What do you think of using railroad ties as stairs. Are they
appropriate for this type of setting? What are the safety hazards ?

macmeech wrote:
What do you think of using railroad ties as stairs. Are they
appropriate for this type of setting? What are the safety hazards ?

Assuming that you are talking about timber sleepers (ties) the hazards that
I would look out for are uneven surfaces that could lead to people tripping
on the stairs or pollution due to chemical preservative treatment. You need
to know the provenance and condition of the material before you decide.

As for the setting you have only said that it is commercial which doesn't
give much to go on. Is it indoors or outdoors? How long are the stairs?
Will you be doing the construction yourself? Will there be a
self-supporting stair and ballustrade or will they be laid on the ground?


David

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

macmeech wrote:
What do you think of using railroad ties as stairs. Are they
appropriate for this type of setting? What are the safety hazards ?

Assuming that you are talking about timber sleepers (ties) the hazards that
I would look out for are uneven surfaces that could lead to people tripping
on the stairs or pollution due to chemical preservative treatment. You need
to know the provenance and condition of the material before you decide.

As for the setting you have only said that it is commercial which doesn't
give much to go on. Is it indoors or outdoors? How long are the stairs?
Will you be doing the construction yourself? Will there be a
self-supporting stair and ballustrade or will they be laid on the ground?


David

Not to mention that it doesn't seem to have any connection to edible
gardening.
--
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw

macmeech wrote:

What do you think of using railroad ties as stairs. Are they
appropriate for this type of setting? What are the safety hazards ?

You have a garden of edibles on a slope so large it needs stairs, and
it's at a commercial property? Okay, I've seen that. Rosemary bushes
around large apartment buildings in southern California, right?

The creosote is not good for the soil but you're in a semi-arid region
so there won't be all that much leaching. Railroad ties work okay in
landscaping.

Because of the chemical treatment I would rather use gardening timbers.
They make for smaller steps up the slope but they aren't harmful to the
soil unless you get the green arsenic treated ones.

You do NOT want them for use by the regular tenants. Just for the
gardening staff. Too much of a trip hazard.

"macmeech" wrote in message
...
What do you think of using railroad ties as stairs. Are they
appropriate for this type of setting? What are the safety hazards ?


I used to think railroad ties were great. Until I tried to use them as
borders. They work fine, then they rot, then moles move in. And ants .
Then they suck digging them up. And getting rid of the moles. A decade
later I find that they leech preservative too. So I don't want them around
my veggies.


Now if you're trying to do some type of rough cut style stairs with new
ties. Feng Shwei style or something. Maybe.

Diesel.