[Stonehenge]

This is in our subdivision - I saw it as I drove by and had to sneak a picture. Versa-Lok block with cap, which appears to be the retainer for an elevated patio, judging by the 40 ton or so of screenings I saw in his driveway. (BTW, this pic was taken from about 100 yards away, and cropped down to a fraction of the original - *puffs out chest for having a cool digital camera* )

Notice the turf not removed from the patio area? The block also appears to be sitting on turf (no embedded courses).

This should be interesting to watch over the next couple years....

[diginahole]

Nice.

I was working on a project today next door to a guy who did his own front walk last fall. He was quite curious about my tamper. Seems he neglected to use one and wondered if I ran over his work with the tamper a few times if his walk would look like mine. ROTFLMAO.

[agla]

HGTV and the internet makes so many feel empowered to take on things way over their heads. It also makes them think that what we do is simple and that we are screwing them when we need money to do it.

As I once heard someone say:

"Do it yourself and save" translates to "$#@$ yourself, it is cheaper"

[Stonehenge]

I hear ya. That was the reason for my 1,000 word rant re: the TV show 'Landscape Smart' a month or so ago.

You hit the nail right on the head - enough TV shows telling you 'you can do it', and people feel like they can. So they strike out to do just that.

And then comes the meeting where they want us to rebuild the project they failed on, and can't understand why the cost isn't any different (or more expensive) than when they got a bid from us to do it the first time (which they rejected).

[BRL]

LOL It is fun to drive through a neighborhood & pick out which walls were put in by the homeowner, and the ones where they hired someone. The guy that works for me used to say "how do you know?" & now he is picking them out for me. What those TV shows fail to mention is that the projects are really only for those that have construction skills of some sort, not just anybody. Its just supposed to be entertainment for the rest of the people

Since it was mentioned in the first post... Is Versa-Lok a good block to use\work with, good quality? Have a potential customer interested in that brand & I've never used it. Just curious if I should suggest something else or go for that one. Thanks.

[Stonehenge]

I like it a lot and use it most often of all the block we use. They are solid units which are better than the cored (hollow) ones, IMO - save time, less chance of wall failure. Easy to make curves and corners... All around a very good block. Hope that helps.

[BRL]

Thanks Stonehenge! That's what I was hoping to hear.

I was at a family gathering yesterday & my brother in law brought up this thread's subject LOL. A neighbor of his built a 4 - 5 foot tall landscape timber wall with no drainage stuff, and 1 dead man. He said he was watching him over a month or 2 of last summer & thinking to himself it didn't look right. He said within 2 months it was almost falling over & having lots of problems.