Need to re-build a retaining wall that will be about 50cm high and will need some steps built in the middle.

At that height will the sleepers alone be enough to create the retaining wall if laid horizontally with either the longest width flat, or will it need reinforcing with stakes, back-filled with dry concrete mix or a course of concrete blocks?

I estimate that the cost of sleepers for the whole lot will be about £500, which I guess is far cheaper than stone / brickwork, is that fair?

Will the sleepers be any good as steps? they’ll need to be accessible in all weathers so was thinking that the steps would be better matching the material used in the patio and path in the garden that the steps link (Indian Sandstone).

How well will the sleepers last? Thinking of new, brown Tantone(?) sleepers so I’m guessing several decades?

My dad built a retaining wall with sleepers when i was a kid. It was higher than 50cm and was fine on its own given how heavy they are.

I built a retaining wall that size with sleepers on edge, with 25mm diameter metal rods going through them and in to the ground. They are still good 10 years on.

Laying flat is better as its more stable. Use timber lock screws to hold them together.

Steps will be fine made from sleepers. Depending on the amount of foot traffic they might wear a bit over a couple of years so factor that in to the design to make the treads easily replaceable.

We have sleepers as steps in our garden laid by the previous owners, as do my parents.

They are lethal when they get wet.

I have fitted some grip plates to them, which has ameliorated it a bit, but you still need to take care.

Not sure about the wall building side, but in our old garden we had steps made from sleepers and they were sloppy as hell when wet. You’ll need to put chicken wire or similar in them.

ameliorated

Nice one. 8)

Thanks all, they sound good for a quick, cheap and effective wall, but I’ll stick with stone for the steps.

As above, used one to retain a raised veg patch, sits three high so similar height. Used m8 bar to fasten together. Ben fine for last 7 years. In fact, looks same as when we built it.

Yeah stone steps is the way to go, but if you have a situation where someone might step on the sleeper as a short cut, be aware its like stepping on ice once they get winterised. I have heard of two people suffering nasty breakages stepping on sleepers.

Have you considered gabion baskets, should work out cheaper depending on what you fill with.

Just done this to our garden, and built a 75cm high retaining wall out of sleepers to level our lawn.

Used reclaimed sleepers which are pumped full of creosote, so hoping they will last longer than the new softwood ones. These were £12 each from a local railway reclaim place. Much heavier than you think!

We bolted them together using vertical lengths of Unistrut steel channel, leaving 1ft of this below the sleepers which we concreted into the ground.