DUANE F CHRISTOPHER & ASSOC

I found Duane F. Christopher and Associates to be extremely helpful in the design and property layout of my new home. They were professional, responsive and extremely competent in their abilities. I would recommend them to anyone who needs a floor plan or landscape layout.

I hired Duane F. Christopher and Associates to alter my floor and design the landscape for a property that I purchased. I found Duane to be professional and knowledgeable in his work as well as responsive to my needs. My wife and I were extremely pleased with the outcome. In addition, we have gone back to Duane for additional needs that surfaced during the project. I would highly recommend his services.

We live in NJ, but are planning on building our home in Clover, SC. We purchased property in Clover 10 years ago and have develped a house design, and are now retired and preparing the NJ house for sale so that we can begin construction in Clover. Prior to beginning construction, I have several items which must be completed: 1) ready NJ house for sale and sell it, 2) determine the location of the house on our property, 3) approval of a septic design. We have 2.3 acres with a pond in the back and a stream on the left side. I contacted one company in the Clover area, but they were not interested in the project because my horizon for beginning construction was too far out. I found Duane Christopher through googling "Landscape Architect" and sent him an email to determine if he was interested. He called me within 24 hours and we discussed over the phone at length what my goals were and what my time frame was. He agreed to meet me at the building site the next time I took a trip to Clover. Once I had a trip scheduled, I contacted Duane and we agreed on a time and we met at the Clover Site. He was prompt and ready to work. He came with "tools" of his trade and dressed to walk in the very thick wooded site. We discussed approaches and he agreed to develop a proposal for me and send within a couple of weeks (remember, on this project "time is not of the essence") he provided an excellent proposal that identified the up-front money and monthly billing along with detailed invoices. After some changes to the proposal that I requested, I signed off and our work began. The site has Clay so DHEC would not approve a "simple" septic design and I needed an "Engineered" solution. He put me in touch with a septic design engineer and we developed an engineered design under a separate contract that was outside the scope of Duane's work. Once the design was developed, the septic design engineer handed it off to Duane and he filled out the papers and submitted it with my signature to DHEC. That design was approved by DHEC on first submittal. We then finalized the placement of the house. The ball is now in my court to sell the NJ house. Once sold I will contact Duane again to begin the design on the landscape (driveway placement, soil elevation around the house, errosion control, water dispersement off the house. We will then clear the land and determine which trees to keep, trees to cut and trees to add. Duane was very good at listening to my concerns, my dreams, and my questions. He is a greatcommunicator and very client oriented. I called about six of the contacts that he provided me prior to hiring him. After speaking with his clients, I told him that not only was I going to hire him based on client feed back, I was also going to contact the Vaticant and recommend him for Sainthood! Seriously, Duane Christopher was an asset to me. I am not a rich man, so the hourly rate impacted my budget, but I have not been able to find anyone more capable, and I am convinced that his assistance will save me money in the long run. Duane is a true "professional", he is more interested in quality and doing the job right than trying to cut corners or "milk' a job.