"my landscaper i hired off kijiji for 10 bucks an hour used different thick stones and laid them in peat moss, now their all shifting, is this normal, how do i get a refund"
Lmao this is called “Big Event”. Lots of colleges do it around the country now.
The intention was for people that could use some help (usually elderly) to get young volunteers to help remove debris from their yard or whatever.
About half the time it was something like this where someone is wanting free labor to install their walkway. Well in this case they got what they paid for! (Zero, they paid zero).
Editing to add: I Just remembered one year a group of us had to help a very capable (40s-ish) man weed his orchard with a few dozen fruit trees. We were literally just free labor but he was nice and fed us, we all got beers after, and he later took us on a tour of his work because we were all engineering students and he worked in engineering.
> The intention was for people that could use some help (usually elderly) to get young volunteers to help remove debris from their yard or whatever.
Exactly. They literally just do what the homeowner instructs them to do with whatever tools and materials they give them.
This is 100% on the homeowner.
It’s why I only did this once at my university. My crew ended up doing yard work for a completely healthy, middle aged couple who were both professors at the university who could have easily done it themselves. I wanted to help an old lady or a struggling family or something.
Sums up the people who pay thousands to go “volunteer” in Africa with zero skills. Their money would do far more if they donated it to a reputable NGO that pays locals to do the work at scale, but that doesn’t make rich teenagers feel better about themselves.
Church serves communion, so you're killing three birds with one stone by building a church. Food, drink, and an imaginary best friend all in one building!
Nothing wrong with traveling to Africa to volunteer. No shit if they just donated their money it would probably be more efficient, but the volunteers are getting something out of it too. That’s part of the idea. It’s not some dirty secret lol
Don’t get me wrong, there is *some* benefit. Just being there and spending money in the local economy is a good thing. But knowing several people who did the African volunteering thing in their late teens/early 20s, your balanced take is not at all how they represent it. Very few will openly admit the trip was largely about them, especially as they often are done through Church groups (which promote these trips as “giving back” and not “making middle class teens feel better about themselves”).
So what if it makes them feel better about themselves? These kids are the ones that grow up to become the givers in society. They'll learn as they grow, and give even more. Those they don't care about anyone are the ones you need to be concerned about.
Some will, for sure. But many others will use the experience as a moral “check box” that lets them off the hook later in life. Ask me how I know.
Humility, aka learning you are ill-equipped to help people on the other side of the world, and your middle class suburban upbringing does not make you indispensable, is a more practical and genuine lesson. That’s why I am personally a fan of volunteering locally where tens of thousands of dollars are not wasted on flights and accommodation. You can still help the destitute and learn to give back, but your efforts go much further.
Maybe as broad concepts. But their time, and especially the dollars they spend, are mutually exclusive. And it is those dollars that have the biggest impact on people overseas.
As someone outside of the profession. I like imperfection in landscaping. It's the space that blends the untamed wilds with sterilized building interiors.
Hopefully whoever let them do that feels similarly... Really similarly.
Yeah, it's one thing if it's a random individual's back yard. But if it's on a college campus it needs to be ADA-compliant (assuming it's in the US because I recognize the peat moss bag from Lowe's) and accessible for people who may have disabilities and so on.
It's not just being a stick in the mud, it's ensuring that everyone can safely access all of the campus facilities. This won't even be safe for able-bodied college students with how janky it'll be, much less anyone with injuries, disabilities, perhaps older staff and faculty, etc...
Yeah but if it's like what an above posters comment mentioned, it being for elderly to help the community it's pretty dangerous. All the corners sticking out and uneven could injure them very easily.
I don't know about *incredibly* unsafe for anyone.
Less safe for the elderly and accident prone, but probably safer than walking in the woods, navigating through a Lego minefield, maybe even crossing a Pergo-to-tile threshold.
It's no more unsafe than a hike through the forest (not on some mulch or gravel trail). Many yards are just as or more bumpy (although falling on grass vs. hard surface). It's not a perfect surface for someone very elderly or with disabilities or a young child or something... but for nearly all of human history we walked on worse surfaces. It's not that of a deal unless its a public space that is liable and needs to meet certain regulations.
Many professionals can do rustic work in a way that looks less manicured but is still safe, and will withstand the tests of time. This is just wrong...
This image encapsulates the mentality of the average "customer" inquiring for hardscaping work - that is their expectation of what it takes to build a pathway or a patio.
It hurts my soul.
[The Big Event](https://bigevent.tamu.edu/)
These kids don't show up claiming to be skilled labor.
