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After 8 years, the joists I made my vegetable planters out of have rotted through and are now in danger of spilling the contents on to the lawn and path.
Replacement of the timber is going to be a fairly labour intensive job that I have no desire to repeat in another 8 years time. I am considering plastic lumber which is about 3 x the price of wood for a 50 x 150 section.
Has anyone any experience? Is plastic lumber the miracle solution or is there some other alternative (not interested in sleepers).
thanks
Normally you'd line the planter with a dpm layer no? Keep the wet directly off the wood.
Just been involved in a project to replace a balcony deck with plastic wood.
It looks like plastic wood, but should last a very long time. Suppose the question is do you see yourself still wanting them in another 8 (or 24 to be VFM) years time?
Proper treated timber should still last longer than 8 years though? Or am I being naive/optimistic?
Proper treated timber should still last longer than 8 years though? Or am I being naive/optimistic?
Hardwood yes. Softwood - I'd say 8 to 10 years is about right. No matter how much I've retreated outside softwood it always rots to some extent.
OP - have you considered used scaffold planks?
Been looking into alternatives recently myself. I am planning to cast my own light weight concrete versions after seeing a guy on you tube build them. He has a whole series on making raised bed sections out of different concrete mixes. His best compromise between full on concrete which is clearly crazy heavy was to use a cement, sand and vermiculite mixture. This made super strong light weight panels that were easily handled by one person and reasonably cheap. His timber mould that he used is also real clever as they slot together to form a bed. Just waiting for a bit more warmth before I crack on with them. Search 'Man about tools' on you Tube, should come up there are a number in the series, worth a watch. Recently bought 100 litres of vermiculite on ebay, inc. delivery.