Pine Sleepers how much?

pdid

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by pdid »

Your local timber yard should deliver for free if you spend over say £50 (which is what my local policy is). I suppose it depends how local it is though.
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Yorkshire Kris
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Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

pdid wrote:Your local timber yard should deliver for free if you spend over say £50 (which is what my local policy is). I suppose it depends how local it is though.
About 3 miles :lol:
kata

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by kata »

Pure extortion..£100 delivery... :evil:
Kristen

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Kristen »

Yorkshire Kris wrote:I need rather a lot....
Does £99 spread over the number of sleepers you need still look like a lot (per sleeper)? I've enquired locally and the folk in Corby still look to be a lot cheaper.

I want to put a "wall" around a concrete pad where we have farmyard manure delivered (and sometimes sand / aggregate) to stop it wandering off the edge ... I reckon the cheapest way will be RSJ's vertically into the ground and then drop sleepers into the "H" slots - easy to "repair" if a front loader biffs them too ... so I will shortly be in the market for quite a few sleepers, and I won't be able to go and collect that number!
Kristen

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Kristen »

kata wrote:Pure extortion..£100 delivery... :evil:
its a lot of money, but hardly extortion.

Sleepers are not the same thing as a regular parcel ... they have to be loaded on, and off, by crane. It takes time, so you are paying for that too. Plus they are blinking heavy ... so you are paying a lot more for fuel compared to a lighter parcel.
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Yorkshire Kris
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Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

Kristen wrote:
Yorkshire Kris wrote:I need rather a lot....
Does £99 spread over the number of sleepers you need still look like a lot (per sleeper)? I've enquired locally and the folk in Corby still look to be a lot cheaper.

I want to put a "wall" around a concrete pad where we have farmyard manure delivered (and sometimes sand / aggregate) to stop it wandering off the edge ... I reckon the cheapest way will be RSJ's vertically into the ground and then drop sleepers into the "H" slots - easy to "repair" if a front loader biffs them too ... so I will shortly be in the market for quite a few sleepers, and I won't be able to go and collect that number!
True, initially I'm going to order 35 for the framework of my raised beds.

How high will your"wall" be?
fern Rob

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by fern Rob »

I'm going 3 sleepers high.
fieldfest

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by fieldfest »

you could save on sleepers by stacking them on their sides like I have. stability might be an issue if its a freestanding wall though
Kristen

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Kristen »

Yorkshire Kris wrote:True, initially I'm going to order 35 for the framework of my raised beds.
less than £3 each then ... worth seeing if you can get them for that much extra locally then, otherwise its still a bargain I reckon :)

Or ... around about 50 sleepers is carriage free ... carriage is about the same as 5 sleepers so if you can find a use for another 10 sleepers you'll get 5 more for free. Or flog them on eBay - to local folk who only want a couple?
How high will your"wall" be?
Waist high, probably about 15M long ... call it 4 high x 6 long ... maybe I could collect them, I don't think it is any more than I had for my raised bed.

I'm sure you have thought of this, but do take into consideration the width of the sleepers for your raised beds - they take up quite a lot of width. People often want to use them for raised beds for vegetables - max width for a vegetable raised bed is 4' (reachable from either side without walking on it), and allowing 18"-24" for a path between, if you use sleepers to "frame" the raised beds then after you have made 3 x raised beds you've used up the space that could have made a 4th one just in the width of the sleepers :(

I lined my vegetable raised beds (only 9" high or so, using decking boards) with damp proof membrane (keeps the preservatives in the sleepers out of the soil that the veg are growing in too), to increase the life of the timber, and my sleeper raised beds are lined with some spare pond-liner that I had lying around.
fieldfest wrote:you could save on sleepers by stacking them on their sides like I have. stability might be an issue if its a freestanding wall though
I've done that, and drilled them through and banged rebar through the sleepers and a good 2' into the ground below. They aren't going to fall over, but they have bowed out a bit.
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Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

Kristen wrote:
Yorkshire Kris wrote:True, initially I'm going to order 35 for the framework of my raised beds.
less than £3 each then ... worth seeing if you can get them for that much extra locally then, otherwise its still a bargain I reckon :)

Or ... around about 50 sleepers is carriage free ... carriage is about the same as 5 sleepers so if you can find a use for another 10 sleepers you'll get 5 more for free. Or flog them on eBay - to local folk who only want a couple?
How high will your"wall" be?
Waist high, probably about 15M long ... call it 4 high x 6 long ... maybe I could collect them, I don't think it is any more than I had for my raised bed.

