Enter your bed size and height. We'll work out the fill — soil, bulk bags and compost mix — plus honest 2026 costs to build the bed itself.
Quick answer: A standard 2.4m × 1.2m raised bed, 300mm high, needs about 1m³ of fill — roughly 1.4 tonnes. That includes 15% extra, because fresh soil sinks as it settles. In 2026 that costs £110–£200 in bagged soil. Or pay £60–£90 with the layered method: free woody material in the bottom third, good soil-and-compost mix only in the top 20cm.
Prices checked July 2026 · how we check them · how we work it out
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Includes 15% for settling — fresh fill sinks fast in the first fortnight. Figures assume board-built walls; chunky sleeper walls hold ~20% less soil.
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Prices checked July 2026 · how we check them · how we work it out
These figures are planning estimates. Fill to about 5cm below the rim, let it settle for two weeks and top up (RHS guidance). Keep beds no wider than 1.2m so you can reach the middle without standing on the soil.
Two purchases make a raised bed — the box and roughly a cubic metre of fill — and each has a named trap: 'sleeper'-branded decor boards that cost more per metre than the real thing, and courier-bagged soil at three times the bulk price per litre. Where the budget route genuinely works — and on this page it often does — we say so.
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£32–£39 per sleeper; one-course 2.4 x 1.2m bed ~£96–£115, two courses ~£190–£230 plus screws
The label must say all three: full 100 × 200mm section, 2.4m length, UC4 ground-contact treatment. The trap is 'sleeper'-branded decor boards — Wickes sells a 45mm-thick 1.2m 'garden sleeper' at £17 that costs more per metre of real structure than the genuine article. Two sleepers plus one cut in half makes a course with zero waste, and treated softwood in soil gives 15+ years.
UC4 garden sleeper at Wickes →Need it built this weekend: Free click & collect: Wickes' UC4 incised sleeper is £32 on offer (list £39) at 38.4kg each. A 2.4m sleeper means roof bars or a van — most bars carry 50–75kg, so one or two per run. Fine for a single-course or gravel-board bed; an 8-sleeper build is four trips, at which point delivery wins.
No van — or any bulk-bag soil: Put everything on one drop: Wickes delivers from £5, with a bulky surcharge only over 375kg — eight sleepers (~307kg) stay standard. Bulk-bag soil arrives kerbside by tail-lift and pallet truck, not crane: paved access only, dropped kerbs and gravel defeat it, and the bag stays where the truck stops. Budget an hour of barrowing.
All-in budget under £100: Gravel boards, not sleepers: Wickes' treated 19mm board is £10, about 5kg, and slides diagonally into almost any car. Two courses on stakes gives 300mm of depth — more than a single sleeper course — for ~£85 built. Halve the fill bill with the layered trick below. Trade-off: a 5–8 year structure that won't retain a slope.
Tempted to one-click the whole job?: Right for metalwork and liner, wrong for anything heavy. The same 100 × 200mm sleeper runs £55–£63 from marketplace sellers against £32–£39 at the sheds, and bagged topsoil is 36–60p a litre versus ~24p bulk — filling this bed from 25L bags costs £360–£600. Screws, brackets and liner, though, genuinely are cheaper there.
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Deep beds — the signature save
Softwood & board builds
Prices checked July 2026 · how we check them · how we work it out
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Gravel boards are thin treated fence boards, about 2cm thick — the cheap way to build the walls of a raised bed.
Sleepers are big chunky blocks of timber, about 10cm thick — the strong way that lasts far longer.
Whichever you pick, the wooden box is only half the job — you then fill it with soil, and the soil often costs more than the wood.
To find the fill, multiply length × width × height, then add 15% for settling. Fresh soil sinks fast in the first two weeks as it beds down. That is why the RHS (the Royal Horticultural Society — the UK's main gardening charity) says fill to 5cm below the rim, wait two weeks, then top up. We measure the bed from the outside to keep it simple. Thin board walls barely change the answer, but chunky 100mm sleeper walls take up room inside, so the bed holds about 20% less soil — knock a bag off if that's your build.
Here is the trick that saves money. Roots only feed in the top 15–20cm of soil. Below that, the fill just needs to hold everything up — it does not need to be good soil. So the layered method (cardboard on the ground, then woody offcuts and rough compost, then the good mix on top) grows just as well, and costs a third to a half less than filling the whole box with bought soil.
