Creating a boundary between your lawn and garden beds
can really improve the look of your garden.
Making a garden border is easy, and there's
a range of different kinds available,
from modern to precast concrete.
These macrocarpa sleepers are easy to work with
and are solid enough to create a sturdy border
around your garden.
We're going to follow the existing garden's shape
so the sleepers will have some simple lap joints and two 45
degree lap joints.
Once I've laid out the shape, we'll
knock three reinforcing rods into each sleeper
and concrete them into the ground.
OK.
The first thing we need to do is run a string line out,
that way we're going to ensure that our maki sleepers are
going to be nice and straight.
OK.
Now, to help us out, I've just cut
a little bit of off cut of rio I pulled off a job.
If you don't have one of these, you
could suit yourself off a profile or even just
a nice little strong stick in the ground.
That's all you need.
So I'm going to come parallel off the fence 1.4 meters,
and that's going to be to the front of my sleepers.
So let's just knock that in a little way.
Now, we're just going to go to the other end of the garden,
measure parallel off the fence 1.4, and run a string line.
OK.
So I run my string line out and it's going to come 1.4--
cool.
And we're just going to use our little reinforcing rod here.
Now, because my backyard is sloping downhill slightly,
what I'm going to do is just ensure
that my sleepers are actually parallel with the ground.
So I'm going to measure up on either end
of this reinforcing rod about 110 mm
because our sleepers around about 100 to 110 mm,
so that way I'm going to ensure that the top part of my string
line is going to be the top of the sleepers.
So let's just make sure that we get
our string line nice and tight.
We don't need any sags in it.
OK.
So we're just going to come back down to our first position
and ensure that we are approximately 110
off the ground.
Now, just come back to your second mark
and just give that a wee adjustment.
We want to make sure we're 110 on their lawn
so I just come back and give that a wee little
measure again.
Like I said, that's looking pretty good.
Next thing we're going to do is start prepping a maki sleepers.
Now, there's a couple of different ways
we can go about joining and make these sleepers together.
One is by cutting a 90 degree cut on the end of this
and butting the sleepers together nice and easy.
But what we're going to do is create a let join.
Now, to do this, we're going to need to cut
and a [? rebate ?] like this.
So we're going to start marking out the Maki sleeper.
So let's just get a dimension.
Because some of these maki sleepers are slightly thicker.
You know, It is rough sewn timber.
That's a 100 mil.
Now, I've already squared the end up 90 degrees.
Now, to mark out our let join, I'm
going to come back 200 millimeters, let's
just square that across.
Now, the thickness of my sleeper is 100 mills
so I'm just setting my square to 50 millimeters,
and come down and let's just run a line 50 millimeters all
the way around.
So this case we'll mark that on the top as all the timber
that we're going to take out that's going
to create a let join.
So let's just mark a few X's on there
to indicate that's the piece that we're actually taking out.
So the next thing is take out a trusty circular saw.
Let's just set our blade to a mark and lock that off.
So we're just going to use the circular saw
to run a whole lot of fins in here,
then we're going to chop them out nice and easy.
We've cut out all our fins.
Next thing we need to do is use our chisel
and follow our line that we marked around
in the first place.
Now, when you're using your chisel,
you always want to make sure that the flat part
of your chisel is on your line and the beveled part is
sticking up.
We only need to go in a couple of millimeters.
All that's going to do is make sure
that when we break these fins off,
we've already set the exact line where we want them to go.
And same on the back.
All right.
Next thing we're going to do is just break out all these fins.
To do that, just go nice and gently.
And then anything that might be left over, let's
just clear it up using your chisel.
Like I said, when you're using your chisel
to hack out any little bits that are left on there,
just ensure that you've got the bevel part
of your chisel facing down.
That way, your chisel is not going
to dig deep into your timber, it's
always just going to keep flicking out.
Now, because the edge of the garden is curved,
we need to prep these sleepers slightly differently.
The sleepers will be let join together
about on a 45 degree angle.
OK.
What we need to do now is mark out for a 45 degree rebate.
So I'm just going to set my combination
square to 200 millimeters, and mark that out for me a 45
degree cut.
Let's just put a pencil mark there.
Going back to our combination square,
let's just move that all the way down the end, and we're
going to use the 45 degree part of that
and just mark our 45 degree line.
Now, all we have to do is just rebate this piece
out, so we're going to sit our square to 50 millimeters again.
Square that all the way around, and then we're
just going to rebate that out exactly
like we did on the square end.
We're going to mark out our holes
and predrill them now to take care our coach screws.
Now, these coach screws are going to link our two sleepers
together.
So first thing we need to do, we've
got a washer underneath our coach screw.
Now, I've got a 28 mill spade bit here.
Now, I'll just double check that our spade bit is slightly
bigger than our washer.
OK.
So we're going to use our spade bit first to predrill our hole.
So I'm going to mark it out.
Our left joint is 200 mill long, so I'm going to come back 100,
it's going to be right in the center of it,
and we're going to come 50 mill from each edge.
I'll just drill down about 12 millimeters,
and I kind of guessed that, but you
know what, you could do the old trick of putting tape
type around your spade bit if you like so you know
exactly how far to go down.
But I know I only want to get about 12 millimeters.
A coach screw's got a 10 mill diameter,
so I'm going to predrill a 10 mill hole
all the way through our rebitted spade hole.
OK.
So let's just lay our first two pieces down,
and let's just keep that in line with our string line.
We do have a bit more time later on
to get that absolutely mint so at this stage,
we want to just draw everything.
So I'm just going to predrill a hole into our bottom piece.
Now, the hole that we drilled through the top
was a 10 mill because we got a 10 mill coach screw.
