Railway sleepers

WobblyGoblin

Hi people

I wanted to put a raised planting bed in my garden and sleepers seemed like a simple way of doing it. They have them in Homebase but seem pretty expensive. Anyone got any tips on where I could get them cheap0ly in South London?

Oh, and is there a problem with used sleepers that have been creosoted? Does this cause a problem for plants (that I may want to eat)?

Cheers
WG

27col

Used sleepers will clean up quite well if you give them a severe pressure washing. If you use them to build raised beds, you could always staple black polythene sheet to the inside of the structure to keep the soil from contact with any remnants of preservative that may be left on the sleepers after you have pressure washed them.
Cannot help with a source of supply. I noticed that our local garden centre had real sleepers and that they were over £25 each. Not really a cheap solution to your project.

BB1984

I've been looking for some too. Have been warned not to use creosoted ones for vegetable raised beds, as the chemicals can leach into the soil and into your veg. Would prob be ok to do as 27col suggests though.
Try reclamation yards? or builders merchants maybe...?

BB

robv_3

EU Directive 2001/90/EC creosote treated timber must not be used : inside buildings, childrens play areas, to make toys or furniture , containers for foodstuffs and places where there is a risk of frequent skin contact.

On a warm day tar will come out of reclaimed treated sleepers. Not nice on your clothes, hands etc.

Anyway a few rough prices

New:
softwood 20
hardwood 25

Reclaimed
Untreated Hardwood £20.
Treated Hardwood £18

You can buy new for about 25quid each. Used untreated hardwood for around £20/sleeper. If you want them delivered most places will have a minimum of 10 and will be expensive.

The new softwood sleepers will be treated but do not have the same issues as reclaimed tar/creosote sleepers.

If you want more than 20 can supply details of a wholesaler with better prices.

beefster

Any decent reclamation yard will have a variety of differant woods to choose from. Ours has softwoods thru to Australian redwoods at £80 ea!
I have built raised ponds and terracing on my sloping garden using German oak hardwood sleepers and they neither leech preservative onto clothes or plants once jet washed. Bloomin hard to cut tho....rock hard seasoned timber. Chain saw used in the end!
Dont get them delivered when unseen. Go and pick the ones you want. Bundles of 20 plus always have twisted and split ones. Pick the best.

25 ea is a good price!

brownbake

Have you not any mates who are landscapers like us?

You want to be paying no more than £15 a linear metre for reclaimed stuff. For a 3 Metre 3.5' high X 4 Metre L shaped wall fitted to a concrete base you want to be paying £1k or less.

Usual size is 60 cm x 20 cm thick and then pay on the metre length - don't pay more than £25 for that.

Hard / soft wood is bs. Reclaimed stuff will last for another 200 years!! Again - oil marks - load of bs unless u get rubbish!!

HTH

Ebe_Scrooge

Plenty of online suppliers available - this is just the first one that Google threw up ( with some nice project ideas on it as well ) :

http://www.railwaysleeper.com/

As others have said, used ones will be heavily impregnated with both preservative and years' worth of tar & diesel, so be wary about how you use them.