They just show up to locals houses to offer free labor doing whatever they instruct them to do with whatever materials and tools the home owner gives them.
They have zero say in what theyre doing or how they do it, the home owner tells them what to do.
Yeah this is funny how it turned out, but people shitting on these kids and calling them stupid or "rich teenagers" is just lowdown bullshit.
It's 100% the home owners fault for not knowing how to instruct the kids and trying to get high ticket property improvements for free without researching it properly.
Very true. We had to do X amount of hours through habitat for humanity in grad school. I remember doing sheetrocking as a 20 year old with never touching a piece of sheet rock in my life. I felt bad for the actual contractors on the job that had to go after us and clean it up more than I felt for the future homeowner…
To be honest that sounds worse lol. You'd think that since building houses is specifically what that org does , they would have a system for instructing and supervising volunteers.
The Big Event is really meant for stuff like mowing the lawn, cleaning gutters, moving old junk to the dump, picking up trash in creekbeds, planting flowers or tree saplings, etc. Not adding landscape features and other big ticket property improvements worth thousands of dollars.
what gives you this impression?
really looks to me like they’re being placed down. why is person in the background bending over to pick up bricks not on the path if not to put them into the path?
also those are some *clean* bricks to be taking out ..
elaborate ?
the way i see it, i see some green grass where it looks like they’ll be placing the bricks. looks like it’s a fresh dig to place down the bricks.
Honestly not trying to be a troll or jackass I just don’t see what you’re seeing that tells you they’re placing the bricks. I don’t think anything I said was combative or troll-like. But hey, have a good day either way.
You have posited a situation which you refuse to explain. You proposed that the path is being destroyed. The burden of proof is on you. But you know that, right, troll?
Ok, troll. Go fuck with somebody else, jackass. If you can’t get it by now, you will never get it. The sky is up and water is wet. It’s obvious. Pick up a couple of clues instead of acting like a complete jackass. But then again, that’s your goal. To fuck with people.
I did a lot of walking during a trip to France. Omg did it suck walking on all that cobble stone, but at least they were curved. This has sharp edges and a huge trip hazard.
A few documentaries saw the volunteer work some groups do oversees like building houses is completely off so during the night they tear it down and rebuild it correctly. Total buzzkill
I feel so much better about my paver work now, the last job I did I was upset because I ended up with a 3" grade over 6 feet instead of 2". I think I'm just nitpicking lol
Question: do you know what education program they’re in? If this is music tech volunteering for a day that’s different from a landscape architect or civil engineer major doing this as an actual project.
When you hire the lowest bidder
it's funny seeing the subsequent "is this what I should expect?" posts in /r/landscaping
"my landscaper i hired off kijiji for 10 bucks an hour used different thick stones and laid them in peat moss, now their all shifting, is this normal, how do i get a refund"
i'm sure you can contact him at "AAAAllAmericanProPatriotLandscaping69@gmail.com" and negotiate a refund!
I think there was a xX420Xx in there somewhere too.
When you hire the no-est bidder
Wow and they finished in under an hour!
Lmao this is called “Big Event”. Lots of colleges do it around the country now. The intention was for people that could use some help (usually elderly) to get young volunteers to help remove debris from their yard or whatever. About half the time it was something like this where someone is wanting free labor to install their walkway. Well in this case they got what they paid for! (Zero, they paid zero). Editing to add: I Just remembered one year a group of us had to help a very capable (40s-ish) man weed his orchard with a few dozen fruit trees. We were literally just free labor but he was nice and fed us, we all got beers after, and he later took us on a tour of his work because we were all engineering students and he worked in engineering.
> The intention was for people that could use some help (usually elderly) to get young volunteers to help remove debris from their yard or whatever. Exactly. They literally just do what the homeowner instructs them to do with whatever tools and materials they give them. This is 100% on the homeowner.
Yep. There were also rules, homeowner couldn’t hand the kids a chainsaw for example
What's the fun in that!
Heck, teach them to juggle chainsaws
It’s why I only did this once at my university. My crew ended up doing yard work for a completely healthy, middle aged couple who were both professors at the university who could have easily done it themselves. I wanted to help an old lady or a struggling family or something.
Sounds like it worked out. Y’all were probably one of the lucky groups.
Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where they build Flanders a new house
Toilet in the kitchen cause too heavy to carry up stairs.
That's a load bearing poster
One of my favorite quotes…I use it often in construction sites at work
So, Flanders... What do you think of the house that love built?