Now, the hole that we want to drill through the bottom
is 7 mill, so that way our coach screw's got plenty
of bite going into there.
So at this stage, we just want to drill through everything.
OK.
That's pretty good.
Now, we're going to come back over to our 45 degree corner.
OK.
So that's not looking too bad.
It's going to use the clamp to hold these two together.
OK.
Now, the reason for our dry foot,
I want to precut and predrill everything,
make sure everything's looking fantastic,
ready for our next step.
OK.
Now, we've got our other corner we have to do with here.
The reason I ran my string line all the way up past our corner
here is because I'm going to use that to get
a parallel for other piece that's going across the front
here.
So just to help us out, what I've got
is just a long length of timber, and I'm just
going to lay that down.
And I'm going to use this to get parallel off our string line.
So I'm going to be 900 millimeters away
from our string line.
OK.
So let's just measure 900 mm off our string line.
It's pretty good there.
And we'll come down the other end
to make sure that we're parallel.
Right.
So what we're going to do now is use the board just
to mark on our sleeper here at least that long.
So let's just mark that there.
Now, I know that's going to be 45 degrees so I can just
rebate that out exactly the same as the other end,
and I'm going to just precut and do
all the others ready for our next step.
I've completed the dry [? foot ?] for all my sleepers
and everything's fitting nicely.
I'm going to mark out the edges of the sleepers with a spade
so I know where to dig my trench later on.
And then remove the coach screws at the corners.
Now is a good time to number your sleepers
so you know what goes where.
OK.
The next thing we're going to do is secure our sleepers
to the ground.
Now, the reason I want to do this,
I want to make sure that this edge is really nice rock solid.
So to do this, I'm going to drill some holes
in the underside of our sleeper, I'm
going to whack in a rio rod, come back over here,
dig some holes in the earth, and then
pour some concrete in there and then drop in our sleeper.
Also, what I'm going to do is scrape out about 50 millimeters
underside of these to allow for about 50 mill of scoria.
So simply, my sleeper's going to sit on top of the scoria
with the rebars concreted into the ground to make it sturdy.
OK.
So what we need to do is mark up where our hole is going to go.
I'm going to put three holes per length for maccy sleeper.
So I'm going to come around about 100 millimeters
from the edge of our rebar.
And let's just mark that up there.
And we want to come down to the center of our sleeper.
You know what, it doesn't really matter
where you put it as long as you've got
three relatively evenly spaced.
OK.
We're just about ready to drill our hole.
Now, what I've done is measured 50 millimeters up my 10 mill
drill bit and I'll put some tape around there that's
going to act as a guide so when I drill through the sleeper,
I know when I come up to that mark not to get any further.
We certainly don't want to go all the way
through our sleeper.
It's going to look horrible from the other side.
We're now ready to throw on our rebars.
Our reinforcing rods are 400 millimeters long.
They fit into a 250 millimeter deep hole, plus 50 millimeters
of square on top.
50 millimeters goes into the sleeper
and there's a 50 millimeter kick at the end.
All right.
Now, there's a couple of different ways
we can cut it and bend it.
Good old fashioned way.
You can use an angle grinder, or nice and simple,
a hexle like this.
And then to get the bend, you could put it in a vise
and just knock it over 90 degrees.
But an even simpler way is by using that good old tool here,
the cutter bender.
So what I'm going to do is mark out a rear rod
and I want about a 50, 60 mill bend on it.
First thing I'm going to do is put a bend on.
Open that right up.
OK.
Now, that's giving me my 90 degree lovely [INAUDIBLE]..
OK.
So let's just cut it to length.
It just sits in there nicely like that.
And let's just flip that over.
We've got our rear rods that we've cut.
Now, all we're going to do is hammer them into a hole.
Lovely.
It's nice and tight.
Righty-oh, all our rods are in.
Next, we're going to do is mark out where our holes are going
to be to take our concrete that our rods are
going to slip into.
For that, I've just cut up a couple of these little pigs.
You can use whatever you want.
And on the outside on our lawn, I'm
just going to mark the center of our hole.
This is for later on.
So let's just whack these out.
Righty-oh.
It's time to print for our scoria.
To do that, I'm just going to scrape
that little channel about 50 mill deep,
just the spines width.
Righty-oh.
She's all scraped out.
The next thing I need to do is dig my holes for our concrete.
So, once again, I'm just going about the spade width,
and I'm going to go down about 250 millimeters deep.
Finished on concreting and my two straight sleepers,
and then I'm going to move on to the other sections.
OK.
So let's just top these holes up with concrete.
Now, I'm laying my scoria for the sleeper to sit on.
It also helps with drainage.
I got all my concrete and scoria is
ready to go for me to put in my sleepers.
OK.
All we need to do is roll this over,
just ensuring they were keeping a nice straight line
with that string line.
All right.
So that's looking actually pretty good as it is.
It's sitting nice and straight with my string line,
and I'm level with the top of the string line.
I'm just going to use a couple of peckers
just to bring it up a little bit.
And that's just going to ensure that the weight of the sleeper
isn't going to push the whole thing down.
Lovely.
Righty-oh, this is looking really good.
Now, all you have to do is repeat the process
for the rest of it.
Now, I just go along and tighten all the coach screws.
OK.
I've let my concrete sit overnight.
Everything's looking really good.
There's a couple of things I need to do before we finish.
I'm just going to knock the sharp edge
off using my trusty hand plane.
And then I'm just going to give the whole lot a light sand.
Right.
That's looking really sharp.
Now, could give that a stain but I quite like that natural look.
So there we have it, macrocarpa garden borders.
Easy as.