pond edge sleepers

[andrewf75]

Hi all,

I want to use a couple of softwood sleepers to edge my pond.

Plan is to mortar some paving slabs on to the liner to form a base and then fix the sleepers on top of that. They will form a right angle so I also plan to put a couple of screws in at the corner. Do you think that will be strong enough or should I also drive some stakes into the ground?

Any other tips much appreciated!

Hope that makes sense...
Cheers!

 

[r896neo]

It depend what they are doing? are they retaining something? their sheer weight will keep them in place so you could simply bed the sleepers on a 50mm bed of strong coarse mortar
4:1 grit sand :cement.

A simple stake driven in behind the and screwed to that usually suffices.

 

[andrewf75]

Thanks! they are not retaining anything so the mortar plus possibly a couple of stakes should be enough

 

[bernardgreen]

If the sleepers are reclaimed and were treated with preservative then be careful if there are ( or will be ) fish in the pond. Some re-claimed ex-railway sleepers are treated with material that is toxic to fish ( used to be creosote but the modern replacement is said to be toxic as well )

 

[andrewf75]

Thanks, they are softwood sleepers new from a garden centre