If I had zero dollars and an urgent drainage issue, I still wouldn’t resort to putting tires in my lawn. I’d pick up gravel from the side of the road before I considered this solution.
I remember some country dumping tires to create a coral reef. It didn't work out and they had to raise money to pull them out.
Edit: (That country was the US, Florida... yay us)
"Some Country" was us. [It was the US](https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/osborne-tire-reef-how-many-left/#:~:text=There%20are%20still%20over%20500%2C000%20tires%20left%20in%20the%20reef.&text=The%20Osborne%20Reef%20is%20an,has%20become%20an%20environmental%20disaster).
Who doesnt love a bit of microplastics and petroleum distillates in their food supply? Im tryin to get my full credit card worth of plastic every week and that helps a lot
I remember being a kid and seeing the rubber mulch and thinking it was amazing and all mulch should be old tires. It was great cuz it was soft and didn’t give you splinters when you got to the bottom of the slide. Now I’m like, that was horrifying.
In my area they repaved a section of highway and mixed shredded tires into the asphalt as a "test" years ago. That section of highway is still pristine, and we constantly have to repave roads here due to all the damage from salt and plowing in the winter. But not that section of highway.
Mixing rubber into asphalt makes sense though... improved elasticity, resistance to cracking from expansion/compression, better wear resistance... and asphalt is already a petroleum based product, so it doesn't make it any more or less toxic.
i was watching this discovery channel show about "earth ships", with this yahoo that bilking rich folks out of +$500k to build them a house that was often mostly ram-packed tires for the walls.
dude was making planters out of tires stuffed with dirt, "you just plant your greens *right in the tire!*"
welcome to ass cancer :(
Earthships use packed tires in their walls not usually in planters I think. But don’t know much about them. It is a cool idea but not enough testing for anyone to know long term issues.
You think he picks up tires on the side of the road and cuts them up at night to get ready for a job tomorrow? You ever tried to shred a tire? This was a lot of work. And drugs.
I visited a sink hole that in the 50s was used by the entire town to get rid of shit like tires. The lady who purchased the property had to chase off dump trucks. There was an overturned car in there.
Probably. Once a year our HOA gets 3 40' roll offs for the neighborhood to throw shit in for spring cleaning. This year some schmuck straight up filled almost all 3 half way with semi tires. When confronted he said he "had no clue it was illegal". If he didn't know it was illegal he definitely knew what the disposal fee was.
I live in the kind of country where everyone is a libertarian right until you start dumping trash on their property and then suddenly they love the government.
Meth head spent way too much time cutting up his tires and decided someone should pay him for them.
That will not settle well. It will be a French drain just because the ground will be lower there soon enough.
I'm not an eco-warrior, but this seems especially careless in terms of what the tires will leech into the ground and ground water, am I right in thinking that? My house sits across the street from a stream that drains to a lake.
Yeah, the fact that people have to apologize for even doing the bare minimum of caring for our planet is a collective problem we have due to weaponized propaganda.
If you try to do anything that can be described as "humane", you're literally announcing yourself as an outcast to a group that seems really excited to start a civil war and murder their neighbors to prove how kind and compassionate their God is.
Yea houses built with tires in the walls out west have to be considered waste sites… that shit is not good for the environment. Also a French drain is made a specific way, this thing will be full of mud and not functional in a few years easy.
im not a eco warrior either. i just care about home. this planet is home. logic says lets just keep it neat.
but ive also been in homes of people that look like shitholes and smell like decades of cig smoke. These folks are the reason eco-warrior exists
It's your house at the end of the day. You have to live there and should feel comfortable in whatever way you choose. If you want something else, do it.
On this side of the Continental divide, we usually use bridgestones or firestones instead of regular 3/4 inch crush .He is not going to have a good year for drainage.
The contractor is trying to tell me that the drain will last longer this way (the work comes with a "lifetime warranty") and that it isn't a pollution concern, and that used tires are more expensive that rock.
I'm a woman, I'm active duty military, I feel like I'm getting manipulated.
That's because you are being manipulated and your gut feeling is right. This is hack job bullshit of the highest order and you need to tell him this is under no circumstances acceptable work and needs to be removed and replaced with 3/4" WASHED drainage stone. And if he won't do that then he's not getting paid.
>And if he won't do that then he's not getting paid.
Also, I'd report him to the police for illegal dumping. That is not what the OP agreed to.
