Solar panel removal, reinstall & repair in Columbia, SC

On the ground in Columbia

Permits, power and roofs in Columbia

Columbia issues its own building permits, and houses in its protected historic districts may need a design approval before visible exterior work. Dominion Energy South Carolina serves nearly the whole city and has to be told when a net-metered system returns to service after a roof job. About two-thirds of the land inside the city limits is Fort Jackson, so the residential city is more compact than the map suggests. Shandon and Rosewood houses from the 1920s through the 1940s can have plank sheathing under two or three generations of shingles. Waverly, Granby Mill Village and University Hill add their own older stock. The October 2015 flood sent Gills Creek to a record crest, and summer heat bakes the shingles around and under every array.

In Rosewood and Shandon, the hard part is usually the roof itself: tired decking, steep dormers and oak limbs leaning over the array. In Elmwood Park and Cottontown, owners in the historic districts want the panels to go back as low and tidy as possible. Under the big oaks, squirrels nest beneath arrays and chew through wiring, and the first sign is often one string of panels going dead.