EVERY GREAT PRODUCT STARTS WITH A PROBLEM WORTH SOLVING. 

Ours started in my own back garden — with a sloping bank of earth we were determined to tame, and a finish nobody in the industry seemed able to offer. 

We wanted a natural sleeper retaining wall: timber, warm and in keeping with the rest of the garden. What we didn't want was the traditional solution — a steel H-beam system with upright posts standing proud along the face of the wall. Structurally, it does the job. Aesthetically, we believed there had to be a better answer. 

So we set out to create one. 

THE QUESTION WAS SIMPLE:  

Could a sleeper retaining wall achieve the structural support it needs without putting a single piece of steel on the visible face? 

I'm not a structural engineer, so I found one. Together, we worked through prototype after prototype — testing, adjusting and refining — until we developed a system designed to sit completely behind the sleepers, while keeping installation straightforward. 

THEN CAME THE REVEAL. 

BakStrap Pro® is a concealed steel support system designed to do its structural work from behind the wall, leaving a smooth, uninterrupted run of sleepers on the face. No exposed steels. No visible fixings. No regular line of uprights breaking up the timber — just the clean, natural appearance we originally wanted. 

35 METRES LATER. 

We put the system to the test on our own ground: a 35-metre-long, 1.1-metre-high retaining wall. It has been standing and doing its job invisibly ever since. 

Then something unexpected happened. Landscapers who visited for other jobs stopped to ask who had installed it and where they could get the parts. It became clear that we hadn't simply solved our own garden problem. We had created a different way of approaching sleeper retaining walls. 

NOW WE'RE BRINGING IT TO THE INDUSTRY. 

BakStrap Pro® is now available as a complete, ready-to-fit kit, engineered to be straightforward for tradesmen and confident DIYers. The system has been independently developed to a design-protected specification and carries granted design protection. It has also been nominated for an Innovation Award at this exhibition. 

WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU. 

For landscape gardeners and designers, BakStrap Pro® offers the opportunity to deliver a sleeper wall with a cleaner, more natural finish — without visible steel disrupting the design. 

For distributors and merchants, there is a commercial opportunity too. Because BakStrap Pro® sleepers stack in the opposite orientation to a standard H-beam wall, a wall built using the system uses roughly twice the sleeper volume of a conventional build, creating additional sleeper sales alongside the support-system opportunity. 

For architects and designers, it offers another way to combine the warmth of timber with a concealed support system when appearance matters as much as function. 

YOU'VE SEEN THE WALL. NOW SEE WHAT'S HOLDING IT TOGETHER. 

BakStrap Pro® is being showcased at this exhibition. Come and see the system in person, talk to us about the opportunity and discover what happens when the steel disappears. 

FIND US ON STAND Z31 

Mark Roblett is the founder of BakStrap Pro®, a design-protected hidden support system for sleeper retaining walls, nominated for an Innovation Award at this year's exhibition.