Who you're hiring
Matt Dawson
CHS Irrigation & Lighting is a small, owner-run outfit. Matt started it because too many Charleston homeowners were paying for systems nobody stood behind — heads buried under sod, wire spliced with electrical tape, lights aimed straight into a bedroom window.
The fix is not complicated. Walk the property before quoting it. Size the system for the water you actually have. Bury the wire. Aim the lights at night, with the homeowner standing there. Then pick up the phone when something needs attention two years later.
That is the whole business model, and it is why most of our work comes from neighbors of people we have already worked for.
— Matt Dawson, Owner
Why homeowners call us
Small company. No hand-offs.
Built for the Lowcountry
Sandy soil, high water tables, well and city water, salt air on the islands, and the summer afternoon storm that undoes your schedule. We design around all of it instead of pretending it isn't there.
You deal with the owner
Matt quotes the job, runs the job and answers the phone afterwards. No dispatcher, no rotating crew that has never seen your yard, no surprise on the invoice.
Clean, quiet installs
Wire buried at depth, waterproof connections, heads set flush so the mower clears them, trenches closed and the sod put back. You should not be able to tell we were there — except that everything works.
Priced in writing, first
You get a written estimate that lists zones, fixtures and what is actually included. If we find something unexpected mid-job, you hear about it before we do the work, not after.
How it works
From first walk-through to lights on.
Walk the property
We meet at the house, look at water source, pressure, grade, planting beds and the features worth lighting.
Plan and estimate
You get a zone-by-zone or fixture-by-fixture plan with a written price. No pressure and no charge.
Install
Most homes are a one- or two-day job. Utilities located first, trenches closed the same day.
Tune it at night
Lighting gets aimed after dark, with you there. Irrigation gets a run-through zone by zone in daylight.
Stay ahead of it
Seasonal checks, adjustments as the landscape grows in, and a real person to call when something breaks.
Let's look at your property.
Free written estimate, and an honest answer about what it actually needs.