Pole barns and barndominiums in Gumboro, Delaware.
Building in Gumboro.
Gumboro’s name is attached to infectious bursal disease of chickens, called Gumboro disease after it was first identified here in 1962. The community is unincorporated: a 2006 bill to incorporate it passed the General Assembly but was vetoed. DE 26 runs through as Millsboro Highway, where the community center fills a former schoolhouse, and DE 54 shares the road from the Maryland line until it turns east in Gumboro. West Woods Methodist Episcopal Church is a local landmark.
Gumboro is about 53 miles from our Dover office, a 78-minute drive. Gumboro-area addresses can carry more than one ZIP code, Millsboro’s 19966 among them, so we confirm exactly where your parcel sits before we check its zoning and flood status. From there, it is one County permit, and our crews build once it is issued.
- County
- Sussex County, Delaware
- ZIP code
- 19966
- From our office
- About 1 hr 18 min (53 miles) by car
- Permits
- Sussex County Building Permit Office
- Main roads
- DE 26, DE 54
Permits and rules in Gumboro.
The Sussex County Building Permit Office at 2 The Circle in Georgetown, (302) 855-7720, issues every permit in Gumboro, with Planning & Zoning checking setbacks and the Building Code Office doing plan review and inspections. A pole-building application needs one complete, scaled plan set: a footer plan locating every post hole with its size and depth, a floor plan with header sizes, a cross section showing post embedment, height to the truss bottom chord, headers and carriers anchored with at least two 1/2-inch through-bolts, girt sizes and spacing, and engineered truss and purlin spacing, plus elevations.
Inspections follow the build: footings before concrete is placed, then a header inspection before any wall covering goes on, inside or out. Farm buildings still need the County permit, but they get only a final zoning inspection rather than building-code inspections. A barndominium is held to single-family home requirements, needs a DNREC septic approval if it is off sewer, and from April 11, 2027 must meet the 2024 IECC; plans submitted after April 10, 2026 already have to be designed to it.
Who issues the permit
Sussex County Building Permit Office
- Address
- 2 The Circle, P.O. Box 589, Georgetown, DE 19947
- Phone
- (302) 855-7720
- Website
- Permit information(opens in a new tab)
Where this comes from
- sussexcountyde.gov (opens in a new tab)
- sussexcountyde.gov (opens in a new tab)
- sussexcountyde.gov (opens in a new tab)
- sussexcountyde.gov (opens in a new tab)
Permit details checked October 2026. Rules change, so we confirm the current requirements for your parcel before anything is drawn.
What people build around Gumboro.
Gumboro’s poultry-country history points to working buildings: an equipment shed for the tractor, hay and feed storage, a farm shop or a horse barn. On a rural parcel with room for a septic system, a barndominium keeps the house and the shop in one building, and the County’s 600-square-foot rule decides how close a smaller outbuilding can sit to the line.
Gumboro questions.
Have a question about your property? Call 302-399-4420 and we’ll look it up.
Does Gumboro have its own permit office?
No. Gumboro is unincorporated, and a 2006 bill to incorporate it was vetoed, so Sussex County handles everything: the permit from the Building Permit Office, setbacks from Planning & Zoning, and plan review and inspections from the Building Code Office.
What does a barndominium in Gumboro need off sewer?
A DNREC on-site wastewater approval in three steps: a site evaluation by a licensed Class D soil scientist, a system design and permit by a licensed Class B or Class C designer, and installation by a licensed Class E contractor. A well is drilled by a DNREC-licensed water well contractor, who files the well permit application.
Will your crews come out to Gumboro?
Yes. The 53 miles from our office at 575 N Dupont Hwy in Dover take roughly 78 minutes, and we serve Gumboro for design, County permits and construction, from the first site visit on.
Let’s plan your building in Gumboro.
Tell us what you’d like to build and where, and we’ll come back with drawings and a free quote.
- info@pbuincde.com
- Office
- 575 N Dupont Hwy, Dover, DE 19901 (opens Google Maps in a new tab)
- Hours
- Mon to Fri, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
- We build in
- Gumboro and all of Sussex County