Green oak sleepers garden project

[Aloginname]

Hi,

I'm wanting to build low a garden wall with green oak sleepers, the sleepers laying horizontally on top of each other. I'll be using dowels for joints, probably seasoned/kiln dried.

I've heard in the past something to do with shrinkage with the drilled holes. Will the holes gradually become smaller or wider as the sleepers season? 

[dumper]

The price of seasoned sleepers will knock the job on the head use green English oak sleepers and fix with  coach bolts or timber tec screws if you don’t want to see the screws counter sink and plug the holes

[dumper]

Didn’t read properly still use timber tec screws 

[trigger_andy]

Hi,
I'm wanting to build low a garden wall with green oak sleepers, the sleepers laying horizontally on top of each other. I'll be using dowels for joints, probably seasoned/kiln dried.
I've heard in the past something to do with shrinkage with the drilled holes. Will the holes gradually become smaller or wider as the sleepers season? 

For the project you have in mind it’s not gonna be the end of the world if there is a little play.

The green sleepers will dry and the hole get bigger. But the seasoned dowels will swell when the absorb ambient moisture. So will remain tight.

[Aloginname]

4 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

 

 

 

 

For the project you have in mind it’s not gonna be the end of the world if there is a little play.

The green sleepers will dry and the hole get bigger. But the seasoned dowels will swell when the absorb ambient moisture. So will remain tight.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply. Is there anything I can do to stop it moving? 

[trigger_andy]

5 minutes ago, Aloginname said:

Thanks for your reply. Is there anything I can do to stop it moving? 

Stop what moving?

[Aloginname]

2 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Stop what moving?

You said there would be a little play. I guess that means the sleepers might move a bit. Is there any way of stopping this? 

[trigger_andy]

1 minute ago, Aloginname said:

You said there would be a little play. I guess that means the sleepers might move a bit. Is there any way of stopping this? 

Ah right.

 

Remember that timber framed houses and barns have been built out of green oak/timber and dowels for hundreds of not thousands of years and many are still

standing.  Stacking a few sleepers on top of each other and knocking some dowels in to keep them together is not gojng to prove a problem.

 

You could also half lap the ends to lock them in better. 

[Aloginname]

Thanks

[lux]

They’ll be hardly any greener than the softwood ones pumped out at most fencing suppliers.