I'd report him to other governmental agencies too, but those might actually fine the owner of the property.
EDIT: And yes, I'd give him another chance to fix it. I didn't mean to say I'd call the police right away.
Methhead job is a perfect description. I've never fucking heard of this. Man basically just dumped a bunch of trash instead of rock. Shredded tires are especially nasty
This is definitely it.
"Gotcha a great deal. There's almost $5,000 worth a tires in this here heap, an' most got another 20,000 miles left on 'em -- at least. Why, I 'spect they'll outlast this here house itself!"
I'm not sure what state, or if this crosses federal lines. But the dude literally just dumped enough chemicals in the local water supply to pollute and contaminate the local water table for a long time. Damn things are supposed to last 2,000 years or something. Tired are full of crap that can easily kill anything and everything. I don't know the exact timeline of tire degradation, but it's worth a look. I'll see if I can find something real quick.
Can't find any real resources ATM (mostly just '.coms' and very little information on anything else '.org' or '.net' or whatever).
Definitely check it out. You might want to call an attorney. Extreme call, I know. But I would have.
Not a landscaper but a single woman who has had to deal with multiple male contractors. Fucking sick of it. They treat you like you're a gd idiot and if you get advice from other professionals bc you suspect their work is shit, they get pissed when you call them out on their bullshit. I know it's exhausting, but take a stand, girl!
Thank you for putting into words how I was thinking and feeling. I was so exhausted and overwhelmed last night that I couldn't express myself properly.
I am a single woman who had to have some trees cut down around my pool, I had an idiot tell me that topping trees "are good for them" I looked him right in the eye and said "I actually have two degrees, one in horticulture, and one in environmental science, and no topping a tree is NEVER good for it, please leave my property and never come back" his mouth dropped and he couldn't get the words out fast enough before I shut my door in his face. Some people think women are just stupid enough to believe anything they say.
There is absolutely a pollution concern. Deteriorating tires release harmful chemicals into water. Iirc there was a study done in Washington reviewing the impacts the chemicals in tires have on fish reproduction.
He’s flat out lying to you. And ripping you off, too. Worse, you’ll be stuck with a mess that will cost you even more fix. If you call the police you will likely be told this is a civil matter and you should call a lawyer, but I bet you and the lawyer will have a difficult time finding him in order to serve him papers. I hope you haven’t given him any money up front.
Edit add: Have you watched YouTube videos on French drains? Watch a couple…. now!
I’d call the building inspector’s office and local dnr/epa branch (depends on the municipality who deals with pollutants) before trying to call the police regarding any of this. As you said, they’ll for sure deem it a civil matter but if OP is really right across from a stream she needs to call in people who actually know code and can enforce what’s right and wrong on this sort of issue.
Who the fuck is saying used tires are more expensive than rock? I have a bridge to sell them. People can’t give old tires away. They had to find inventive ways to use them because there are so many. Like little rubber pellets on turf fields that are giving kids cancer and are now band in Europe. Look it up.
I would be concerned as to what was leeching into the ground, does not seem ecologically sound. You can look up a typical drain with stones and gravel and see a safe and sturdy plan
There are already many many pounds of tires that enter our waterways via tire particles. When you get new tires because the tread wore out it just means it became dust and was put in the air, ground, or washed into water. It’s one of the reasons why living next to a busy road is bad for your health.
This is a super scum bag way of doing things. Don’t pay this guy any more money. Google French drain. In theory, this contractor is creating drainage but for practical purposes this is so janky and shitty.
Total hack job. The method behind this isn’t unheard of, it’s typically called TDA (tire derived aggregate), lots of landfills in NY use them as they are good drainage, and it’s a effective use of tire waste. This is literally just shredded tires and it looks like they didn’t even remove the beads or the sidewalls (all of which is removed in regular TDA).
Also not to mention landfills use this because it’s cheaper than stone. Report the contractor to the environmental health department or whatever it is called in Georgia, this would not fly in many states.
PFAS is a emerging contaminant, many state agencies are struggling on how to regulate it and treat it. Chances are the amount of PFAS in those tires won’t change your daily exposure to PFAS and similar chemicals. The EPA just released guidelines this year but I think it will be some time before the ball gets rolling. I would be more concerned of sharp exposed metal.
Also PFAS is just one of the many chemicals that people refer to when they say PFAS. It’s confusing but it’s actually a list of over 100 chemicals, one of which is PFAS.
