a different kind of roof job. 76% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 24% rented. On a housing mix like this, the likely work is first replacements on 2000s builder-grade shingles, flat and low-slope sections, which turn up more on attached and multi-unit buildings and hail checks on newer roofs that look fine from the driveway.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 1,072 | 2% | |
| 1940s | 452 | 1% | |
| 1950s | 1,217 | 2% | |
| 1960s | 2,917 | 4% | |
| 1970s | 8,116 | 12% | |
| 1980s | 10,677 | 16% | |
| 1990s | 9,670 | 14% | |
| 2000s | 18,003 | 27% | |
| 2010s | 12,420 | 18% | |
| 2020 or later | 3,321 | 5% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 67,865 homes, 63,179 occupied. Survey estimates.
From 2016 through 2025, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center recorded 24 reports of hail of 1 inch or more in Dorchester County as a whole, spread over 11 storm days. 6 of them were 1.75 inches or larger. The largest, 2 inches, came on June 10, 2024. A report needs someone to see the hail and send it in, so the count is a floor, not a full tally.
If one of those storms crossed your street and nobody has been on the roof since, a storm inspection photographs what it did.
The county's building permit application lists Roof as a permit type, and the county's fee schedule has a Roofing Permit. The roofing permit fee is based on the signed contract value using the building permit fee table, plus a $30 issue and filing fee (another $30 is added if the home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area). For a job valued from $1,000 to $50,000, the building fee is $45 for the first $1,000 plus $5 for each added $1,000. If work starts before a required permit is issued, the fees are doubled.
Unincorporated Dorchester County enforces the 2021 IRC. The county lists the 2021 International Residential Code, the 2021 International Building Code and the 2021 International Existing Building Code, all in effect since January 1, 2023, along with the 2020 National Electrical Code and the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code. County Code Sections 6-21 and 6-22 adopt the editions most recently adopted by the South Carolina Building Codes Council as of January 1 of each year. The county's own changes in Section 6-23 cover electrical service and farm buildings, not roofing.
The published number is 843-832-0011. The building official on record is Melissa Hopkins, Chief Building Official. The department page is here.
Design wind here is set by location, not one figure for the whole area: across greater Charleston the published ultimate design wind speeds run 133–150 mph, depending on where a house stands. The building department for Unincorporated Dorchester County can tell you which figure applies. What it does to a roof is in the roofing code guide.
Also in Dorchester County:
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unincorporated Dorchester County | Yes | 2021 IRC | — |
| Ridgeville | Yes | 2021 IRC | 1977 |
| St. George | Not published | Not published | 1977 |
| Summerville | Yes | 2021 IRC | 2001 |
All 4 Dorchester County cities side by side →
The county's building permit application lists Roof as a permit type, and the county's fee schedule has a Roofing Permit. The roofing permit fee is based on the signed contract value using the building permit fee table, plus a $30 issue and filing fee (another $30 is added if the home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area). For a job valued from $1,000 to $50,000, the building fee is $45 for the first $1,000 plus $5 for each added $1,000. If work starts before a required permit is issued, the fees are doubled.
Unincorporated Dorchester County enforces the 2021 IRC. The county lists the 2021 International Residential Code, the 2021 International Building Code and the 2021 International Existing Building Code, all in effect since January 1, 2023, along with the 2020 National Electrical Code and the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code. County Code Sections 6-21 and 6-22 adopt the editions most recently adopted by the South Carolina Building Codes Council as of January 1 of each year. The county's own changes in Section 6-23 cover electrical service and farm buildings, not roofing.
The building official on record is Melissa Hopkins, Chief Building Official. The department's own number is on this page, beside its name.
Not yet: no completed roof in Unincorporated Dorchester County is in our job records, so this page shows no job count.
Researched 2026-10-24; housing, Census ACS 2020–2024; hail, NOAA SPC. Sources: www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · library.municode.com · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.dorchestercountysc.gov · www.ridgevillegov.com · data.census.gov · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.
