Rolling DIY & home improvements thread

you can create a retaining wall with sleepers, you’ll see loads of examples and methods online. you’ll want to think about drainage though just to ensure you’re not holding up a sodden block of soil that’s going to rot the wood eventually.

You could use fence posts either in front of the sleeper (so the weight of the sleepers and bed is borne by these) or hide the posts behind (but this is less strong and relies on solid fixings). Another way I’ve seen it done is by creating some concrete footings and putting rebar through the sleepers into the concrete. You need to be careful when mixing metal and sleepers, especially if they’re oak.

If you’re happy with a little bit of metal then I’d look at something like this:

There are also these products which would work with concrete footings as well and should be plenty strong enough (note, I’m not a structural engineer), just whack loads of them in!

Thanks for this! Seems like this is a whole specialism in of itself, right? Seems like it’d be best to get this done separately as the guy I’m using didn’t mention any of this stuff.

If someone says it’s not possible then no harm in getting another opinion or someone to quote you. Those raised beds aren’t that high, I wouldn’t lose too much sleep about doing this in wood with some decent concrete fixing points and that’ll be plenty to hold up those beds and the fence behind. Is there something pushing the fence from the other side, because you’d expect with concrete fence posts it should be fairly secure?

You could get the fence replaced at the same time with proper gravel boards for where the beds are going up to, and that’ll help the whole thing as well, but obviously that’s adding more ££

Also just to add the opinion of someone who has one collapsed and one collapsing wall holding back raised earth in his garden you always have the option of just letting them collapse over the course of several years, and then if you can be arsed, shovelling the earth back in and redoing the wall. It’s only mud, it’s not going anywhere.

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Fair enough that you’re eschewing this over-engineered patter about concrete and hefty sleepers. But let’s not write the project off entirely.

Rob a few For Sale signs. Ram 'em straight into the ground as far as you can manage with your sledgehammer. Saw 'em all off at a height to suit. Cadge a few scaffold boards. They’re the wall for ya beds. Stack 'em on the soil side of the posts and they’ll stay pinned in place without technicalities such as nails or screws. Drill a few weep holes in. Let the kids have at it with some brushes and tins of Ronseal. Bish bash bosh. Leave the fence well alone. Touch that and you’ve a neighbor dispute on your hands.

Just lifted a fence panel up and had a peep, turns out the garden behind me is a few feet higher than mine, i.e. the flower bed in my garden is at the same level as their garden. So the fence panels at the back are just stuck into the boundary but not all the way to the floor level of my garden it seems.

Feels like if I’m going to go to the expense of replacing the raised bed supports in my garden (which will have to be very sturdy) I might as well just replace the fence behind them instead, and then have a small bed that’s independent of the back fence instead, so I have a bit more flexibility in future if I want to change things again.

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Appreciate the chaos of these two replies :+1:

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I’m struggling to think of anything less suited to a DIY thread :wink:

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cheers. ummed and arrrred for ages then ripped the annoying wire out and the internet still works

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I’d be planning to save/finance a new roof if you plan to be in the house for a while. That way you have the money in place for if it fails. New roof isn’t just about leaks but about ventilation and insulation etc etc so there’ll be other benefits to getting it sorted. No harm getting some quotes so you know what you’re looking at and if there’s anything critical

Trigger’s broom

You might find roofers are booked up through the summer now anyway so get some quotes and plan it for next summer maybe?

If you’ve got the money saved and know it’s something that will eventually need doing then it’s more about finding a time when it’ll be convenient for you.

I’ve primed the double garage floor. Back breaking shifting all the stuff around from one side then the other. Now need to wait for it to be a touch warmer then can get the epoxy down

If there’s anything I’ve learned about household maintenance, it’s getting a poorly roof seen to as soon as you possibly can :frowning:

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I don’t know what he is on about. Just use wood sleepers, they will look great and be very strong. We have a much larger retaining wall made from sleepers. 4 sleepers high, held up by supporting sleepers set in concrete foundation.

Wood is strong!

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Is there any chance subsidence or something could have caused that?

a new crack or just uncovered?

Does the crack go deeper than the plaster?

does anyone here know wood? i’ve a chair with a chunk of the arm rest missing on the end and i’d like to try fixing it.

it’s teak and i’d like to get a little offcut of similar wood. youtube makes it look easy enough

also, where do you go to buy little bits of wood?

Go to a wood yard and find their offcuts area. Dead handy if you need a small piece for a couple of pounds

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