Sleeper beds, steps and garden structures that don't move.
Oak and treated softwood sleeper raised beds, steps, low retaining walls, seating and garden structures in Doncaster from £115 per linear metre. Pinned, lined and built to last.
Sleepers are the quickest way to give a flat garden some shape or a sloping one some order. Raised beds along a fence, a couple of steps down to the lawn, a low wall to hold a border, a bench built into the corner. They look good next to porcelain and they cost a fraction of a masonry wall.
The difference between a sleeper bed that's still straight in ten years and one that's bowed in two is what you can't see. Mine sit on a compacted stone base, not soil. Each course is fixed to the one below with 250mm timberlock screws, and anything over two courses high gets a steel pin driven through into the ground. The inside face is lined with a damp-proof membrane so the timber isn't sitting in wet soil, and there's gravel and a drain behind any run that's holding back ground.
I'll use new green oak if you want it to silver and last thirty years, or pressure-treated softwood sleepers for about half the price. I don't use reclaimed railway sleepers; the creosote leaches into the soil and it's illegal to use them where you grow food or where kids play.
from £115 per linear metre
Typically 1–3 days on site
What moves the price:
- Timber: treated softwood is the £115 base; green oak is roughly £190 per metre
- Height: one course is quick, three courses with pins and drainage takes longer
- Steps: each step is more cutting and levelling than a straight run
- Whether you want the beds filled with topsoil, or turf and paving tidied up afterwards
Set out and base
String lines, levels, a 100mm compacted stone base in a shallow trench so the first course sits flat and dry.
Build
Sleepers cut square on a mitre saw, corners half-lapped or butt-jointed and screwed, courses staggered like brickwork, steel pins on anything tall.
Line and drain
DPM stapled to the inside face, gravel and a perforated pipe behind retaining runs. Topsoil in the beds if you want them planting-ready.
Finish
Oiled or left to weather, capped with a sleeper on edge as a seat if you'd like one.
How much are sleeper raised beds?
From £115 per linear metre in treated softwood, two courses high, on a proper base, lined and screwed. A 6m run along a fence is around £700. Oak is about £190 per metre.
Oak or softwood?
Oak lasts longer, looks better as it silvers, and doesn't need treating. Softwood is cheaper and perfectly good for raised beds if it's lined. For steps and anything you'll sit on I'd go oak.
Can sleepers hold back a slope?
Up to about 450mm, yes, built properly with pins and drainage. Above that I'd build a block retaining wall and face it if you like the look of timber.
Do you do decking, pergolas or fencing?
Fencing and gates, yes. Pergolas and small structures, yes. Decking I do occasionally but I'd usually talk you into porcelain; it lasts three times as long and doesn't get slippery.
One person accountable, start to finish.
I'm Jack. I price it, I'm on the tools for it, and it's my name on it. Twelve years on site, a first-class degree in construction management, SMSTS and First Aid, and I operate the excavator myself. Where a job wants more hands I bring in people I've worked with for years and I run them. I cover Doncaster and everywhere within about half an hour of it: Bessacarr, Bawtry, Tickhill, Armthorpe, Thorne, Sprotbrough, Mexborough and over into Rotherham. More about me.
- 5.0 stars on Google6 reviews from real customers
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- SMSTS and First AidLegally qualified to run a UK construction site under CDM
- BSc (Hons) Construction Project Management, First ClassSheffield Hallam University, degree apprenticeship
- CIOB Certificate of ExcellenceChartered Institute of Building
- Twelve years on siteUK and Australia, £10m+ delivered as project manager
- Three full back to brick house renovationsTwo in Scawsby, one in Sprotbrough
- All aspects of groundworksAnd I operate the plant myself
Want a price for sleeper beds & garden structures?
Send a few photos and your postcode. I'll usually come back the same day.