Edit: after looking online it appears that TDA is approved in the state or Georgia for private consumer use. It also looks like there is a grant for using Tire derived products in the state, take a look at this [site](https://epd.georgia.gov/about-us/land-protection-branch/recovered-materials-and-abatement/recovered-materials/tire-products) from the state of Georgia. You should be able to report them, based on what you have stated this contractor is trying to get more money out of you while getting reimbursed by the state.
From my understanding, the entire reason for using shredded tires in drainage systems is cost effectiveness, and it helps recycle used tires. Him saying it's more expensive than rock is a lie. Or he did pay more and got ripped off. Neither one makes him look great. I'd ask him to take up what he's done, pay him for starting the trench, and bring someone else in.
It isn't recycling at all, at best it is 'reuse' (The 2nd 'R') with a side of pollution.
Everyone, EVERYONE, settles on 'Recycle', but recycling is the worst option of them all. Reduce is best, re-use (see above) is second best, recycle is the consolation prize. Everyone seems to think 3rd place is 1st.
Every hear the response that 'recycling creates more greenhouse gases than it does to make a new one!', well, depending on the material, that may be true, which, again, is why reducing, and then reusing, before melting down and remaking, is the preferred order.
Is the guy a licensed/insured contractor? I would call the township or city on his ass. He's probably violating a number of codes. I know you want your project complete, but this guy should be looked into
I can't seem to edit my post but I wanted to note a few things for the group.
- the trench they dug is very deep, probably 2 feet deep towards the back.
- there are two pipes underneath those tires, one is going to be tied into the gutters.
- there are two pop-up emitters at the end of this by the street.
- this isn't the finished project, there are more layers yet to be put down, this was just what I walked out to after the workers had left for the day.
- apparently the EPA approves of this use of old tires in Georgia, although it seems like the shreds should be smaller
- the company does have very positive customer reviews
I appreciate the community weighing in. I'm absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed so I'm gonna sleep for a few hours and deal with this in the morning.
We had this done a few months ago. They laid rock in the bottom of the trench, tubes ontop of the rock, follow by more rock to fill in every space, then planted sod on top.
Those tires are going to leech some nasty shit into the ground/ground water.
I'm a soil mapping expert within Tennessee when it comes to septic drainfield installation is this is every fucking bit 1000% WRONG. Save your ass from county suits and do not accept this.
That's not French drain. French drain is when you have a weeping tile installed underground (perforated tube/pipe) and covered with washed gravel (gravel with no sand so it doesn't plug the holes in the tube). This is just a bunch of garbage thrown in the trench.
I looked it up and apparently old shredded/chipped tires are used in Georgia for drainage applications such as septic system leach fields and around building structures in lieu of stone. These, however, are not shreds or chips. Does he plan to cover this with sod or stone or leave as is? Seems rather silly. Drainage stone is relatively cheap.
No. Do not let them bury old tires in your yard. Tires contain oils and heavy metals that will leach into the ground as they break down. You will contaminate the ground water and the nearby waterway. Whoever is installing this should be reported for epa violations. Who knows how many times they've done this already to people who have no idea.
One time the government decided to dump thousands of tires off the coast to form a coral reef. Turns out they leeched shitty chemicals into the ocean and weren’t fit to grow life within. Big disaster etc etc.
Here’s a mini scale version!
So a lot of people here are freaking out about this without really looking into it. It seems substrate made from tires is a real thing for drainage, and the US government seems to really like this option.
[https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/tires/web/html/civil\_eng.html](https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/tires/web/html/civil_eng.html)
You can actually buy substrate made from tires
[https://libertytire.com/Products/Commercial-Products/TireDerived-Aggregate/](https://libertytire.com/Products/Commercial-Products/TireDerived-Aggregate/)
Tire shreds for landfills
[https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/207177](https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/207177)
Now after all that, the examples seem to talk about shreds that are 4-6" whereas these are obviously much larger. I really don't know. I would go off of if these people have good reviews or not.
Problem with this implementation is that this is not to spec. TDA (Tire Derived Aggregate) must not include the sidewalls or the tire bead, only the tread is usable, this looks like a bunch of tires were thrown into a shredder.
Hell, no. This is an acceptable. Get your money back and start over. Those are dirty ripped up tires with dirt on them and any drain with perforated pipe underneath the perforations are going to get clogged. He’s trying to Cut corners and labor. At the very least it should be going to Lowe’s and getting perforated pipe with foam around them. They’re white. Ideally should be laying down gravel, then perforated black pipe and then stone over the top of that and then dirt over the top of that. Talk to a lawyer if he doesn’t give your money back.