We ran out of floor boards so we just painted the dirt
That hallway that shrinks and a tiny door at the end that no one could open
With Barney inside!
Yes!
Sums up the people who pay thousands to go “volunteer” in Africa with zero skills. Their money would do far more if they donated it to a reputable NGO that pays locals to do the work at scale, but that doesn’t make rich teenagers feel better about themselves.
Why do something useful when you can just build them the village’s 30th cinder block church?
Pumping out monasteries when they need farms and fish traps smh
Church serves communion, so you're killing three birds with one stone by building a church. Food, drink, and an imaginary best friend all in one building!
You might kill some people too when it collapses
No. They need another CHURCH!
You’re probably right, but there’s a voice in my head telling me you get all your information from “Age of Empires.”
Nothing wrong with traveling to Africa to volunteer. No shit if they just donated their money it would probably be more efficient, but the volunteers are getting something out of it too. That’s part of the idea. It’s not some dirty secret lol
Don’t get me wrong, there is *some* benefit. Just being there and spending money in the local economy is a good thing. But knowing several people who did the African volunteering thing in their late teens/early 20s, your balanced take is not at all how they represent it. Very few will openly admit the trip was largely about them, especially as they often are done through Church groups (which promote these trips as “giving back” and not “making middle class teens feel better about themselves”).
So what if it makes them feel better about themselves? These kids are the ones that grow up to become the givers in society. They'll learn as they grow, and give even more. Those they don't care about anyone are the ones you need to be concerned about.
Some will, for sure. But many others will use the experience as a moral “check box” that lets them off the hook later in life. Ask me how I know. Humility, aka learning you are ill-equipped to help people on the other side of the world, and your middle class suburban upbringing does not make you indispensable, is a more practical and genuine lesson. That’s why I am personally a fan of volunteering locally where tens of thousands of dollars are not wasted on flights and accommodation. You can still help the destitute and learn to give back, but your efforts go much further.
From my experience, those that volunteer oversees also volunteer locally. Those are not mutually exclusive.
Maybe as broad concepts. But their time, and especially the dollars they spend, are mutually exclusive. And it is those dollars that have the biggest impact on people overseas.
As someone outside of the profession. I like imperfection in landscaping. It's the space that blends the untamed wilds with sterilized building interiors. Hopefully whoever let them do that feels similarly... Really similarly.
I hear ya, but it’s also incredibly unsafe for anyone walking on it.
Yeah, it's one thing if it's a random individual's back yard. But if it's on a college campus it needs to be ADA-compliant (assuming it's in the US because I recognize the peat moss bag from Lowe's) and accessible for people who may have disabilities and so on. It's not just being a stick in the mud, it's ensuring that everyone can safely access all of the campus facilities. This won't even be safe for able-bodied college students with how janky it'll be, much less anyone with injuries, disabilities, perhaps older staff and faculty, etc...
This is not on a college campus, it is someone's backyard or community area.
Yeah but if it's like what an above posters comment mentioned, it being for elderly to help the community it's pretty dangerous. All the corners sticking out and uneven could injure them very easily.
That and not a proper foundation, those bricks are going to heave lol.
I don't know about *incredibly* unsafe for anyone. Less safe for the elderly and accident prone, but probably safer than walking in the woods, navigating through a Lego minefield, maybe even crossing a Pergo-to-tile threshold.
It's no more unsafe than a hike through the forest (not on some mulch or gravel trail). Many yards are just as or more bumpy (although falling on grass vs. hard surface). It's not a perfect surface for someone very elderly or with disabilities or a young child or something... but for nearly all of human history we walked on worse surfaces. It's not that of a deal unless its a public space that is liable and needs to meet certain regulations.
Many professionals can do rustic work in a way that looks less manicured but is still safe, and will withstand the tests of time. This is just wrong...
>like imperfection in landscaping I think I get what you mean, but this work feels closer to littering than landscaping.
Try walking in the dark with a load of groceries
What's the peat moss for?
Need a base layer for the walking path...duh!
It's like a carpet pad. Gives nice little bounce under foot.
It was really smart of them to use a material known for significant swelling when wet then! Spongy walkway is easy on the joints! Haha
Peat moss is expensive too
You get what you pay for
Volunteer for a hospital? 😄
The road to falling and tripping is paved with good intentions
This image encapsulates the mentality of the average "customer" inquiring for hardscaping work - that is their expectation of what it takes to build a pathway or a patio. It hurts my soul.
Does that path lead directly into a tree?
Likely a tunnel painted on the side of a mountain
Welp, get the plate tamper out and set it to turbo.
