Railway Sleepers for garden project

[WellsWood]

A good friend asked me today for advice regarding railway sleepers for a garden project. Unfortunately I have never bought or used them so couldn't really offer anything constructive except to say I thought a chainsaw would probably be needed for cutting more than one or two.

As I understand it the project involves creating a low wall, about 2' high, on three sides of a decked area 6.4 x 4.6M . The decked area has been dug out of a sloping garden at the rear of a conservatory extension, and this low wall will hold back the remainder of the garden. Whatever is used will therefore be in full contact with the ground on one side i.e. the top will be level with (or only slightly higher than) the ground level outside the decking.

So, has anyone done anything similar? Any advice, do and don'ts,? I understand "new" sleepers can be bought these days, as opposed to reclaimed soaked-in-creosote ones, are the new ones treated and if so what with? Anybody know of a supplier in my neck of the woods that doesn't charge the earth for them (or delivery)? What sort of price should they expect to pay? Should my friend simply get a bricky in and build a low wall (my personal favourite :wink: )

Lots of questions I know, c'mon guys - do me proud.
All comments gratefully received.

 

[matt]

Stewarts Garden Centre near Ruxley corner (on the stretch of road between Bexley village and Ruxley Corner) is good for all sorts of heavy duty garden landscape material. (they deliver too).

I seem to recall paying about £28 per sleeper and I think new ones are possibly cheaper. Agree re chainsaw to cut them, although I left mine at full size when I created a raised bed.

 

[engineer one]

i have seen them locally to me in wembley at around 15-20 quid each, both new and old.

all wood sleepers are properly pressure treated, but of course once you cut them if they are new, then you need to go back and seal the edges.

the design of railway sleepers is such that the do sit in generally gravel ballast, so they spend some time in the damp and are thus well suited to leaving in the earth. many people use them for raised garden beds where they retain the earth within and allow for gardening for instance for the disabled.

we put them down a couple of years ago as the base for my mates shed.
worked fine. screwed into them using coach bolts, and was able to use my dewalt 12 volt cordless easily.

although i have not tried with my dw 708 technically should be possible with the right blade. say a metal cutting one. or as you say a chain saw,
but of course with a chain saw you need practice.

the biggest thing is whether the supplier will deliver to your site for a decent price.

paul :wink:

 

[wizer]

They sell them at orchard fencing at Welling Station Mark. Not sure how much. I think they do new and old ones.

 

[bobscarle]

I have used sleepers in the garden for a number of projects, both new and old.

A 2' high wall will need 3 sleepers (10" high each). Bed the bottom one on crushed brick (if you can get that) or gravel. Place the others on top. Concrete at least 2 sections of fence post per sleeper behind the wall and fix through this into the sleepers using 6" coach screws.

Unless you particularly want to use the wall as a seat, I would use old sleepers. However, these do have a tendency to leak oil and tar. You could cover with decking board if you are worried.

New sleepers can be bought treated and this is what I would suggest for your project. The cost of a new sleeper is around £22, old ones start at £13. Don't be tempted to go for the really cheap ones unless they cannot be seen as they will not be very square (ideal for under the shed though ). I would expect to pay around £16 per sleeper for a retaining wall.

As for cutting, if you want muscles like Popeye (only one arm though) you can use a hand saw. I have done it this way and you soon get fed up. I would suggest a chainsaw if you have more than a couple of cuts to make.

I bought my sleepers from a place in Herefordshire so probably not much use to you, sorry.

Hope this helps

Bob

 

[WellsWood]

Thanks for all the replies folks, mostly pretty much as expected but nice to have some confirmation from people who have actual experience.
Some good suggestions of where to buy locally, thanks. I would never have thought of that place by the station Tom, cheers.

We hadn't thought of posts at all actually, kinda thought we might get away with drilling and threading rebar or studding through to keep them in place, but it makes more sense to use posts I suppose.
Bob, I'm sure it's me being thick but I didn't quite get what you meant about concrete and fence posts. You seem to be implying that the posts would be buried in the backfilled area, but I would have thought that to be of any structural value they would need to be on the "inside"(exposed) face; i.e. pushing the wall towards the load rather than pulling. Could I trouble you to elaborate?
Excellent idea about using old sleepers and covering with decking though, I'll be sure to pass that along.

Thanks again.

 

[wizer]

Rebar is how id do it

 

[seesaw]

Agree with wizer. Have used rebar with my garden steps made up from new sleepers, drilled hole through sleeper slightly wider than rebar diameter and banged 1 metre length in to ground, flush cut with top using an angle grinder. Been in 6 years now and no movement at all, just needs a lick of paint to tart them up once in a while.
Sid

 

[Vormulac]

Any idea what the railway bods do with sleepers when they are finished with them? Every day on my commute I go past an area of track where they did a lot of work recently and there is a mountain of hundreds upon hundreds of used sleepers just laying there. It seems like a terrible waste to me, I would happily spend a day with the chainsaw taking off the outer half inch of a couple of dozen to get my hands on a supply of chunky wood!

 

[WellsWood]

....garden steps made up from new sleepers...Sid

Sid, did you use hardwood or softwood, were they treated with anything?

 

[TEP]

Just a thought if using "sleepers" as a earth retaining wall.

I used 2 thicknesses of builders plastic between the earth and the sleepers. My idea was to keep the the wet earth off the timber.

7 years to date and no problems.

 

[seesaw]

Used softwood as they were £11 each from the local saw mill who produce them on a regular basis. They sit on gravel and are well drained so I think that may be the answer.
Sid

 

[seesaw]

Sorry, forgot, they were untreated but used a preservative on them and then used a fence paint to match
Sid

 

[brianhabby]

Hi Mark

I've no experience using sleepers for anything but had a thought about cutting them. As has been said above, a chainsaw is probably the ideal tool but is perhaps a dangerous beast in untrained hands.

Why not ask your supplier (when you find one) if they will do the cuts for you - they can only say no.

regards

Brian

 

[WellsWood]

Why not ask your supplier (when you find one) if they will do the cuts for you - they can only say no.Brian

Mostly they will, but only crosscuts, at about £3-5 per cut :shock: .

As it's not my project (or my money) it's not my shout, but it seems most likely that new tannalised pine sleepers will be used. With a cross section of 10 x 5 shouldn't be much of a problem to cut with either SCMS or circular saw if cut from each side.
As to a supplier, thanks to Wizer there turns out to be a local chap who will supply and deliver them for a very reasonable cost. Like I say though, not my shout.

Many thanks again to everybody for their input.