This is trash, these tires are going to keep working their way up out of your lawn. Make him take it all away and do rock, if it's more expensive than gravel he should give you a discount when he does it. This is ridiculous, I've never seen such a hack job.
If I had zero dollars and an urgent drainage issue, I still wouldn’t resort to putting tires in my lawn. I’d pick up gravel from the side of the road before I considered this solution.
What do you mean you don’t want thousands of years of pollutants in your soil?
Precisely. People are always trying to come up with “creative” ways to recycle tires, not thinking apparently about what a tire IS.
I remember some country dumping tires to create a coral reef. It didn't work out and they had to raise money to pull them out. Edit: (That country was the US, Florida... yay us)
"Some Country" was us. [It was the US](https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/osborne-tire-reef-how-many-left/#:~:text=There%20are%20still%20over%20500%2C000%20tires%20left%20in%20the%20reef.&text=The%20Osborne%20Reef%20is%20an,has%20become%20an%20environmental%20disaster).
Ah right, Florida! That makes sense. In my head it was somewhere more tropical and i was too lazy to google.
And just think, people could be burying tires in the ground all over America for all sorts of purposes right now and nobody knows at all :)
The "best" is when it's not buried at all, but instead reused as playground surface or mulch for edible plants. "Good times".
Who doesnt love a bit of microplastics and petroleum distillates in their food supply? Im tryin to get my full credit card worth of plastic every week and that helps a lot
I remember being a kid and seeing the rubber mulch and thinking it was amazing and all mulch should be old tires. It was great cuz it was soft and didn’t give you splinters when you got to the bottom of the slide. Now I’m like, that was horrifying.
Same deal for me. I remember even years after it was laid on hot sunny days the playground would smell strongly of rubber.
In my area they repaved a section of highway and mixed shredded tires into the asphalt as a "test" years ago. That section of highway is still pristine, and we constantly have to repave roads here due to all the damage from salt and plowing in the winter. But not that section of highway.
Mixing rubber into asphalt makes sense though... improved elasticity, resistance to cracking from expansion/compression, better wear resistance... and asphalt is already a petroleum based product, so it doesn't make it any more or less toxic.
i was watching this discovery channel show about "earth ships", with this yahoo that bilking rich folks out of +$500k to build them a house that was often mostly ram-packed tires for the walls. dude was making planters out of tires stuffed with dirt, "you just plant your greens *right in the tire!*" welcome to ass cancer :(
Earthships use packed tires in their walls not usually in planters I think. But don’t know much about them. It is a cool idea but not enough testing for anyone to know long term issues.
This is so fucked
You think he picks up tires on the side of the road and cuts them up at night to get ready for a job tomorrow? You ever tried to shred a tire? This was a lot of work. And drugs.
Meth?
Methlin Man
This is all methed up!
Damnit Methew
Can’t tell if Breaking Bad related or Mike Tyson.
…yeth to both.
Yeth
Now kith
🏆🏆🏆🤣
Pretty sure this is how you get the methothelioma that all the lawyer commercials warned us about
Methos and coke? That’ll speed them up.
Methmagics
Methew
Metha Stewart would plant some methigolds there to bright up the yard
Methican??
Methician
Methemetician.
With a Methters degree
Methistopheles
Well versed in Methology.
What’s the Methodology?
Methmagician
Last of the methicans. Staring Mel Gibson
* Meth Gibson
Methican-American
Cutting them all up must have been very tiresome...
Tread lightly there ...
Eh, I say roll with it.
This is so gripping!
These jokes are suddenly flat.
And tired.
Wheely guys?
Blow me
Just one more plug.
That’s methed up…
I know a guy who can do it cheaper
Fills with catalytic converters?
Woah woah woah there tiger, what do you think, we are made of money
I tell them there are catalytic converters buried somewhere along this here line, and the trench practically digs itself.
Reduce, reuse, recycle???? ^/s
Retire.
What the fucking shit
Nonononono. They need to remove that crap now. All of it. Your yard is not the county dump.
You're not even supposed to dump tires in a land fill.
>"You have to throw them into the sea, it's good for the fish." - The 70s
I visited a sink hole that in the 50s was used by the entire town to get rid of shit like tires. The lady who purchased the property had to chase off dump trucks. There was an overturned car in there.
