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• PRO

  Dave Bruton November 27, 2014 at 8:12pm

  Sorry the pic didn't upload first time. Here it is...
  
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  Thermo November 27, 2014 at 8:49pm

  should be absolutely fine. what type of sleepers are you using?
• PRO

  Dave Bruton November 27, 2014 at 10:51pm

  Was thinking of green oak sleepers 1.8m by 200mm x 100mm, having 0.6m concreted into the ground.

  I would have liked to have leant the sleepers backwards into the hill a bit but because the wall is curved I don't think I can without creating gaps. Is it okay to stick them in plumb/vertical?
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  Jason Conway November 28, 2014 at 10:11am

  Although I havent put in a retaining wall of that height. I would use brackets on the back of the sleepers which then go into the soil behind about 3 foot in length. For smaller walls I just use a T piece of timber but as its a substantial amount of soil you are trying to hold back maybe something a bit more substantial.
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  Kieran Ray November 28, 2014 at 11:06am

  When we have done retaining walls like that we have found it is best to bury the sleepers I a 900 deep trench and concrete them in. Also to make them stay in a straightin or a constant curve we screw a metal band to the rear of the sleepers about 300 from the top. For the band we use galvanised at about 50 wide by 5 deep or so. Usually whatever the supplier has in at the time.
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  Benedict Simmons November 28, 2014 at 12:33pm

  Plus one on this one Dave.
  
  I would go as deep as possible really. I hope you have some help on this one as its defiantly a two person job.
  
  
  
  Kieran Ray said:

  When we have done retaining walls like that we have found it is best to bury the sleepers I a 900 deep trench and concrete them in. Also to make them stay in a straightin or a constant curve we screw a metal band to the rear of the sleepers about 300 from the top. For the band we use galvanised at about 50 wide by 5 deep or so. Usually whatever the supplier has in at the time.
• PRO

  Dave Bruton November 28, 2014 at 4:57pm

  Wow, I didn't expect to have to bury them quite that deep. With 900 below ground and up to 1200 above I'm looking at a whole sleeper for each upright. At 200 wide that's 100 sleepers @ £25 means £2.5k just for the sleepers. It's starting to approach block and render prices. What kind of lifespan would you give oak sleepers 100mm by 200mm in this kind of application?

  I guess another good question would be, does anyone know a cheap place to get quality oak sleepers?
• PRO

  Dave Bruton November 28, 2014 at 5:02pm

  Also I'm not quite sure what you mean by using the brackets behind Jason. How do these work?
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  Richard November 28, 2014 at 5:25pm

  I would recommend them horizontal it wouldn't cost as much in materials and labour being vertical makes things really hard work you need to tie them together near the top as suggested either rebar drilled from the top on a 45 (hard work! Especially oak!) or another thing you could use would be roof strapping
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  Chris Jackson November 28, 2014 at 5:34pm

  That was going to be my suggestion as well Richard.

  Lay them in horizontal courses and fix down into the layer below. It's worth running some back into the higher ground on each course too.