Hi all
I'm designing a garden for a customer on a very tight budget and need some advice on comparative costs for the raised beds she wants.
The paving will be Marshalls' Argent. Ideally, I'd like to specify the same for the walls (approx ht 60cm), but as I said, the budget is tight.... so I may be looking to specify cheaper alternatives. I could cost up the materials easily, but have no idea on labour :)
SO - I'm thinking new railway sleepers (least labour, I would think), or rendered concrete block walls (cheapest materials, but most labour?)
Any other suggestions?
If anyone could give me any ball park figures for these I would really appreciate it!
Thanks
Linda
www.garden-design-lancashire.com
Views: 9782
Replies
What about ready made wooden raised beds? Not as chunky as sleepers but should last if you buy quality treated timber. Harrod Horticulture do a good range. http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/product/We+Recommend/...
Of course these are not bespoke but a landscaper or joiner/carpenter could create on site.
Hello Linda
Be careful with this one.....clarity hasn't been accomplished by the sound of your post.
best
Kerry
Hi Phil - thanks for reply, but I don't think I explained myself very clearly :) when I said raised beds, I didn't mean raised veggie type beds, I meant raised borders...
The garden currently slopes up and I'm intending that there should be a level seating area of paving and gravel, with a raised border at the back and sides.... :)
Phil Voice said:
Hi Kerry, thanks for your reply too :)
No there isn't any clarity yet - I'm a garden designer and I will come up with several different layouts and options for the customer before drawing up the design. I'm only at the sketch layout stage as yet, but their budget is very tight and something will have to give. I want to be able to say 'well you could have these walls made from Argent but it will take you over budget, or you could have them made from (eg) sleepers and it will cost roughly x less.... The choice ultimately is theirs of course, but my job is to design their garden and present them with different options :) so no, no clarity, but no problem either, it's always like this!
Rgds
Linda
Jackson's Landscape Design said:
New sleepers are around £20-25 (Jewson have had an offer on recently), hammer scaffold poles in and attach the sleepers.
Really depends on the site and length of the wall. I reckon the cost of both options would be similar but both less than using landscaping wall blocks (Marshalls Argent).
For new oak sleepers last week I paid £20.50+Vat, I used the same sleepers vertically concreted into the ground and then the horizontal facing sleepers ‘timber-lock’ screwed to these. It took us (2men) 2 days to fit these (38 sleepers), the holes were dug out with a mini digger. Using soft wood sleepers would reduce the cost further.
Block work materials would be a lot cheaper but is likely to take twice the time to build.
I have done both in the past and i found sleepers to be about 20% cheaper all in but of course they will last half or even less the time.
Thanks to all for your replies, very helpful! I shall suggest sleepers, followed by rendered walls as an option.
Cheers
Linda
have done a couple of alternatives to sleepers recently
the first was a retaining wall made from circular posts 100mm dia position vertically and butted secured in a concrete footing
ideal for tight radius works
and a second was large beds formed using reclaimed telegraph poles
they were around £30 each plus delivery
both gave a nice effect