Utility Hookups for Newly Set Mobile Homes in Myrtle Beach

Utility hookups are the last step between a home sitting on its piers and a home you can live in: water, sewer or septic, electrical, and the HVAC crossover and condenser set. Around Myrtle Beach that means dealing with Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority (GSWSA) or a municipal system, Horry Electric Cooperative or Santee Cooper for power, and SC DES for any septic permit. We coordinate all of it on homes we set through our transport and setup service and on homes someone else moved. Costs run from a few hundred dollars of reconnect labor on a park lot with stubs at the pad to several thousand per utility on raw land, so every quote is itemized by utility, in writing.

The paperwork side matters as much as the pipe and wire. Get the sequence wrong and a set home sits dark for a week waiting on an inspector or a utility office.

The sequence that keeps a home from sitting empty

1. Permit first. The Horry County mobile home setup permit (or the City of Myrtle Beach permit inside city limits) requires either a sewer receipt or a final septic approval before it is issued. Utilities will not connect a home that has not passed inspection. So the septic or sewer question gets answered before the home moves, not after.
2. Set and inspect. Blocking, leveling, and Wind Zone II anchoring go in and get inspected. Inside Myrtle Beach, the inspector leaves a sticker on the meter box after the final inspection to tell the power company the home is ready for final power.
3. Apply to the utilities early. GSWSA needs at least 24 hours and does not do same-day service. Santee Cooper says service is typically established within one to two business days. Horry Electric runs a credit check and may require a deposit that has to be paid in full before connection. All three want the Assessor’s paperwork on the home.
4. Make the connections. Water line to the inlet, drain line to the sewer tap or septic tank, feeder from the meter base to the panel, crossover duct and condenser on a doublewide or any home with a package unit.
5. Test everything under pressure and load before the skirting closes it in.

Water and sewer: GSWSA and the local systems

Much of Horry County outside the municipal systems is served by Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority, with its main office on Jackson Bluff Road in Conway. Two facts from GSWSA’s own service rules drive our scheduling:

• A 24-hour notice must be given before water and/or sewer service can be activated. GSWSA does not provide same-day service.
• Friday applications start Monday. The office is closed weekends, so an application received Friday does not begin service until the following Monday.

To apply you will need the 911 address of the property, the tax map number if you own the land, the owner’s name and mailing address if you do not, and identification. GSWSA lists a new service fee, a security deposit, and a sewer inspection charge specifically for new mobile homes, all paid at the time of application. If the site has never had a tap, the tap and any impact or capacity fees are a separate conversation with the utility, and they are the single biggest variable in a water and sewer budget.

Homes inside Myrtle Beach, Conway, or other municipal limits may be on a city system with its own application process; we confirm which utility serves the address before quoting.

The plumbing itself. A manufactured home arrives with one water inlet and one or more drain outlets under the floor. Our side of the job is the supply line from the meter to the inlet with a shutoff and a backflow device where the utility requires one, heat-tape or insulation on the exposed run (Grand Strand winters do freeze pipes under a skirted home a few nights a year), the drain line at proper fall to the sewer tap or tank with cleanouts, and support straps so nothing sags into the vapor barrier. Every penetration through the belly gets resealed. Plumbing cuts that never got closed are the most common belly damage under homes here.

Septic: SC DES permits, and the existing-tank trap

If the lot is not on sewer, wastewater goes to an onsite system, and in South Carolina onsite wastewater is regulated under Regulation 61-56 by the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SC DES). SC DES took over this program from DHEC when the state restructured its health and environmental agencies effective July 1, 2024, so older county forms and a lot of contractors still say “DHEC.” Same permit, new letterhead.

New system. A site evaluation by the state or a licensed soil classifier, a permit application with a plat and the bedroom count, then installation by a licensed septic contractor and a final approval. That final approval is what Horry County Code Enforcement wants in the setup permit packet. Review times vary with the season; the Grand Strand’s building pace can stretch them, so this is the first call we make on a raw-land move, not the last.

Existing tank. Horry County does not require a new state permit to connect to a working existing system, but it does require the owner to sign the county’s Existing Septic Tank affidavit, certifying the system is not defective and agreeing to expose the tank and the connection for the county inspector. Two honest warnings: a tank sized for a two-bedroom singlewide will not carry a four-bedroom doublewide, and a system that flooded in Florence or sits in the wet ground around Conway and Bucksport may have a failed drainfield that only shows up under load. We would rather find that out with a camera and a probe before the home moves.

Electrical: Horry Electric Cooperative or Santee Cooper

Which utility you deal with is set by the address. Santee Cooper serves Myrtle Beach, Conway, and parts of the Strand directly; Horry Electric Cooperative serves much of the rest of the county, with a district office on Highway 707 south of Myrtle Beach. Both publish the same mobile-home-specific requirement: a copy of the certified license application from the Horry County Assessor’s office showing the mobile home license fee has been paid. That is the same Assessor step that produces the decal and the moving permit, and it is why we push owners to visit the Assessor the week the move is scheduled.

Other things the power side needs:

• A meter base and service entrance that meet the utility’s specifications. Horry Electric states plainly that all meter bases connected to its system must meet its specifications for power to be connected; Santee Cooper publishes a meter installation handbook. A meter pole or pedestal set to the wrong height or with the wrong equipment gets rejected, and the reinspection costs you days.
• The county or city inspection sign-off. Power is not released to a home that has not passed its setup inspection.
• Account setup. Horry Electric lists small one-time membership, application, and connect fees and runs a credit check that may set a deposit. Santee Cooper also sets deposits by credit review and offers a pay-as-you-go option with no deposit. Neither is our money; we just tell you about it up front so nothing surprises you.

Our electrical scope on a hookup: the meter pole or pedestal and service entrance if the site does not have one, the feeder from the meter to the home’s panel sized for the home’s service (most modern homes are 200 amp), grounding and bonding to the frame as the code requires, and the crossover connection on doublewides. Running new service from the road across a long rural lot is the one item that can exceed everything else combined; the utility prices the line extension, and we tell you before you commit to the pad location.

HVAC: crossover, condenser, and the package unit

A doublewide’s ductwork is split at the marriage line and rejoined with a flexible crossover duct under the floor. That connection has to be supported off the ground, sealed at both collars, and kept clear of the vapor barrier; a crossover lying in wet sand is a duct full of mildew by August. The outdoor condenser or package unit gets set on a pad, leveled, and connected by an HVAC tech, with the line set and disconnect run to code. On Grand Strand humidity, a poorly sealed crossover does not just waste cooling; it pulls crawl-space air into the home.

What it costs, honestly

There is no single number for hookups because the site decides the price. The ranges below come from national cost surveys for connecting utilities to a home site and are wide for that reason.

On a park lot where water, sewer, and a meter pedestal are already stubbed at the pad, the whole hookup is a day of reconnect labor and lands well below those ranges. On raw land with no tap, no power, and no septic, the utilities and the septic system together can rival the cost of the move itself. Either way, you get one written quote with each utility as its own line and the utility-company and state fees shown separately from our labor. Our published tables for leveling, piers, anchors, skirting, and vapor barrier work are on the pricing page.

Bundle it with the set

Hookups price best when the same crew that set the home does them: the skirting is still off, the belly is open, the crew already knows where the inlets and the crossover are, and the inspection visits can be stacked. If you are planning a move, get the transport and setup and the hookups quoted together. If the home is already sitting on the pad waiting on utilities, send us the address and what is stubbed there, and we will walk it and quote the rest. We work across Myrtle Beach, Conway, Socastee, Surfside Beach, and Murrells Inlet, and the first look is free.