Sleepers for Raised Beds

kemp596

kemp596

kemp596

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We're looking at building a couple of raised beds 2 sleepers high from treated softwood, I would have prefered hardwood but it is being done on a budget so softwood will have to do, I am just wondering if anyone has any ideas about how best to go about making them last as long as possible before rotting ? Would it be a good idea to lay the sleepers on gravel so they are not in contact with the ground or to staple a layer DPC to the bottom and side of the sleeper to keep the wet soil off the wood ? or are there any preservatives i can apply that people recommend ? Hopefully the sleepers will last 5+ years, thanks :)
 
If you can, create a plastic wrap around the sleepers and fill it with preservative for a couple of days at least. Then use them, this will allow the stuff to really penetrate.
 
I put about 50m of sleeper wall into our garden last year. Also concerned about longevity. I used DPC between the sleepers, and backfill material, did use pea shingle underneath the sleepers as per normal fence post rules, and used a good endgrain preservative where I'd made cuts.

Other than using oak at triple the cost, not sure what else can be done.
 
Stand the sleepers on their end (after any cuts) in a bucket of preservative and leave for as long as possible to soak it up. Obviously you need to do both ends of every sleeper.
 
kemp596 said:
We're looking at building a couple of raised beds 2 sleepers high from treated softwood, I would have prefered hardwood but it is being done on a budget so softwood will have to do, I am just wondering if anyone has any ideas about how best to go about making them last as long as possible before rotting ? Would it be a good idea to lay the sleepers on gravel so they are not in contact with the ground or to staple a layer DPC to the bottom and side of the sleeper to keep the wet soil off the wood ? or are there any preservatives i can apply that people recommend ? Hopefully the sleepers will last 5+ years, thanks :)
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Does it have to be sleepers? My wife is using plastic board made from recycled windows that locks together and stacks in whatever shapes and layouts you like. She likes them because they are lighter and cheaper, won't rot, can be taken apart and moved, etc. It's like lego beds for gardeners.
 
1pudding1 said:
Link? Details?
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Sorry, I was going to ask her this morning, but she's out the door early. I have raided her PC to look at her gardening bookmarks...

She's getting them from Garden Skill (check the "raised bed" menu on the left). She was using another brand (Linkabord) that's no longer available. You can get kits or just mix and match. They will even make stuff to order. It's pretty easy to use, so as long as you can hammer a peg into a hole, you can put it together. You don't want them more than a meter wide in one direction so that you can reach over them to garden without having to step into them, but you can make them bigger if you want. My wife reckoned she did about four or five beds for the price of one made of sleepers. It's not pretty or rustic, but it's fairly innocuous (no worse than a plastic flower pot), and very easy/cheap to use.

The other advantage is because they are so light and easy to put together, instead of me lugging sleepers about and having to screw them together and waterproof them with plastic, dig up and put them on gravel for drainage etc, the wife just wanted a hammer and she put them together herself. ;) She put them on some weed suppressor, then filled with with compost/vermiculite (much cheaper from Travis Perkins as a building product).

If you're growing veg, there's some stuff that works better in pots or bags. For instance with potatoes, she's got these tall bags that fold down. As the potatoes grow and you put more soil on them to encourage them to get a taller but grow more potatoes under the ground, she just rolls up the side of the bag and adds more soil, and you end up with a three foot tall bag that's all potatoes. You can even move them around like that.
 
I am not sure how shes priced up that as cheaper than sleepers!
Unless I am reading it wrong a 2.5mx1.25m 500mm deep is £145

Ignoring delivery but probably free for a decent project,
I can buy :
2400x100x200 sleepers treated for £13.99 and 1200x100x200 for £8.75.
So lets take 5x or each to give a similar size although diff shape and of course 5 isnt right for height of the box using sleepers (but it makes it fair for price comparison)

5x£13.99 + 5x£8.75 is £113.7, if you add in the probable costs etc to build you would maybe work out the same in cost.

Those planks are however very good value for money. They are much more reasonable than I have ever seen them before. I normally work on "plastic wood" being 2-3x more expensive so maybe its finally going mainstream. Although the plastic wood I have looked at is solid. I keep looking for the allotment as plastic would be much better, but the wood we use up there is typically 1/4 of the price of sleepers.
 
They look even more expensive!
Saying that though they are what I refer to as plastic wood, solid so you can drill screw etc. Will last nigh on forever so for a raised bed probably worth the money, although they do cost multiples of what timber would cost to do the same thing.

We have a picnic table made from it at the allotment. Really quite good and in an environment well exposed to the weather by miles its more robust.
Its got some minor signs of fading, but I think its about 6 years old (age of allotments) and as such after that time a bit of minor fading is no biggie. I am nit picking its probably something like 10% faded in a few areas.

Its bloody heavy though!
 
I would just put the sleepers in as they are, they're probably going to last 10 years without any extra treatment or lining. That's what I did anyway.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
I am not sure how shes priced up that as cheaper than sleepers!
Unless I am reading it wrong a 2.5mx1.25m 500mm deep is £145
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Maybe the Linkabord ones she got originally were cheaper. The garden place she used to get those are out of business, but there is a contact email on the linkabord.co.uk that belongs to the people that actually make the board, so maybe that's coming back at some point. Maybe my wife factored in the hassle factor or priced up sleepers from the likes of Wickes. I'm pretty sure her sleeper prices were higher than that.

Anyway, my wife spent a few hundred quid, got what she wanted, and put them together far more easily and quickly than sleepers, and enjoyed doing it herself rather than have me do it for her. No treatments or waterproofing necessary. It's been a couple of years, and no rot or other problems.

It's not solid board, it's a box section with reinforcement. It's quite light compared to a solid plastic, and the fittings go inside it to make joints and hinges.
 
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Ah thanks, I have those guys bookmarked.

Sleepers are cheap enough but ~80-100 delivery bumps the price up. Still works out cheaper all in than most places though.
 
Take a look at uksleepers.co.uk

I picked up some treated softwood ones off them to build my raised beds.

Think it was the following for an L shaped bed and a square... came in a shade over £300
3.0m x 2
1.8m x 2
1.2m x 6

If you're intending on growing veg make sure you choose a veg safe preservative as it will leach into the soil
 
I've laid softwood sleepers directly on the soil for a number of years (it might be 5 or 6 years) and it's held up fine. I think I might have posted it on the forums somewhere.
 
paintguy said:
Sorry for the hijack but do you have a link?

Currently sizing up a retaining wall / patio area that'll need about 30 full length ones.
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Squid Vicious said:
Take a look at uksleepers.co.uk

I picked up some treated softwood ones off them to build my raised beds.

Think it was the following for an L shaped bed and a square... came in a shade over £300
3.0m x 2
1.8m x 2
1.2m x 6

If you're intending on growing veg make sure you choose a veg safe preservative as it will leach into the soil
Click to expand...


we took around 130 tons of soil out to make a parking area and used Grade A reclaimed European sleepers from UK Sleepers to make a retaining wall, delivery was steep but the weight would have meant two trips with a trailer if I had fetched myself and they're not a one person lift.

IMG_20171008_170028.jpg
 
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