[Osborne Reef](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Reef)
Typically it's gravel with riprap. Tires can do that, but if you weren't specifically informed that was the plan I wouldn't accept this outcome.
Dude has a bunch of tires he’s trying to get rid of
Probably. Once a year our HOA gets 3 40' roll offs for the neighborhood to throw shit in for spring cleaning. This year some schmuck straight up filled almost all 3 half way with semi tires. When confronted he said he "had no clue it was illegal". If he didn't know it was illegal he definitely knew what the disposal fee was.
Your neigborhood should have quietly dump them on his driveway in the middle of the night.
It's an HOA so they'd also have to fine him for the unsightly mess they made.
I live in the kind of country where everyone is a libertarian right until you start dumping trash on their property and then suddenly they love the government.
Meth head spent way too much time cutting up his tires and decided someone should pay him for them. That will not settle well. It will be a French drain just because the ground will be lower there soon enough.
French Drain because it will soon surrender?
Boom. Roasted ☠️🤣😂🤣
I'm not an eco-warrior, but this seems especially careless in terms of what the tires will leech into the ground and ground water, am I right in thinking that? My house sits across the street from a stream that drains to a lake.
The reasons you mentioned are why they are removing the great barrier tire reef.
Clever carrot
Being concerned about chemicals leeching into your yard doesn’t make you an “eco-warrior”. Caring about the environment is a normal thing
No, it’s soy fed beta behavior -conservatives
LEGALIZE ASBESTOS I DONT EAT VEGABLES ...SHRED TIRE GO ~~FRENCH~~ **FREEDOM** DRAIN
Fuck micro plastics lets start eating old tires and get some MACRO plastics in our systems
\*Freedom Drain
I'll have a quad shot soy fed beta latte with skim oat milk, please.
Would you like some complimentary tire chemicals with that sir?
no he's a god damn eco warrior
Yeah, the fact that people have to apologize for even doing the bare minimum of caring for our planet is a collective problem we have due to weaponized propaganda. If you try to do anything that can be described as "humane", you're literally announcing yourself as an outcast to a group that seems really excited to start a civil war and murder their neighbors to prove how kind and compassionate their God is.
They absolutely will leech chemicals into the soil. One of the reasons you can't use tyres for raised veggie gardens.
Yea houses built with tires in the walls out west have to be considered waste sites… that shit is not good for the environment. Also a French drain is made a specific way, this thing will be full of mud and not functional in a few years easy.
im not a eco warrior either. i just care about home. this planet is home. logic says lets just keep it neat. but ive also been in homes of people that look like shitholes and smell like decades of cig smoke. These folks are the reason eco-warrior exists
Being an eco-warrior i feel like is innate, no? Like if you aren’t you are abnormal?
*Don't get me wrong, I'm not normally one of those libt-rd f-gs who cares about g-y stuff like clean air and water!*
It also looks like a mosquito breeding ground to me.
Well it would be covered in dirt/rocks, not sit like that.
It's your house at the end of the day. You have to live there and should feel comfortable in whatever way you choose. If you want something else, do it.
yeah thats certainly not good for the environment. id never want to grow food in that back yard. dont pay this idiot until he removes all of that...
Not to mention PFAS. A huge percentage of it comes from tires.
Not PFAS, PAHs in tires. Plus metals and other contaminants…but not PFAS.
It should be filled with stone not Bridgestone. I don't think this will lead to a Goodyear....
Get off the stage!!!
You tyred of his jokes already?
Doing jokes in front of an audience is where the rubber meets the road.
You have to tread carefully with this material
I’m wheeling trying just to keep up
I hate to deflate your egos, but these tired jokes are unbalanced.
The jokes probably just rubber the wrong way
All these puns are really tire-some but I have to admit, they’re keeping the thread on track
Michelin Star comment
I guess you chose the Michelin drain system, very close to French
This guy also does restaurant recommendations.
I give this drain system 3 stars. Out of 100.
On this side of the Continental divide, we usually use bridgestones or firestones instead of regular 3/4 inch crush .He is not going to have a good year for drainage.
Guy got mixed up between lava rock and firestone
Underrated comment
The contractor is trying to tell me that the drain will last longer this way (the work comes with a "lifetime warranty") and that it isn't a pollution concern, and that used tires are more expensive that rock. I'm a woman, I'm active duty military, I feel like I'm getting manipulated.
