Dave Haagensen's retaining wall with new pine railway sleepers
As promised here are some photos of our project in Ulverston.
We started with a steeply sloping back garden but wanted to transform it into three seperate useful terraced areas. Sleepers seemed the ideal solution and as one of the retaining structures was to be 1.5 metres high we decided to go for new rather than possibly twisted old sleepers.
We were fortunate that Persimmon were still on site and for a small backhander the telehoist unloaded the delivery lorry. We had over 70no 3.6 metre long sleepers. The difference in weight of sleepers was something to take note of.
When we started we put in some ground anchors with reinforcing bars to start the retaining walls from. The weather was not great in October 2014 with lots of rain. We had a mini digger in the garden for a week and could not have managed without it. We used it to move earth about but did not use it to lift any timbers. Lifting was done by me (55 year old) and my 23 year old son who came up from London to help me for a week. Again I couldn't have done this project without him. By the end of January we had finished all the structural work and all we have left to do is the painting of the summer house and sheds and filling the planters with shrubs and bushes etc.
I will send you some more photos later.
We are very pleased with the results although it is not a job I would like to do again! Not this lifetime anyway.
Dave Haagenesen
Ulverston
Lake District, Cumbria
RAILWAY SLEEPERS USED
New eco friendly pine railway sleepers
3.6m x 250mm x 125mm
RailwaySleepers.com Says..
Many thanks for the photos of your impressive project. A great achievement despite wet weather, endless digging. and hours of heavy lifting of railway sleepers, that has no doubt left you with no desire to repeat the experience! So saying, you have designed and created a brilliant transformation of a sloping bare garden into an imaginative terraced garden to be proud of for years to come.