New or Used Railway Sleepers for Patio

[Ellejay]

Hi,

I would like to create a patio edged with raised railway sleepers but I never realised just how many different types there are available. I will also be creating raised flower beds. Can anone advise over new/used and treated/untreated and the different woods available. Such a minefield. Thanks in advance

 

[merlin50]

new oak

 

[Richard C]

New only; used/reclaimed sleepers are saturated in creosote which is quiet nasty stuff & will leach fumes & stink in the hot sun; your plants won’t like it much either.

 

[r896neo]

In my experience there are 3 main types which are easily available.

1. New pressure treated softwood which is very easy to work with as it is easy to cut and has square edges. It really needs staining though as the green hint from the pressure treated isn't to everyone's taste.

2. Reclaimed old sleepers which are a difficult to work with as they are very hard to cut and can be all sorts of chunks and lumps out of them plus the fact that they ooze nasty stuff when very warm. But they probably look the most rustic.

3. Reclaimed but untreated mini-sleepers. These are i think used for making shipping cradles and tend to be available in all sorts of lengths and are untreated oak so real nice quality but they are smaller. Personally these are my favourite to work with.

 

[Ellejay]

Thanks for responses, if I go for the new, or re-claimed untreated - do I have to treat them with any preserver?

 

[r896neo]

The reclaimed untreated hardwood ones don't could do with being treated but the timber is of suitable quality to allow them to last pretty well without.

The new treated ones are treated because they are only softwood and much lower quality timber so once they are pressure treated they don't need re-coated by you but i usually give them a lash with A generic building type wood preserver anyway as it's cheap and will maybe give them another few years.

 

[Ellejay]

Thanks, I am now a lot clearer on what I think I want to do (!). Great advice thanks again.