Sleepers, posts and steel sections for retaining walls, supplied from our Watsonia yard and delivered across Melbourne. Tell us the wall length and height and we’ll help with quantities.
Retaining wall sleepers hold back soil where your block changes level, and the posts they sit between carry the load. We supply sleeper wall materials from our Watsonia yard for landscapers, builders and home owners across Melbourne, including the SuperSleeper composite system and steel sections, with treated pine from our timber range. Tell us the wall length and height and we’ll help you work out what you need.
Treated pine. The hazard class matters more than anything. WoodSolutions’ guide to preservative treatments describes H4 as outside, in ground or continuously damp, for non-critical uses such as landscaping and fence posts, and states that H4 isn’t suitable for critical structural elements. H5 covers critical structural uses in ground, including retaining walls, and WoodSolutions gives H5-treated softwoods an expected service life of 50 years or more. Every cut end, drill hole and rebate needs re-coating on site. See our H3 and H4 treated pine and ask us about H5.
Hardwood. Naturally durable heartwood species such as grey gum, tallowwood, ironbark and forest red gum suit retaining walls, and WoodSolutions recommends a minimum stress grade of F14 for hardwood and F7 for softwood.
Composite. The SuperSleeper composite retaining wall sleeper is a fibre-reinforced polymer sleeper that weighs under 6 kg, can be painted, and carries a 35-year manufacturer warranty. It works as a system with SuperPost H-section posts and SuperPost C-section end posts.
Our view: for a wall that genuinely holds back soil, don’t cut corners with H4 pine when the guidance points to H5 or a naturally durable hardwood. Rebuilding a failed wall is a far bigger job than choosing the right sleeper first.
Steel sections come in a range of shapes, including beams (I-beams and H-beams), columns, channels, angles and plates, and they offer a high strength-to-weight ratio, durability and recyclability. In a sleeper wall, H-sections usually go between bays with the sleepers sitting between the flanges, and C-sections (channels) finish the ends and corners. SuperSleeper says galvanised steel posts can be used with its sleepers without voiding the sleeper warranty, as long as the SuperSleeper components are installed to its guidelines, but the post engineering and installation are then the responsibility of others. Call us for the sections and lengths we currently carry.
The WoodSolutions retaining wall guidance says walls up to one metre follow a basic design, and an engineer is needed to design walls over one metre, including the footings and drainage. SuperSleeper adds that walls over 1.0m need an engineer and council approval. Walls near services should be referred to the local authority first.
Don’t skip drainage. Place a vertical layer of free-draining material directly behind the wall, lay a drain pipe at its base with a slight fall to one end, and cover the pipe with about 250mm of free-draining gravel wrapped in geotextile fabric. Run the pipe to a legal point of discharge. For timber posts, WoodSolutions suggests 300mm diameter holes for 150mm posts, angled so the posts lean back into the soil at about 1:10.
Sleepers, posts and steel lengths are delivered by our own trucks across Melbourne, or collect from the Watsonia yard; call us for a delivery price. We deliver 6 days a week, from a trailer load to a semi load, usually within 2 days (Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm, Saturday 7am to 2pm). See our delivery information.
Call (03) 9435 2555, send a quote request with your wall length and height, or come into the yard at 58 Watsonia Road, Watsonia. For design ideas, read our article on using sleepers in your garden, or browse the landscaping range.
Walls over one metre need an engineer’s design, and SuperSleeper notes council approval is also needed above 1.0m. Check with your council or building surveyor before you dig.
WoodSolutions recommends H5 for critical structural uses such as retaining walls. H4 suits non-critical landscaping and fence posts.
It depends on the sleeper, wall height and soil. In SuperSleeper’s install guide, footings are spaced at 2400mm for 400mm and 600mm walls and 2000mm for 800mm and 1000mm walls, for the soil type it states.
Yes. SuperSleeper recommends a light scuff with 220-grit paper and a polyurethane paint suited to fibreglass and exterior use.