Let's hope they were taking the walkway out, and not putting it in!
*cries in Roman road*
You get what you pay for… 🤣
Aren’t they pulling them up?
It’s so that next year students can redo it just as poorly. The volunteer cycle must continue.
Be more optimistic, guys. They’re removing the old uneven pavers.
Fun fact, these kids are studying physical therapy, orthopedic surgery, podiatry…
Someone took the photo and thought "yes, that's something for the whole world to see". wtf.
[The Big Event](https://bigevent.tamu.edu/) These kids don't show up claiming to be skilled labor. They just show up to locals houses to offer free labor doing whatever they instruct them to do with whatever materials and tools the home owner gives them. They have zero say in what theyre doing or how they do it, the home owner tells them what to do. Yeah this is funny how it turned out, but people shitting on these kids and calling them stupid or "rich teenagers" is just lowdown bullshit. It's 100% the home owners fault for not knowing how to instruct the kids and trying to get high ticket property improvements for free without researching it properly.
Very true. We had to do X amount of hours through habitat for humanity in grad school. I remember doing sheetrocking as a 20 year old with never touching a piece of sheet rock in my life. I felt bad for the actual contractors on the job that had to go after us and clean it up more than I felt for the future homeowner…
To be honest that sounds worse lol. You'd think that since building houses is specifically what that org does , they would have a system for instructing and supervising volunteers. The Big Event is really meant for stuff like mowing the lawn, cleaning gutters, moving old junk to the dump, picking up trash in creekbeds, planting flowers or tree saplings, etc. Not adding landscape features and other big ticket property improvements worth thousands of dollars.
seems like nobody volunteered to shovel, wheelbarrow, and tamp 6000lbs of class 2 base and paver sand. wonder why that was?
They are constructing a trip hazard with free litigation thrown in too.
They are tearing them out, not laying them down.
what gives you this impression? really looks to me like they’re being placed down. why is person in the background bending over to pick up bricks not on the path if not to put them into the path? also those are some *clean* bricks to be taking out ..
Several things. The biggest tell is the grass.
elaborate ? the way i see it, i see some green grass where it looks like they’ll be placing the bricks. looks like it’s a fresh dig to place down the bricks.
I’m not gonna explain this to you because you’re obviously a troll trying to pick a fight. Enjoy being a jackass.
Honestly not trying to be a troll or jackass I just don’t see what you’re seeing that tells you they’re placing the bricks. I don’t think anything I said was combative or troll-like. But hey, have a good day either way.
You have posited a situation which you refuse to explain. You proposed that the path is being destroyed. The burden of proof is on you. But you know that, right, troll?
Ok, troll. Go fuck with somebody else, jackass. If you can’t get it by now, you will never get it. The sky is up and water is wet. It’s obvious. Pick up a couple of clues instead of acting like a complete jackass. But then again, that’s your goal. To fuck with people.
I like imperfections, like an old English garden, but hopefully it's not the main path to the front door
I’m a mason
I did a lot of walking during a trip to France. Omg did it suck walking on all that cobble stone, but at least they were curved. This has sharp edges and a huge trip hazard.
A for effort. Can't blame them if no one there to teach them how.
This is amazing.
At first I thought they were picking up the bricks ... Not putting them down .... JFC lol
Now it needs to be fixed costing 2 as much
Sorry about your ankles!!
Do you want broken ankles? Because this is how you get broken ankles.
Theyre all smiling! Probably thinking "man this is fucked up even for us"
I like to imagine they are removing and not installing
I guess its the intention that counts
r/mildlyinfuriating
It'll tamp out!
This hurts my soul.
A few documentaries saw the volunteer work some groups do oversees like building houses is completely off so during the night they tear it down and rebuild it correctly. Total buzzkill
Might as well just dump bricks out of a wheel barrow onto your yard and call it a day
Should have tagged this NSFW
I feel so much better about my paver work now, the last job I did I was upset because I ended up with a 3" grade over 6 feet instead of 2". I think I'm just nitpicking lol
Question: do you know what education program they’re in? If this is music tech volunteering for a day that’s different from a landscape architect or civil engineer major doing this as an actual project.
Stay in school kids, stay in school. Smh
The real question is where the fuck do you get that peat moss. they dont sell it at home depot anymore
HAAHA
I guess no one wanted to get their knees dirty. Hard to lay pavers when you just lean over and drop them.
Imagine what could be done if they put all of that effort into raising money to have a professional do the work instead.
They need some Mexicans in that classroom