Flower Bed Sleepers - Best Treatment?

Andybooth23

Hi everyone,

Recently moved into a new property. At the old house we used to have some railway flower bed sleepers (from the previous owner) which were the very old ones where tar used to oooze out in the summer. They slowly started to rot and disintergrate.

The ones at our new place seem a lot newer and in a lot better condition. Can anyone point me in the right direction for what would be the best product to treat them with?

TIA

tacpot12

I would go with one of the Creosote replacement products such as Creocote. 

-taff

To be honest, they don't really need anything on the outside, you could power wash them to clean them up if you wanted but if you can, I would dig away from the inside and line them with some plastic, maybe reuse some commpost bags to stop the inners from rotting so quickly

Dustyevsky

They're fine. Nothing's for ever, so just enjoy them as the real, old sleepers they are, originally soaked in creosote, and then covered in all sorts dropped from railway stock over a few decades! Looking at them, I'd say they'll outlast me. If you must, then an oil based product, like Creocote, will make them look brighter, but that misses the point of having something old and characterful.

ArbitraryRandom

Dustyevsky said: ...misses the point of having something old and characterful.

Said by someone old and characterful, so you know he knows what he's talking about  

Andybooth23

Brilliant. Thanks everyone.

I wasn't sure if there was some form of clear ''protector'' that could be put on it! I'd hate for it to lose it's character. Will check when the weather picks up if there's already lining on the inside (hopefully so).

It looks in really good nick, but aware some bits do look on the turn on the in and outside (but nothing major).