Mobile Home Transport & Setup in Myrtle Beach and Horry County

Moving a mobile or manufactured home to a new pad is two jobs that have to be done by the same standard: the pull, which is teardown and transport, and the set, which is blocking, leveling, anchoring, and (on a doublewide) closing the marriage line so the home is one structure again. We coordinate local pull-and-set moves across Horry County and the Grand Strand, from park lots along the 501 and 707 corridors to family land out past Conway. Singlewide pull-and-set generally runs $4,000–$8,000, doublewides $8,000–$15,000, with permits, skirting, steps, and utility work itemized separately and confirmed in writing after both sites are seen.

The set is where the money either gets spent right or gets spent again. A home hauled cheaply and dropped on uneven blocks in Grand Strand sand starts settling before the first summer is over.

What a local pull-and-set includes

Teardown and transport prep. Utilities disconnected and capped at the old site (power pulled by the utility, water and sewer capped, gas locked off). Skirting, decks, porches, steps, and any add-ons removed. On a doublewide, the two halves are separated: marriage-line bolts and connectors pulled, the roof cap and ridge opened, the halves wrapped and weatherproofed for the road. Axles and tires go back on the frame, the hitch is reattached, and anything that would shift in transit is secured inside.

Transport. A licensed mover with the oversize-load permits the state requires hauls each section to the new site. Locally, that is a matter of hours; the cost driver is not distance but the two ends of the trip, which is why moves within Horry County price so differently from moves in from another state.

Site and pad. The new pad has to be cleared, graded to drain away from the home, and compacted. On our soil, this step decides the next ten years of leveling bills. A pad scraped into wet sand in a low spot near the river or the Intracoastal will settle on a fast cycle no matter how well the piers are built. We tell you that before the home moves, not after.

Blocking and piers. Concrete pads placed at every pier location along both I-beam rails, plus the marriage-line row on a doublewide, then block stacks to the correct height with solid caps and hardwood shims, following the manufacturer’s installation manual and HUD installation standards. Most singlewides need 12–20 piers; doublewides run 20–30 or more once the center row is counted. Pad size is matched to the soil, and on soft ground we go larger rather than closer to the minimum.

Leveling. The frame is shot with a water level off a datum pier and brought to plane in small increments across the whole chassis, exactly as we do on a relevel. A home set level from day one is a home that stays on the long end of the 3–5 year cycle Grand Strand homes normally run.

Wind Zone II anchoring. All of Horry County is HUD Wind Zone II, rated for 100-mph winds. That means soil-matched ground anchors at the spacing the installation manual calls for, diagonal frame ties, vertical ties where the setup requires them, stabilizer plates in our sand, and every strap tensioned to spec. Full detail on the hardware is on the tie-downs and anchors page. Anchoring is also the permit item the county inspector spends the most time on, for good reason.

Marriage-line work (doublewides). The two halves are pulled together, aligned floor to floor and roof to roof, and fastened along the marriage line at the floor, walls, and ridge. The gasket is sealed, the roof cap and ridge are closed and weatherproofed, the marriage wall is trimmed out inside, and the HVAC crossover duct and electrical crossover are reconnected. A marriage line that is not pulled tight and supported on matched piers is the seam you will see opening at the ceiling in two years.

Skirting, steps, and finish. Skirting cut to the as-set height with proper venting and an access door, steps and landings that meet the code section the inspector will check (the City of Myrtle Beach packet cites 2021 IRC R311 for egress, landings, and stairs), decks and porches reattached or rebuilt, and the vapor barrier inspected and resealed anywhere the move opened it. Skirting is priced by perimeter, and it goes on last for the same reason it does after a relevel: it is cut to the home’s final height.

