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'Railway' sleepers for garden use?

Doc_N
Doc_N Posts: 8,486 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
Has anyone any experience of buying and using new, treated, 2400 X 200 X 100mm sleepers?

Sound ideal for our purposes, but they're expensive (has anyone found a cheap source?) and you're very reliant on the seller's assurances about the treatment.

Comments

  • wifeforlife
    wifeforlife Posts: 2,735 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic
    I found sleepers to be costing between £18 - £22 pounds, I'm in Northern Ireland


    I've now decided to use scaffolding boards instead, they look the same, they're easier cut and I'm going to paint it anyway, and very cheap
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    I found sleepers to be costing between £18 - £22 pounds, I'm in Northern Ireland


    I've now decided to use scaffolding boards instead, they look the same, they're easier cut and I'm going to paint it anyway, and very cheap

    The only thing I'd suggest is that if used as retaining boards they probably will not last so long.

    ( we have used timber other than sleepers for raised beds too, and considered this, lining with damp proof membrane, but are still aware its not a forever solution and at some point some structural repairs will be needed, where as we have sleepers retaining a hefty bank that are securely in place and have been for some time on a bit of farm bank prepaying our arrival that I doubt will rot in our time here ( though might suffer when my husbands keeps going over that area with his slash and burn weed control :o)
  • arbrighton
    arbrighton Posts: 2,011 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    The guys who are currently doing our landscaping get them from somewhere near wrexham for £17 each- apparently better than anything closer (Cheshire)
  • phoebe1989seb
    phoebe1989seb Posts: 4,452 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    We used them for veg beds at our last house. Can't recall the price but we bought ours at Sydenhams Builders Merchants who were quite reasonable for most building materials etc.....

    After a year or do they achieved an attractive, weathered look - far nicer than the black ones imho :o
    Mortgage-free for fourteen years!

    Over £40,000 mis-sold PPI reclaimed
  • cajef
    cajef Posts: 6,283 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    We used sleepers for several borders and some steps when we landscaped our sloping back garden five years ago, they have weathered and still look good with no signs of rot anywhere.:)
  • sleepymans
    sleepymans Posts: 907 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    B&M stores sell 1.2m long "sleepers" for £14.99.
    They arent genuine railway ones so they look untreated so arent blackened by toxic preservatives, but I am using a couple to make a simple chunky rustic bench near my soon-to-be-installed pond.
    :A Goddess :A
  • Andy1608
    Andy1608 Posts: 14 Forumite
    I bought mine from eBay, had to travel to Manchester for them but they're great and look really smart as lawn edging, nice think 12.5x12.5 ones.I love the weathered look about them,didn't want off the shelf ones.
    Total debt TBC
  • I think there is too much risk on using old sleepers, they may look fine in the shop but when it gets hot out there you may find it oozing tar. We got some great ones for our backgarden online and they aren't as authentic looking as the genuine ones but also no chance of them being covered in nasties to poison our garden!

    We paid about £18 each and £25 for delivery - we bought about £800 worth so around 45.
    Thinking critically since 1996....
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,486 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks for all the advice - much appreciated.

    We changed our minds in the end after looking further into it. The 'proper' ex-railway ones really do do the job well, but they're a health risk if you handle them, and I'm not overkeen on tar all over the garden when they 'leak' in hot weather.

    The new ones are fine - except that you're very dependent on the supplier's assurance about them having been properly tanalised. If they haven't been, they'll just rot after a couple of years - and they're far too expensive for that!
  • londonTiger
    londonTiger Posts: 4,903 Forumite
    edited 3 July 2015 at 1:46AM
    use redwood from arnold laver. They are rot resistent and used to make high quality wooden planters and other garden furniture.
    http://www.laveronline.co.uk/search/redwood


    railway sleepers are just too thick to use for general stuff and EXTREMELY heavy as well. You'll need to have access to a machine that can cut timber logs into thinner pieces which you probably wont have.

    if you split the railway sleeper into thinner planks the exposed face will not have treatment either.
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