Land Clearing in Lyman, SC

Land Clearing for New House Sites and Old Mill Lots in Lyman

Before the mill, Lyman was a farming community known as Groce's Stop. Pacific Mills built its textile mill there in 1924, and the town grew up around it. By 1927, the company had built a village of 375 homes for its workers. Those homes were sold to individual owners in 1955.

The Rail Trail now follows the old mill railroad through that village. About one in eight homes in Lyman was built before 1940, by Census Bureau estimates. On an older lot, the job might be brush along a back fence or an old shed to take down.

About half of the homes in town were built in 2010 or later. On a new house site, we clear the footprint and build the house pad to grade. The pad is compacted and left ready for the foundation crew. The gravel driveway can go in next, with a culvert pipe at the road where the ditch needs one.

How Lyman's Red Clay and Rivers Shape Grading and Drainage

More than half of the land inside the town limits is Cecil soil in the federal soil survey. A Cecil profile has a thin layer of sandy loam over red clay. Much of that ground is mapped as eroded, so the clay can sit close to the surface. Wet red clay turns sticky.

The Middle Tyger River runs through the south end of town, past River Place Park on Groce Road. FEMA's flood map shows flood zones along the Middle Tyger and North Tyger Rivers inside the town limits. The soil survey maps much of the creek and river bottomland as Chewacla loam, a flood plain soil. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Greenville-Spartanburg airport station come to about 50 inches of rain a year.

Grade decides where that water goes on a lot. We regrade low spots that hold water and slope the ground away from the house. Where grade alone will not carry the water off, we put in French drains and driveway culverts. Near either river, check the lot on FEMA's flood map and ask the town what applies before any grading.

Who Handles Permits and Zoning for Land Work in Lyman?

Inside the town limits, the Town of Lyman's Planning and Zoning office is the first stop. The town says its permit process starts there, with the town's forms and approvals. A building department the town partners with then issues the permits and schedules inspections.

Sheds, carports, garages and fences need zoning approval before they go in. A new house starts with the town's New Construction Packet, which includes the zoning compliance application and a sewer agreement. On county land outside the town limits, Spartanburg County's offices handle those questions.

Machine work that breaks ground needs a utility locate first. South Carolina law calls for notice to SC 811 before digging or grading with machines. The notice goes in at least three full working days ahead, not counting the day it is filed. Utility companies mark only their own lines, so private lines, like one to a detached garage, go unmarked.

Bush Hogging for Overgrown Lots and Pond Banks Around Lyman

Bush hogging cuts lots and fields that have grown past mowing. The brush cutter takes down tall grass, weeds, briars and saplings. Inside the town limits, the 12-inch rule makes that cut a regular need on vacant lots.

Many newer neighborhoods have retention ponds, and the banks around them need cutting too. We cut pond banks and common areas for HOAs and property managers, as one-time or repeat cuts.