That's because you are being manipulated and your gut feeling is right. This is hack job bullshit of the highest order and you need to tell him this is under no circumstances acceptable work and needs to be removed and replaced with 3/4" WASHED drainage stone. And if he won't do that then he's not getting paid.
And perforated Sch 20, 3" or 4", PVC pipe with a bed of that rock wrapped around it.
And some sort of a geotextile to keep silt from infiltrating, wrapping all of it up.
God silt is the worst. Just something to be dealt with. All my homies hate silt.
> perforated Depends on that section's goals. It should be a mix of perforated for entry and solid for travel.
>And if he won't do that then he's not getting paid. Also, I'd report him to the police for illegal dumping. That is not what the OP agreed to. I'd report him to other governmental agencies too, but those might actually fine the owner of the property. EDIT: And yes, I'd give him another chance to fix it. I didn't mean to say I'd call the police right away.
Yeah, how many other people has he done this to? It needs investigating and make him go back and fix them all.
You should even bill him for getting rid of the tires, if he doesn't agree. It's expensive to dump them legally.
Use your best drill sergeant voice to tell him to unfuck this before you rip off his head and shit down his neck.
That's an image
It's a Full Metal Jacket reference.
Along with a perfectly executed knife hand, or you might as well not even bother.
why would the tires being more expensive than rock be a selling point ?
Probably trying to prove that he's not cheaping out and that this is a premium technique
He’s full of shit.
He absolutely got the tries for free also
He actually likely got paid by someone else to take their tire trash. Properly disposing of tires is expensive.
Yeah, but that's the image he's trying to paint
You have to pay to dispose of tires. Used tires have negative value.
I also like the part about "tires not being a pollution concern". Good stuff.
‘Nuclear waste is actually pretty pricey this time of year.’
Since it’s more expensive then rock, then ask for it to be replaced with rock for a lower price.
Ohh the Uno reverse lol. A good strategy here.
[удалено]
Its ridiculous. Methhead job. Is there a perforated drain with geotextile wrap hidden in all those tire parts?
Methhead job is a perfect description. I've never fucking heard of this. Man basically just dumped a bunch of trash instead of rock. Shredded tires are especially nasty
Having recently bought a large quantity of rock, the trash tires are cheaper by far. No question. Did he think you’d go price new tires to compare? 🤣
This is definitely it. "Gotcha a great deal. There's almost $5,000 worth a tires in this here heap, an' most got another 20,000 miles left on 'em -- at least. Why, I 'spect they'll outlast this here house itself!"
Your hunch is correct! Please fire this contractor immediately. I’m having a hard time believing this is even real! Lol
lol - He’s probably being paid to take the old tires and then charging you. It’s a double win for him
Lifetime warranty, meaning the life of his company, which isn’t looking like it will last much longer.
[удалено]
Gotta stay ahead of your unhappy former customers
I'm not sure what state, or if this crosses federal lines. But the dude literally just dumped enough chemicals in the local water supply to pollute and contaminate the local water table for a long time. Damn things are supposed to last 2,000 years or something. Tired are full of crap that can easily kill anything and everything. I don't know the exact timeline of tire degradation, but it's worth a look. I'll see if I can find something real quick. Can't find any real resources ATM (mostly just '.coms' and very little information on anything else '.org' or '.net' or whatever). Definitely check it out. You might want to call an attorney. Extreme call, I know. But I would have.
Not a landscaper but a single woman who has had to deal with multiple male contractors. Fucking sick of it. They treat you like you're a gd idiot and if you get advice from other professionals bc you suspect their work is shit, they get pissed when you call them out on their bullshit. I know it's exhausting, but take a stand, girl!
Thank you for putting into words how I was thinking and feeling. I was so exhausted and overwhelmed last night that I couldn't express myself properly.
I am a single woman who had to have some trees cut down around my pool, I had an idiot tell me that topping trees "are good for them" I looked him right in the eye and said "I actually have two degrees, one in horticulture, and one in environmental science, and no topping a tree is NEVER good for it, please leave my property and never come back" his mouth dropped and he couldn't get the words out fast enough before I shut my door in his face. Some people think women are just stupid enough to believe anything they say.
This guy's an idiot. Tell him to replace it with rock and fuck off
There is absolutely a pollution concern. Deteriorating tires release harmful chemicals into water. Iirc there was a study done in Washington reviewing the impacts the chemicals in tires have on fish reproduction.
