Hi all, been looking at replacing some old rotten wood which once supported the railway track and have looked at varies materials as a replacement decided to use wooden decking which was at a reasonable price so off to Big & Quicks and found that they do a plastic decking, no need to maintain, will not rot and cheaper than the wooden decking, £10.00 per 8ft x 6" very sturdy and strong
check it out
freelander
Remember plastic will expand and contract at a far greater rate than wood, I have used 6x1" pre treated timber above ground with roofing felt fixed to it, this has survived at least 10 years and counting.
If however you were laying plastic in contact with the ground then go for it, provided it's not in direct sunlight.
Shaun
I suppose the question is whether it is plastic as in UPVC, or whether it is actually recycled, re-constituted plastic
My hunch is that it'll be recycled, and that leads me to another hunch that the coefficient of expansion may be somewhat less - but it's only a guess.
Yes, you're right, the coefficient of expansion of UPVC plastic is huge - that's why you hear your gutters creaking when the sun comes out. At college, we did an experiment filling a 1m length with boiling water, and you can see it move.
It shouldn't be toooooooo ... difficult to devise an experiment with the plastic decking, and then allow sufficient expansion gaps when laying as a track base.
It wouldn't work at this time of the year, but in the summer, lay a length down in the evening as it gets dark with one end fixed, and put a pebble against the other end. Hopefully, if you could arrange for the next day to be very sunny (with the length in full sun) it'll push the pebble to its furthest point of expansion, and you can measure it in the evening. Now, that wasn't bad for the spur of the moment was it
Just beware of birds that collect pebbles for their mates
Anything that is not going to rot has got to be worth considering when playing in the garden
