Advice on what sort of rail I can fit (with pic)

[maf20]

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• maf20
• 28 Mar 2009
• 1

Morning all

I need to fit a rail in the red marked area on the picture. So far I can see I have a couple of options, and some points I'm considering are: -

1. I don't want anything that's going to block out too much sun as I'm trying to grow veg in the beds
2. I'm not sure if I'll be able to dig down a great deal for posts as they are raised beds and I'd be worried that the post supports might not hold
3. Don't want to spend the earth (pardon the pun), who does. But I do need something quite safe as the rail is going in really to stop my little 'un from ending up on the patio (currently about a 3 foot drop)
4. obvioulsy looking for something that's easy to fit

Any suggestions?[/img]

 

[dextrous]

What's the supporting wall made of around the perimeter of the raised beds If it's a 3'drop, can you screw timbers to it and then infill between the uprights with a couple of horizontal timbers plus a bit of trellis lower down to prevent slipping under? This would mean that your veg plot would be accessible from the lawn side and not the sunken area

 

[^neo^]

cheapest option i can see if 3ft chainlink

 

[maf20]

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• maf20
• 28 Mar 2009
• 1

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• maf20
• 28 Mar 2009
• 1

Untitled

• maf20
• 28 Mar 2009
• 1

This is the view from the other side. It's a sleeper retainer wall with a 3-5 degree supporting incline. There's about a foot wide of gravel behind them with 6-12 inches of topsoil as a covering. The sleepers are fixed to 5' posts with 2' concreted in the ground.

I take the point about railing off on the patio side, but the plan was to have the raised beds on the patio side for easy access and a bit of colour when sitting on the patio.

Also take the point that chain link is cheapest, but did want to make it look quite nice. I quickly had a scoot around B&Q and soon totted up that I would be looking at several hundred quid going be what they had. Haven't looked anywhere else yet though.

Thoughts and suggestions always welcome, and thanks again.

 

[Symptoms]

maf - use steel (black). ½ round square-edge (handrail profile) for the top supported by steel verticals (choice of profiles - round, square, tee, angle, strip, etc) driven into the earth and acting like spindles. The end ones can be fixed to the fence at each side and where your steps go down they can be fixed to the sleepers - this will lend good support to the structure. Steel available from Steel Stockholders (see Yellow Pages for you local) or your local steel fabricators ... they'll give you a quote for supply of material so you can make it yourself and a quote for fabricating it for you (get them to make it in kit form so you can assemble it on site. You be suprised how cheap this will be. Advantage of using steel is that the structure will 'open' so will allow loads of light through, unlike a bulky timber jobby. To keep the ankle-biters from taking a tumble consider weld-mesh infill panels (again open for lots of light).

 

[Symptoms]

oops.

 

[ColJack]

which way is the sun from ?

best option would have been to have the 3x3.s you've got the sleepers screwed to, as full length uprights.. then screw a handrail to the top and fill in between..

 

[maf20]

I realise that now fella. I've never done anything remotely like this before so didn't think that one through unfortunately. Having said that, it still would've meant that the patio side was railed off.

If you look at the fence at the bottom (adjacent to the patio) you are facing North West

Cheers

Any further pointers much appreciated (or maybe pics of suggestions?)

 

[maf20]

Does anyone else have any thoughts or opinions?

Cheers

 

[str]

why not just use the pre-made trellis/fence panels, from the big sheds - they're made for this sort of thing - they have pre fixed spikes to fix them upright - come in a few different designs/materials

wouldn't have thought they will hold back much force but would be some sort of barrier, probably sit about a foot high - if you're really worried about your little one taking a dive over the drop you'll have to be thinkng about a gate, so they don't take a tumble down the steps!

 

[str]

sorry just to add, it just occured to me that we have the similar at our patio - about a 3 ft drop from the grass - my 4 year old has never taken a tumble over that even at the toddler stages, but we've always just kept an eye on him at that age

 

[dextrous]

Easiest way is to use metal spikes driven into the soil with 3" uprights and trellis infills. Rigidity will be given by the posts at the fence end (you could use and extra horizontal timber between the existing fence posts to screw the new uprights into) and by coach-bolting through into the sleeper where possible at the step end (remove some soil and go through the new uprights into the sleepers to avoid anything unsightly going into your new sleepers)

 

[dextrous]

And you should fit some caps on your new and existing fence posts if you want them to last

 

[Thermo]

anything over 600mm should have a handrail, however we have an area in our garden where we have such a drop and our 3 year old has never fallen and very quickly learnt to cope with it. That said when we do gardens for other people we always install some sort of rail. Plenty of good ideas already listed above. I find the easiest and strongest way is to attach the newels with timberlock fixings. this gives a much tighter and stronger fixing than coach screws etc.

If youre worried about the loss of light why not do a half hieght one like this

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• Thermo
• 2 Apr 2009
• 1

(i didnt put the dahlia in there by the way!)

Any infill you use should be set at 100mm centres to avoid little arms, legs of heads being stuck!

 

[PE]

Why not just grow a low hedge to make it a natural barrier?