I'm sure you have thought of this, but do take into consideration the width of the sleepers for your raised beds - they take up quite a lot of width. People often want to use them for raised beds for vegetables - max width for a vegetable raised bed is 4' (reachable from either side without walking on it), and allowing 18"-24" for a path between, if you use sleepers to "frame" the raised beds then after you have made 3 x raised beds you've used up the space that could have made a 4th one just in the width of the sleepers :(

I lined my vegetable raised beds (only 9" high or so, using decking boards) with damp proof membrane (keeps the preservatives in the sleepers out of the soil that the veg are growing in too), to increase the life of the timber, and my sleeper raised beds are lined with some spare pond-liner that I had lying around.
fieldfest wrote:you could save on sleepers by stacking them on their sides like I have. stability might be an issue if its a freestanding wall though
I've done that, and drilled them through and banged rebar through the sleepers and a good 2' into the ground below. They aren't going to fall over, but they have bowed out a bit.


It might sound crazy but I'm going to put decking over the sleepers that will make up the raised beds. The sleepers will negate the need to put in loads of posts and wooden bearers for the decking paths. The paths will then be raised above the ground and flush with the top of the raised beds giving the effect that the whole area isn't raised at all.
Kristen

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Kristen »

Yorkshire Kris wrote:It might sound crazy but I'm going to put decking over the sleepers that will make up the raised beds. The sleepers will negate the need to put in loads of posts and wooden bearers for the decking paths. The paths will then be raised above the ground and flush with the top of the raised beds giving the effect that the whole area isn't raised at all.
So the decking will span the gap / be over the path, between the raised beds?

That sounds like a smashing idea :)

Planning on something to "assist" drainage from the bottom of the raised beds onto the "paths"? I put a perforated drainage pipe in the bottom of my raised beds. I block the outlet end in Summer and fill it with water for bottom-irrigation, and in Winter I take the "Bung" out to allow better drainage.
jungle jas

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by jungle jas »

You don't want pine sleepers, they are rubbish and don't last 5 minutes. You want old rail sleepers made from exotic hard wood and covered in preservative. They last a lifetime. Were you can get them from is another matter. icon_thumright
Kristen

Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Kristen »

jungle jas wrote:You want old rail sleepers made from exotic hard wood and covered in preservative.
The Corby outfit sell them (well, 2nd hand ones). I wouldn't want them anywhere near my food crops though, and they can weep tar in the summer, so I wouldn't use them as an edging that I might sit on ... but they are cheaper than new ones and I have been considering them for my "wall"
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Yorkshire Kris
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Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

jungle jas wrote:You don't want pine sleepers, they are rubbish and don't last 5 minutes. You want old rail sleepers made from exotic hard wood and covered in preservative. They last a lifetime. Were you can get them from is another matter. icon_thumright

Pressure treated pine should last a good long time if not cut through.

OldRailway sleepers are not good as they exude tar etc and I woudn't be able to plant edibles in the beds
Last edited by Yorkshire Kris on Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Pine Sleepers how much?

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

Kristen wrote:
Yorkshire Kris wrote:It might sound crazy but I'm going to put decking over the sleepers that will make up the raised beds. The sleepers will negate the need to put in loads of posts and wooden bearers for the decking paths. The paths will then be raised above the ground and flush with the top of the raised beds giving the effect that the whole area isn't raised at all.
So the decking will span the gap / be over the path, between the raised beds?

That sounds like a smashing idea :)

Planning on something to "assist" drainage from the bottom of the raised beds onto the "paths"? I put a perforated drainage pipe in the bottom of my raised beds. I block the outlet end in Summer and fill it with water for bottom-irrigation, and in Winter I take the "Bung" out to allow better drainage.
That's the plan anyway. I will divert water under the decking towards the yet-to-be-created stream.
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