BUILDING A HOME

Home Building in Melrose

Building a home and living on Melrose is a bit more complicated than other places, yet the unique character and beauty of Daufuskie Island make the extra effort worthwhile. The Melrose POA and the Architectural Review Board are dedicated to facilitating home construction in Melrose.

To protect current and future property owner values at Melrose, we have established guidelines for architecture and building. Please review Guidelines, Rules and Procedures for Design and Construction or Alteration of a Single Family Residence, which is available in a link below.

Don’t be overwhelmed by them, they are fairly standard in the area, and easily understood by local architects and contractors. You will need an architect licensed in the state of South Carolina to submit your construction  documents. Our Architectural Review Board (ARB) has a list of South Carolina licensed architects who have completed design projects on the island that you may wish to consult.

We do ask that the exterior of homes reflect a low country Southern style, and there are limits on both minimum square footage and height.  Please have your architect send a conceptual sketch of your house to the ARB for preliminary approval, before proceeding with the preparation of construction documents. The Melrose Homesite Covenants permit only single-family residence construction and the number of lots to be developed was capped in 1994.

The ARB also has a list of South Carolina licensed contractors who have completed projects on the island. We would recommend that your contractor have experience with the logistics of building on Daufuskie Island. All materials must be transported by barge to the island and construction workers must be transported daily by ferry. These complications do increase the cost of construction on Daufuskie, but the owners of the hundreds of beautiful homes built on the island in the last 30 years will tell you it is money well spent.

Modular homes are allowed and, in fact, offer some advantages over stick-built construction methods.  However, there are additional road use fees levied by the POA due to the weight of the transport vehicles.

You can contact the Chairman of the ARB, Julie Dilullo at zaneyville@aol.com   or by phone at 614-419-5765.

You may also send your questions and concerns via the CONTACT US link on this website.

A listing of Architects and Contractors can be viewed by clicking a link below.