Mobile Home Removal in Florence County, SC

Twenty-eight federal disaster declarations sit on Florence County's record, and the incident file reads like a Pee Dee weather almanac: flood, hurricane, tropical storm, severe ice storm, winter storm. Every event in that list leaves a share of the county's 11,007 manufactured homes — from Timmonsville to Johnsonville to Pamplico — with soaked floors, peeled roofs, or frames knocked off their piers. Some of those homes get repaired. This page is about the ones that don't.

The storm makes the first decision — you make the second

Wind and water sort damaged homes into three piles. A newer double-wide with cosmetic damage may still clear the buyout line — condition, age, size, and location drive the offer, and a survivable storm hit doesn't automatically zero it. A structurally sound unit that has to leave the lot can be towed intact; Florence County's flat coastal-plain grid off I-95, I-20, US-52, and US-76 makes intact transport more realistic here than in a lot of places we work. And a home that flooding or a snapped frame has genuinely ended gets demolished in place and hauled out as sorted debris. The county's own permit file tells you which pile is rare: records on file show 1,767 setups against just 50 moves and 9 demolition permits. Homes come into Florence County far more often than they leave — a teardown here is the exception, not the routine. One practical note on flood units: waterlogged subfloor and insulation ride to the scale as extra tonnage, which is why we weigh the teardown-versus-tow question against real disposal weight, not a guess.

Paperwork a storm sets in motion

South Carolina attaches its mobile-home rules to movement, not to demolition. Under S.C. Code 31-17-360, a home may not be relocated until the county licensing agent issues a moving permit — and that permit only issues after the county treasurer certifies no unpaid taxes on the home, with the full current year due if the unit is leaving the county. The permit rides with the home for the whole trip. Tear the home down where it sits and none of that Title 31 machinery applies; only local building and demolition permitting does. Titles are the other half: a home that was affixed to the land and de-titled under S.C. Code 56-19-510 went through SCDMV's retirement process, while a still-titled wreck simply has its certificate surrendered at disposal. And when a storm-hit home is abandoned outright — unoccupied for 30 days or more and hazardous — S.C. Code 6-1-150 gives the landowner a magistrates-court route to have it removed and destroyed, with costs charged to the home's owner. Every one of these situations tends to surface in the wake of a bad season, and the sequencing is part of the job.

What the published numbers say

Market ranges, attributed honestly: demolition with debris disposal runs $3,000–$8,000 — about $4–$8 per square foot — with single-wides at $3,000–$5,000 and double-wides at $5,000–$8,000. Transporting an intact home under 50 miles averages $4,000 for a single and $7,000 for a double, and a haul to the landfill adds roughly $1,000–$2,000 in transport. Full deconstruction — piece-by-piece salvage instead of machine teardown — can reach $10,000. Working against all of that: the steel chassis and axles under even a flood-ruined home typically bring $400–$1,000 in scrap, and we credit it. Asbestos abatement rarely enters a single-residence job here (see the FAQ), but where it applies, published totals run $1,192–$3,240. Line-by-line detail lives in the removal cost guide.

Debris rules — and the Florence fee question, answered straight

Where the load goes is state law: SC Reg. 61-107.19 makes mobile-home structural debris — lumber, floor covering, vinyl siding, insulation, even furniture and mattresses a storm leaves behind — acceptable at Class Two landfills, with Class Three taking municipal solid waste. Burning the structure is prohibited, full stop. What we cannot print here is a Florence County tipping rate, because the county doesn't publish one: landfill fees are set each year by budget ordinance without posted amounts, and no mobile-home-specific disposal rules appear online. So instead of guessing, we confirm the current rate directly with Florence County Environmental Services before any quote goes out — a number we verify beats a number we invent. The county's permit history shows 101 different contractors have pulled mobile-home permits here, with Lake City topping the town list; the ones who last are the ones who run the disposal math before the excavator starts. The state-level rulebook — asbestos exclusions, notification windows, landfill classes — is laid out in our SC demolition requirements guide.