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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:14 am
by Carberry
r44flyer wrote:So ideally I need to keep softwood sleepers away from contact with soil. Does that mean poly sheet behind the sleepers or should i perhaps fill in immediately behind them with pea shingle so there's no water retention ?
If i bed and haunch in concrete will that not mean that a soaked sleeper would struggle to dry out being surrounded by concrete?
Maybe i should pay extra and go for oak. I don't like the sound of the 7 years life expectancy of softwood sleepers.
Softwood isnt necessarily 'soft' eg: Balsa is a hardwood.
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:06 pm
by DNgroundworks
Carberry wrote:r44flyer wrote:So ideally I need to keep softwood sleepers away from contact with soil. Does that mean poly sheet behind the sleepers or should i perhaps fill in immediately behind them with pea shingle so there's no water retention ?
If i bed and haunch in concrete will that not mean that a soaked sleeper would struggle to dry out being surrounded by concrete?
Maybe i should pay extra and go for oak. I don't like the sound of the 7 years life expectancy of softwood sleepers.
Softwood isnt necessarily 'soft' eg: Balsa is a hardwood.
Didnt know that!
What i do is lay the first "course" on a bed of concrete, purely just to get levels.
On small stuff i concrete in 4x4 tanalised timber posts and screw/bolt into them, then line with visqueen.
I have also put small land drains and shingle behind the wall, as afterall it is a retaining wall.
We have and oak one to do, ill post pics when we actually get round to it.
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:28 pm
by darrenba
All these oak sleepers are about a 1/3 into the ground, bedded into tons of concrete
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:56 pm
by r44flyer
Nice looking project Darren!