Top Retaining Walls Christchurch builds timber sleeper retaining walls across Christchurch for the jobs where the wall is part of the garden rather than a structural rescue. Sleepers give you a flat, square face and clean horizontal lines, which is why they work so well around raised beds, lawn edges and low terraces.
We set H5 posts at 1.2m to 1.5m centres, then drop heavy H4 sleepers down between or behind them. The sleepers stack rather than fix individually, so the wall builds up fast, and the face stays perfectly flat because every sleeper is milled square.
Most sleeper walls we build sit between 400mm and 900mm. Past about a metre the sleepers start bowing between posts unless we tighten the post spacing, so at that point we usually price a pole and rail wall or a block wall instead.
| Sleepers | Heavy H4 treated pine, milled square |
|---|---|
| Posts | H5 treated, 1.2m to 1.5m centres |
| Typical height | 400mm to 900mm |
| Drainage | Geotextile lining, metal layer and drain coil at the base |
| Finish | Natural timber, stain optional after drying out |
| Build time | Often one day on a short garden run |
A sleeper wall around a vegetable bed still needs drainage. Wet soil in a raised bed pushes just as hard as wet soil on a bank, and it rots the back of the sleepers if it sits against them. We line the back with geotextile and run a metal layer down the face, then the coil at the base.
If you plan to grow food in the bed, tell us at the quote stage. Some owners prefer we line the inside face so the soil never touches treated timber, and that is easy to build in from the start.
Sleepers win on looks in tidy suburban gardens. In a flat Papanui or Halswell back yard where the wall is visible from the deck, a square sleeper face looks better than round poles with rough sawn rails.
Pole and rail wins on cost per metre and on height. On a long run down a boundary, or anywhere over a metre, the pole wall is the sensible spend.
Every wall we build gets drainage. At least 300mm of clean free draining metal, a perforated coil at the base running to a real outlet, and geotextile over the top so silt cannot block it. It is not an optional line on our quotes.
We build them up to about a metre. Higher than that and the sleepers flex between the posts, so we either tighten post spacing or switch you to pole and rail or block.
Plenty of people do. If you would rather the soil never touched treated timber, we can line the inside face when we build it. Ask for that at the quote stage.
Yes. A 600mm wall holds back a surprising weight of wet soil, and trapped water is what rots the back of the sleepers. We put drainage behind every wall we build, whatever the height.
Our old wall was rotten right through and leaning into the neighbour's place. They pulled the lot out, put proper drainage behind the new one and had it finished in three days. Swept the site clean every afternoon before they left too. Tidiest crew we have ever had here by a long way.
They sorted the consent, which was the bit I was dreading. Dealt with the council so I never had to, and kept me in the loop the whole way through. The driveway sits right above it and has not shifted a millimetre.
Steep section, shocking access, and they still made it look easy. They suggested two smaller walls instead of one big one, which saved us thousands in engineering fees. The terrace in between is now my favourite part of the whole garden.
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