Railway sleeper retaining wall

the_worrier

the_worrier

the_worrier

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Anybody done this? I like the aesthetic of one over brick & block. Anybody care to share ideas/details/photos? There is a lot of ground work to do before i get to the point of building. If i knew how i would post a couple of now pics and update as i go along. I am considering which way to set the timbers? Thoughts?
 
Yes, in the garden. The current wall is crumbling (block and decorative brick) and looks awful. Want the new wall to be less than 1m tall, probs 75cm but i want to be able to put a short fence along the top to keep my dogs of the grass.
 
Which way do you want to run the sleepers? Horizontal or vertical? I looked at this in quite some depth and its more complicated then you first think!
 
Similar size to the one I was/am looking at which was about 12m long and I too decided that vertical would be better for it. When I worked out the cost though it was coming out at a lot more than I had initially expected as you need to have a third buried in the ground! If youre wanting 750mm wall then you would need to look at a sleeper length of 1.2m (link here) which is £10.55 incl VAT. 8600/200 means you'll need approx 43 sleepers so looking at £453 plus cement and anything else you want to use for any extra retaining on the back.
 
How many sleepers would i need to lay them horizontally? Who is good at maths!? Just measured again....60 cm tall will be plenty.
 
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No idea if this is what you had in mind?

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Please don't use old railway sleepers. Apart from being toxic in the height of summer they bleed tar. Not nice for kids and clothing.
 
Adam said:
That's exactly what I had in mind! How do I achieve this?
Click to expand...

Im no expert, and can only guide you by what I saw of an evening when I came in from work. However they are timber sleepers, held in place by twisted steel rods. There is another sleeper below the visible ones hidden by the patio. They are all screwed into place also.
 
Removal of existing wall now half done. I will knock the other side about tomorrow ready for the micro-excavator next week. The wall currently retains 2 large-ish flower beds (each 4 x 2m and 60cm deep) which i can see are half full of broken brick, etc then covered with soil. If I can get it done in 3 days (that is my hire period) I will be happy. I have used one before and I know they are fairly easy to use to an ok standard but hard to use really well. Wish me luck. No services at rear of house!!
 
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