Sleepers are always a popular product, we carry three different types – softwood, incised softwood and European oak. They are often used as garden retainers, horizontally or sometimes dug into the ground and used vertically. Other popular applications are for steps and increasingly for garden raised beds. 

Softwood Sleepers

Softwood sleepers are useful for steps, garden retainers and raised beds. Because of their size, and easiness to cut, they are effective in quickly transforming most gardens.  During the planning stage please note that softwood sleepers are best used “whole” – cross-cut sleepers will absorb moisture and this will reduce their serviceable life.  The 100-200mm softwood sleepers are pressure treated and most asked for sleeper.

Because of the normal timber treatments used during production softwood sleepers will have a finite service life. However, the sleeper’s service life can be increased by thinking about draining. Any water around the sleepers needs to drain away as quickly as possible, hardcore with 100mm of gravel on top should help.   

Incised Softwood Sleepers

UC4 Incised sleepers are made for ground contact!  The key to UC4 is that specialist incising machinery means that timber preservative penetrates deeper into the sleeper. The Manufacturer is confident that this leads to a longer product service life and provides a 15-Year Warranty for these UC4 sleepers. 

Once again, any cross-cuts should be minimised and ground contact avoided.  Any  cuts, or drill holes, should be treated with a specialist end-grain treatment such is Ronseal’s end-grain protector

UC4 Incised Softwood Sleepers and appearance

Timber is a natural product and sleepers will vary in appearance. Fresher cut stock tends to be a pale green to soft russet tones, but as they start to weather the colours will become more muted and after a season or two will become slate grey in colour. This is perfectly natural.

European Oak Sleepers

Oak sleepers will vary in appearance. Fresher cut stock tends to be a pale green to soft yellow-orange shade, then to a smoky grey.

These oak sleepers are untreated but contain an abundance of tannin which acts as a natural preservative.  Oak sleepers are more irregular than softwood in appearance but will last longer if cross-cut and used vertically.  They will last better than softwood sleepers in damp areas, but any drainage improvements would be helpful to their service life.

Finally, if you are planning to collect your sleepers….

Please be aware of the considerable weights of sleepers, especially the oak products. The approximate weights are 48 kg., 72kg. and 96kg. We can deliver of course, but offloading would need to be discussed if a mechanical offload is not an option.

Whichever sleeper you select please note we carry a range of incised UC4 15-Year Warranty posts if you are building any retainers or raised beds.