Permits in Horry County, stated plainly

This is the part that stalls moves, so here is what the county actually requires. Horry County Code Enforcement’s mobile home permit checklist lists eight items, all submitted for a minimum two-day review, and every mobile home setup permit must have a licensed MBH installer or MBH contractor listed on it:

1. Completed mobile home permit application
2. Address verification form from Horry County Planning and Zoning (the 911 address)
3. Tax sticker from the Tax Assessor’s office
4. Site plan drawn to an engineer’s scale showing all property lines, the proposed home, and existing structures
5. Detailed sewer receipt, or final septic tank approval from the state (the county form still says DHEC; the agency is now SC DES). If you are using an existing septic tank, the county’s Existing Septic Tank affidavit is required instead, and you agree to expose the system for inspection
6. Property owner authorization form or signed lease, notarized or third-party witnessed, if you are not the owner of both the land and the home
7. Contractor authorization form signed by the licensed installer or contractor’s qualifier, notarized or third-party witnessed
8. Wind Zone II verification. Not required if the home is being moved within Horry County; a copy of the moving permit serves as proof

On top of the permit fee, the checklist lists an impact fee of $1,236 due at permitting. Replacing an existing home on the site within one year may exempt you if you provide a demo permit, moving permit, or an electric bill or letter from the power provider. The county’s fee page puts the mobile home building permit itself at $150 plus zoning fees.

Before any of that, the Horry County Assessor’s office has to issue the moving permit. Manufactured homes are licensed with the Assessor, a decal is purchased and placed on the home, and the moving permit is issued only when there are no unpaid taxes on the home. State law gives you fifteen days after a purchase or a move to license the home; the license fee is five dollars, with a penalty if you are late. The Assessor’s certified license application is also what Horry Electric Cooperative and Santee Cooper will ask for before they connect power, which is covered on the utility hookups page.

Inside Myrtle Beach city limits, the permit runs through the city’s Construction Services department under its Manufactured Home Set Up Procedures packet rather than the county. The city asks for a copy of the sticker number and documentation from the Horry County Tax Assessor, verification of Wind Zone II construction such as a photo of the home’s data plate or specification label, and an authorization letter or email from the mover if someone other than the mover is paying for the permit. When the work is finished you call Construction Services for the final inspection with all permit numbers, the park name, and the lot number, and the inspector leaves a sticker on the meter box that tells the power company the home is ready for final power.

We handle this paperwork as part of the job and pass fees through at cost. If you would rather pull the permits yourself, we will give you the completed installer forms and tell you exactly what to bring.

Why pads fail on Grand Strand ground, and how a good set prevents it

Horry County is coastal-plain sand over a high water table, cut by swamps and drainage bays. Sand under a small concentrated footing compacts and migrates when it saturates, and every wet summer saturates it. The homes that settle fastest share the same story: a pad that was never compacted, pier footings on the small side, and drainage that runs toward the home instead of away. Florence in 2018 dropped 23 inches of rain on the county and put the Waccamaw at a record through Conway; homes set well rode it out and needed a routine relevel afterward. Homes set poorly needed pier rebuilds.

A proper set costs more than a drop-and-go. It also converts the first several years of leveling from repair money into a free level check and maybe a few shims.

What moves the price

Those ranges reflect what full-service local moves typically run across the Southeast, and they are wide on purpose: the same singlewide can cost half as much to set on a prepared park lot as on raw family land with no pad. What we promise is that the quote you get is itemized, the number does not move once we have walked both sites, and nothing gets billed that was not on the sheet. The pricing page has the tables for everything else we do.

Where we do this

Park-to-park moves along US-501, SC-707, and Highway 544; park-to-land moves out toward Aynor, Bucksport, and the rural roads around Conway; and land-to-land moves anywhere on the Strand, including Socastee, Surfside Beach, and Murrells Inlet. If the home is coming in from another county, it can be done, but the Wind Zone II verification applies and the price reflects the longer haul.

Start with both addresses

Send us where the home is, where it is going, the size and approximate year of the home, and whether the new site has a pad, sewer or septic, and power. We will walk both sites, tell you honestly whether the pad is ready, and hand you a written, itemized quote with the permit path spelled out. Moving a home is a big check; it should be the last one you write for settling for a long time.