I've been looking into making some rather large planters for the yard,
a couple that would be 2'x12'x2' tall.

I've been modeling various materials in AutoCAD ( I'm a registered user
and ACAD drafter ) to help me do the work eventually and figure out the
relative materials costs.

It started out with Windsor Stones but would have cost around $650 to
do my project that way. They're nice but expensive, and they also don't
make square planters without having to cut some of them in half.

So then the discussion turned to railroad ties, but I was told by the
tie company that they're 8-9 feet long and weigh 150-200 lbs each. NOT
for me, when I'll have to be doing this work myself.

But they told me that they had highway guard rails which are 6 feet
long and only weigh around 75 lbs. I could handle that, but some of
them would have to be cut up to fit my plans.

Then they told me that they sell cut up guard rail blocks that are
8x8x14" long and only weigh about 15 lbs each. $1.50 each. GREAT!

AND it actually works out to the lowest cost of all with those, around
$238 plus delivery charges, probably around $300 total. Not bad.

My only question is, how do you secure those? With the ties and long
guard rails, you can spike them in place, but can you do that with
these smaller blocks? They won't split or anything? Seems like a lot of
spikes though, if you used 2 spikes per block. And a lot of work.

And then I found out today that spikes cost about $1 each too. I thought of
maybe using liquid nails under the top layer of blocks but they said the
creosote may screw that up, that creosoted ties won't take paint, for
example.

I'm not sure what to do now.



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