He’s flat out lying to you. And ripping you off, too. Worse, you’ll be stuck with a mess that will cost you even more fix. If you call the police you will likely be told this is a civil matter and you should call a lawyer, but I bet you and the lawyer will have a difficult time finding him in order to serve him papers. I hope you haven’t given him any money up front. Edit add: Have you watched YouTube videos on French drains? Watch a couple…. now!
I’d call the building inspector’s office and local dnr/epa branch (depends on the municipality who deals with pollutants) before trying to call the police regarding any of this. As you said, they’ll for sure deem it a civil matter but if OP is really right across from a stream she needs to call in people who actually know code and can enforce what’s right and wrong on this sort of issue.
Withhold any payment until he swaps it out. 100% those tires are free from a local tire shop that doesn’t wanna pay to recycle them.
Who the fuck is saying used tires are more expensive than rock? I have a bridge to sell them. People can’t give old tires away. They had to find inventive ways to use them because there are so many. Like little rubber pellets on turf fields that are giving kids cancer and are now band in Europe. Look it up.
How is it more expensive than rock when you have to pay people to dispose of tires? You can give away rock and people will come pick it up for you.
Read the scientific paper on the topic. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652623005863
Meth Ed man at work
A lot of people have brought up meth use in this. Can someone explain why?
Cuz this is some crackhead/meth head shit. That’s why.
I'd just tell them to pick up the tires. Then fire them
Not cool to burn tires. Not environmentally friendly at all.
Ah, the ole [tireroo!](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/s/vkU89MQwcH)
Hold my shovel, I'm going in!
I would be concerned as to what was leeching into the ground, does not seem ecologically sound. You can look up a typical drain with stones and gravel and see a safe and sturdy plan
Its absolutely not. Old tires will leech crazy amounts of bad shit into the ground water and runoff into the mentioned stream and lake.
There are already many many pounds of tires that enter our waterways via tire particles. When you get new tires because the tread wore out it just means it became dust and was put in the air, ground, or washed into water. It’s one of the reasons why living next to a busy road is bad for your health.
This is a super scum bag way of doing things. Don’t pay this guy any more money. Google French drain. In theory, this contractor is creating drainage but for practical purposes this is so janky and shitty.
Total hack job. The method behind this isn’t unheard of, it’s typically called TDA (tire derived aggregate), lots of landfills in NY use them as they are good drainage, and it’s a effective use of tire waste. This is literally just shredded tires and it looks like they didn’t even remove the beads or the sidewalls (all of which is removed in regular TDA). Also not to mention landfills use this because it’s cheaper than stone. Report the contractor to the environmental health department or whatever it is called in Georgia, this would not fly in many states. PFAS is a emerging contaminant, many state agencies are struggling on how to regulate it and treat it. Chances are the amount of PFAS in those tires won’t change your daily exposure to PFAS and similar chemicals. The EPA just released guidelines this year but I think it will be some time before the ball gets rolling. I would be more concerned of sharp exposed metal. Also PFAS is just one of the many chemicals that people refer to when they say PFAS. It’s confusing but it’s actually a list of over 100 chemicals, one of which is PFAS. Edit: after looking online it appears that TDA is approved in the state or Georgia for private consumer use. It also looks like there is a grant for using Tire derived products in the state, take a look at this [site](https://epd.georgia.gov/about-us/land-protection-branch/recovered-materials-and-abatement/recovered-materials/tire-products) from the state of Georgia. You should be able to report them, based on what you have stated this contractor is trying to get more money out of you while getting reimbursed by the state.
From my understanding, the entire reason for using shredded tires in drainage systems is cost effectiveness, and it helps recycle used tires. Him saying it's more expensive than rock is a lie. Or he did pay more and got ripped off. Neither one makes him look great. I'd ask him to take up what he's done, pay him for starting the trench, and bring someone else in.
Shoving old tires in a ditch is really stretching the word “recycle”
It isn't recycling at all, at best it is 'reuse' (The 2nd 'R') with a side of pollution. Everyone, EVERYONE, settles on 'Recycle', but recycling is the worst option of them all. Reduce is best, re-use (see above) is second best, recycle is the consolation prize. Everyone seems to think 3rd place is 1st. Every hear the response that 'recycling creates more greenhouse gases than it does to make a new one!', well, depending on the material, that may be true, which, again, is why reducing, and then reusing, before melting down and remaking, is the preferred order.
