Articles: The ultimate guide to garden sleepers

Transform your outdoor space with our treated softwood sleepers. These versatile and durable sleepers are perfect for a variety of garden uses, including garden borders, retaining walls, raised garden beds, and other landscaping projects. The treatment is completely safe for children and pets, and the beautiful straight edges give a clean and modern look.

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What are garden sleepers?

Tanalised softwood sleepers are rectangular sawn timber beams that have undergone a treatment process to make them durable and long lasting. Popular due to their versatility and low cost, tanalised sleepers can be used for a range of outdoor landscaping and gardening projects.

What are treated softwood sleepers used for?

Retaining walls

A supportive wall structure to hold back soil or water, particularly well suited to gardens with an incline when implementing a flat area.

Garden beds and raised planters

Perfect for keeping your flowerbeds neat and tidy.

Lawn edging

Similarly to retaining walls they can be used to define any edging around the garden.

Patios and decking

An alternative to your standard decking, treated sleepers offer a unique patio and decking solution.

Steps

Cut to 100x200mm sizes, our treated sleepers are ideal for garden steps.

Furniture

Versatile they can also work as simple furniture to create benches and table sets.

What is tanalisation?

Tanalisation, often referred to as 'pressure treatment' takes an otherwise lacklustre timber and transforms it into a durable and long lasting product. The tanalisation process is done under pressure to force the preservative treatment deep into the timber, the treatment is called ‘Tanalith’, hence the term tanalised softwood.

This preservative helps to protect the timber from rot, decay, and insect damage which results in a material that can withstand the harsh outdoor elements and compared to standard softwood sleepers you can expect up to a 20 year service life over a typical 5 year service life from standard softwood when properly protected.

The tanalith treatment will bolster the timber but to reap the full benefits you will need to add your own surface treatment as with any timber product. Typical shed/fencing treatment should suffice.

Why use treated softwood sleepers

In addition to the improved service life, you’d be surprised at how cost effective treated softwood sleepers are. In bulk, our treated sleepers can be as low as £18.50 +VAT each.

There price and durability aren’t the only enticing factors, softwood is also a sustainable resource, in addition to tanalisation extending their service period and reducing the need for frequent replacements, treated softwood sleepers are a great renewable option for landscaping.

On the subject of sustainability they’re also 100% FSC-certified, which ensures that they are felled and harvested responsibly in well managed British forest’s.

Treated softwood sleepers being softwood and fresh sawn are easy to cut, drill, and shape to fit any design or project requirements. Whether you're creating a rustic garden pathway or building a modern retaining wall, tanalised softwood sleepers provide a practical and cost-effective solution.

Looking for something structural?

For structural beams select your timber species on this https://www.iwood.co.uk/species/5/beams/ page and get instant price.