Prices checked July 2026 against Wickes, B&Q, timber merchants, kit makers and the RHS. Rounded ranges, not quotes.
| Item | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Treated gravel board (19×150mm × 2.4m) | ~£10 |
| Treated sleeper (100×200mm × 2.4m) | £20–£60 — shop around, the same sleeper can cost 3× more |
| Oak sleeper (2.4m) | £35–£50 |
| Structural sleeper screws (12-pack) | ~£25 |
| Timber kits (small → premium modular) | £18–£520 |
| Recycled plastic kits (25-yr life) | from £75, typically 2–4× a wood kit |
| Topsoil (600L bulk bag / merchant per m³) | £110 / £70–£120 |
| Peat-free compost (50L bag) | £5–£8.50 |
| Pro build (2.4×1.2m sleeper bed, filled) | £300–£600 |
| Route | Structure | Fill (~1m³) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY gravel boards | ~£90 | £90–£140 | £180–£230 |
| DIY sleepers (2 courses on edge, 400mm) | £155–£240 | £90–£220 | £250–£460 |
| Sleeper kit (2.3×1.3m, 400mm) | ~£175 | £90–£220 | £265–£395 |
| Built for you (incl. fill) | — | £300–£600 | |
The layered-fill method (free woody material at the bottom, bought soil only on top) takes £40–£80 off every row above. Two courses of gravel boards (one row of boards on top of another) make exactly 300mm — the cheapest genuinely good bed in the table.
• Where you buy the wood — the same treated sleeper is £20 at a timber merchant (a trade wood supplier — anyone can buy there) and £60 at a DIY shed. One phone call to a merchant can be worth £100+ on a two-bed project.
• Height — make the bed twice as tall and you need twice the soil. And the soil usually costs more than the wood.
• How you buy the soil — small bags from a shop work out at ~£180+/m³. A merchant bulk bag plus the layered method comes to ~£70/m².
• Kit convenience — kits cost more per plank, but the wood arrives cut, drilled and guaranteed. Modular kits (built from small blocks) can be taken apart and rebuilt in a new shape later.
• How long it lasts — treated softwood with a liner lasts about 10 years; oak and recycled plastic last 20–25. The cheapest bed today is not always the cheapest per year of use.
Multiply length × width × height, then add about 15% for settling — fresh soil sinks as it beds down. A standard 2.4×1.2m bed at 300mm needs roughly 1m³ (about 1.4 tonnes). Fill to 5cm below the rim, wait two weeks while it sinks, then top up. That's the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) method — and it's why one bag too many beats one too few.
Layer it. Put cardboard straight on the ground. Fill the bottom third with woody prunings, logs and rough garden waste — all free. Only the top 15–20cm needs good soil, because that's where roots actually feed. The RHS recipe for that top layer is roughly 7 parts topsoil : 3 parts organic matter : 2 parts sharp sand (organic matter means compost or rotted manure; sharp sand is gritty builder's sand that helps water drain). Layering usually cuts the fill cost by a third to a half.
The RHS numbers: 30cm is enough for salads, herbs and strawberries; most veg wants 45cm+. Keep the bed no wider than 1.2m, so you can reach the middle from both sides. Never stand on the soil — squashing it pushes out the air, and loose, airy soil is the whole point of a raised bed.
A DIY bed made from gravel boards (thin treated fence boards), 2.4×1.2m and 300mm high, is about £90 in timber plus the soil. A bed made from sleepers (thick, heavy timber blocks) costs £240–£340 for the wood — and it pays to shop around, because the same sleeper is £20 at a timber merchant and £60 at a DIY shed. Kits go from £18 (thin timber) to £500+ (WoodBlocX-class). A sleeper bed built for you, with soil, is realistically £300–£600.
Line the sides only. A plastic liner keeps damp soil off the wood, which adds years to the bed. But never line the base — the bottom must stay open to the ground, so water can drain away and worms can get in. A few pounds of membrane (a roll of tough plastic sheet) does a whole bed. One warning: don't use old creosote-treated railway sleepers anywhere near food crops — the law no longer allows them in gardens.
Three honest choices. Cheapest: treated gravel boards — thin fence boards at £10 per 2.4m; two rows stacked on top of each other make a 300mm bed. Middle: scaffold-style boards for the classic allotment look. Strongest: treated sleepers — chunky timber blocks at £20–£60 each (shop around — the dearest is 3× the cheapest). Whatever you pick, use proper structural screws (long, thick screws made to hold heavy timber), not nails.
Every price band on this page traces to a source we checked ourselves, with the date we checked it. Prices move — if one of these looks out of date, tell us and we'll recheck it.
We'll carry this over — your raised beds and the size you just worked out — and you can add anything else you're thinking about: clearance, paving, decking, fencing, lawn, driveways, planting. You end up with one brief to send to three landscapers, so they all price the same job and you can see which one has quietly left something out.
Doing it yourselves? It sizes your materials list too. Already holding a quote? It gives you the same numbers we'd check it against.
