Railway sleeper type wooden blocks

We had wanted to do something similar but were told by our geometra that it was now illegal to buy old railway sleepers as they had been treated with some substance now deemed to be carcinogenic and as such all old ones were being removed from the tracks and and replaced with concrete. Apparently they are meant to be destroyed. New or untreated ones were not available as there was no longer a requirement.  Having said that, a local restaurant used old sleepers to edge their extended car park, when we queried it we were told a relative had worked for the railways and had 'obtained' them before the ban! To build retaining walls you can get those concrete blocks in various styles and colours, which interlock and into which smallish plants can be planted, although not especially attractive at first, if planted with trailing plants they do look ok once the plants are established.

"small retaining wall type structure .....  about 2.4 m long and would need to be about 6 - 8 feet high" That height of wall over such a short distance is difficult to construct [not enough mass/inertia for stability], and I'm not sure that sleepers would do the job I'd suggest using gabions  see http://www.weld-mesh.com/gabion.htm for examples Rather than buy them in, build your own using mesh from a builders merchants.  keep the size small [approx 0.5m x 0.5mx0.5m] as this makes them easy to handle and fill.  Slope them backwards [about 20 - 30 degrees from vertical] and they should be pretty solid - I'd suggest a double thickness of these small gabions [i.e. 1m thick wall] for extra stability   Good Luck

a simple and rel;atively cheap blocks which looks good is tufo..its from volcanic areas and is very easy to work with.. benefits are that if you want you can lay it without cement if you lay it flat.. and angle it into the soil..it actually binds together over the years.. it of course can be laid upright with cement.. and would suggest you sink in metal rods behind to stabilise the soil and face off with these blocks..  although be sure to build an enforced cement base below.. even a wall of this height if it collapses would result in injury to anyone below..  so be sure about the staus of the subsoil .. if laid without cement the other benefit is that being quite porous it allows mositure from behind to escape.. if you are building with cement joints leave gaps for water to escape.. from the bottom levels up.. heres a link to a site to review it they can be cut with a saw or chisel.. very easily..they are a really easy block to use and are commonly available in any buildesr yard.. light and strong..  anyway that would be my thought

Tufo is much cheaper than the concrete blocks suggested by Andiamo (we paid less than 1€ per tufo stone as opposed to around €5 per concrete block).  We have used both and also feel that the Tufo looks nicer as it ages and you don't need to buy plants and wait for them to cover the ugly concrete.  We have used Tufo to terrace our Orto.   We also have railway sleepers which we bought from our local "scrap man", this was about 2 years ago and he had removed them from a local farmer's land.  Not sure if legislation changed within that time.  Before we came to Italy my husband owned a reclamation company in Suffolk and imported sleepers from Russia.  Big, big demand for them and at that time there was not a complete ban, just couldn't be used in places like schools.  Given the height required the Gabion's would probably be the most cost effective??  This is the only type of retaining wall we haven't YET used.  We found a company that supplied them, but could never get them to give us a price as we didn't need that many. 

Many thanks all for your responses.  Some new ideas for me there to think about.    Best wishes

Creosote is now banned in Europe and I think the sleepers may have had arsenic in them?Anyway we very foolishly bought some from an agricutural yard and then used them to build a base for our greenhouse. As soon as the weather got warm some yucky black goo seeped out and we ended up covering them with thick black plastic.When we get time we'll lift the greenhouse and replace them. I like the idea of the Tufa blocks.But why are concrete blocks 5 euros?Are these 'breeze blocks'? http://myabruzzohome.blogspot.com/

Do not build a wall from tufo if it is to be faced in any way as the bloomin stuff absorbs water like blotting paper and then water freezes and off comes your rendering. Cement blocks are better.

elliven ..good advice but who on earth would want to cover them.. the idea of tufo is its natural and pretty ..and good to look at...

It's not going to work covery something like tufo with cement is it? Basically anytime cement is used on something that is flexible (ie most of the old/natural building materials in Italy it breaks or cracks as the materials move but the cement doesn't.) Use lime or clay plaster or mortar with hair or straw and it moves with the underlying materials. Getting back to the gabbions how much are they?Anyone know?