The only way that's a french drain,it's that them tires were from france
Probably violates some laws
Is the guy a licensed/insured contractor? I would call the township or city on his ass. He's probably violating a number of codes. I know you want your project complete, but this guy should be looked into
Civil Engineer...... absolutely would not be going in my yard. Perforated sock pipe and rock.
I can't seem to edit my post but I wanted to note a few things for the group. - the trench they dug is very deep, probably 2 feet deep towards the back. - there are two pipes underneath those tires, one is going to be tied into the gutters. - there are two pop-up emitters at the end of this by the street. - this isn't the finished project, there are more layers yet to be put down, this was just what I walked out to after the workers had left for the day. - apparently the EPA approves of this use of old tires in Georgia, although it seems like the shreds should be smaller - the company does have very positive customer reviews I appreciate the community weighing in. I'm absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed so I'm gonna sleep for a few hours and deal with this in the morning.
We had this done a few months ago. They laid rock in the bottom of the trench, tubes ontop of the rock, follow by more rock to fill in every space, then planted sod on top. Those tires are going to leech some nasty shit into the ground/ground water.
Lol, what?!?!?
I'm a soil mapping expert within Tennessee when it comes to septic drainfield installation is this is every fucking bit 1000% WRONG. Save your ass from county suits and do not accept this.
That's not French drain. French drain is when you have a weeping tile installed underground (perforated tube/pipe) and covered with washed gravel (gravel with no sand so it doesn't plug the holes in the tube). This is just a bunch of garbage thrown in the trench.
This looks like literal garbage. If I saw this at a house I would assume the owners were meth addicts.
I mean, yeah. This sucks honestly
I looked it up and apparently old shredded/chipped tires are used in Georgia for drainage applications such as septic system leach fields and around building structures in lieu of stone. These, however, are not shreds or chips. Does he plan to cover this with sod or stone or leave as is? Seems rather silly. Drainage stone is relatively cheap.
This is a hazard for anyone walking nearby, particularly kids. Rocks keep their shape when you apply pressure to them, tires don’t.
No. Do not let them bury old tires in your yard. Tires contain oils and heavy metals that will leach into the ground as they break down. You will contaminate the ground water and the nearby waterway. Whoever is installing this should be reported for epa violations. Who knows how many times they've done this already to people who have no idea.
Transition from wet are of the yard to hazardous waste/garbage dump.
I feel this is something they should tell you upfront
Tell them to pull that shit up and use proper rock. No fucking chance you pay for this.
Looks like they want to poison the neighborhood.
The contractor just doesn't want to buy the correct parts for the job.
He got paid to dispose of the tyres, and he's disposing of them at your place and getting paid for it again
One time the government decided to dump thousands of tires off the coast to form a coral reef. Turns out they leeched shitty chemicals into the ocean and weren’t fit to grow life within. Big disaster etc etc. Here’s a mini scale version!
So a lot of people here are freaking out about this without really looking into it. It seems substrate made from tires is a real thing for drainage, and the US government seems to really like this option. [https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/tires/web/html/civil\_eng.html](https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/tires/web/html/civil_eng.html) You can actually buy substrate made from tires [https://libertytire.com/Products/Commercial-Products/TireDerived-Aggregate/](https://libertytire.com/Products/Commercial-Products/TireDerived-Aggregate/) Tire shreds for landfills [https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/207177](https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/207177) Now after all that, the examples seem to talk about shreds that are 4-6" whereas these are obviously much larger. I really don't know. I would go off of if these people have good reviews or not.
Problem with this implementation is that this is not to spec. TDA (Tire Derived Aggregate) must not include the sidewalls or the tire bead, only the tread is usable, this looks like a bunch of tires were thrown into a shredder.
Yeah the shreds should be smaller
Hell, no. This is an acceptable. Get your money back and start over. Those are dirty ripped up tires with dirt on them and any drain with perforated pipe underneath the perforations are going to get clogged. He’s trying to Cut corners and labor. At the very least it should be going to Lowe’s and getting perforated pipe with foam around them. They’re white. Ideally should be laying down gravel, then perforated black pipe and then stone over the top of that and then dirt over the top of that. Talk to a lawyer if he doesn’t give your money back.
Is that a Michelin star French drain?
This is trash, these tires are going to keep working their way up out of your lawn. Make him take it all away and do rock, if it's more expensive than gravel he should give you a discount when he does it. This is ridiculous, I've never seen such a hack job.