If you want to terrace your garden or there is a slope that you need to contain somehow, an attractive and effective solution is to use a retaining wall made from sleepers.  If you haven’t used these before or haven’t really heard of them, here’s what you need to know.  For any more information or to talk about getting one installed, speak to your local retaining wall specialist.

Types of Sleeper Retaining Walls

When it comes to sleeper retaining walls, you have two choices – timber sleepers or sleepers made from concrete.  Timber sleepers are the traditional option and they are great for both decorative and functional retaining walls.  However, you do have to make sure that the timber is appropriately treated so that it doesn’t rot over time (due to the fact that it is constantly in contact with the soil).  Timber sleepers can be brand new or they can be recycled. You can leave them as a natural finish or paint them to the colour that you desire.  The other choice that you have for retaining walls is sleepers that are made from concrete.  These can be smooth in design or textured to imitate natural materials such as timber or stone.  You are not just stuck with “concrete gray” as a colour either, as concrete sleepers can be tinted in a huge range of colours.  Concrete sleepers, like timber sleepers, can be used for decorative or functional retaining walls.

Supporting Sleeper Retaining Walls

If you want to use sleeper retaining walls in your garden, you must be sure to give them the support that they require.  This is particularly important if your retaining wall is holding back large amounts of dirt.  The retaining wall supports must be deeply buried into the ground and angled back adequately.  An engineer or retaining wall specialist will be able to tell you the exact depths and angles required.  To ensure that sleeper retaining walls remain structural, drainage must be installed begin them, so that the weight of water doesn’t push on and potentially collapse the wall.

Sleeper Retaining Walls are Attractive

It doesn’t matter if you are using concrete or timber sleepers, the simple fact is that they are a very attractive solution.  You can use them in any style of garden as they fit in so well with all other types of hardscaping such as paving, decking, walkways, pergolas and the like.  Sleepers are classic yet elegant.