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Little kids love playing in the sand. To provide them with such an opportunity, caring adults set up sandboxes at home and in the country. Of course, there are ready-made ones for sale, but their price is not at all childish. The best way out is a do-it-yourself sandbox. When making it, you will certainly try to take into account all the features and preferences of your child.
What can you make a sandbox
The most popular material for building a children’s sandbox is wood. It can be edged boards, logs of small diameter, timber, block house. Basically, they make it out of this. To make the work go faster, you can buy polished materials. They are more expensive, but have a smooth surface. If you need to save money, take ordinary materials, then manually or with the help of a grinder you will bring everything to perfect condition.
You can use plywood (moisture resistant) or OSB (OSB). Not everyone loves them, for the presence of glue and harmful fumes (formaldehyde). But in the air, these emissions are not terrible, and you can also use a material with an emission class of E0 or E1. It guarantees safety – children’s furniture is made of such material. It is convenient to work with plywood and OSB: I cut out the necessary shape of the part, twisted them together, processed the ends and can be painted.
In the country, you can use improvised material. For example, plastic bottles. Just to keep them, they are attached to the board: lids are nailed with a certain step, bottles are screwed into them. Having received one “sidewall”, they take a piece of thick wire equal to the double length of the sidewall + 20 cm, pierce the bottle with wire, stepping back about 5-7 cm from the bottom, turn the wire up and pierce it in the opposite direction from above. The ends are twisted, trying to hide the “tails”.
Such a twist is obtained only on one side – on the other, just a bent wire. When you put the sidewalls, put them so that the “tails” are covered with a bottle. The finished sides of the sandbox from the bottles are installed in a shallow ditch, the board and the tapering bottom of the bottles are sprinkled with soil, and they are well tamped. You can throw a sheet of plywood at the bottom, and pour sand on top.
The second most popular “junk” material for country crafts is car tires. They also make sandboxes. It is necessary to cut off the sidewall of the old tire on one side. Get pretty high sides. Then there are two ways:
- you can close the hole with plywood cut to size and use it as it is;
- cut off the second sidewall and get only the side.
Tire sandbox: how to do
In any case, you will have to secure the cuts. In some tires, the cord (reinforcing fiber) is plastic, in some it is metal. Plastic can be sanded, but metal will have to be closed somehow.
To make a sandbox, you can use the trunks of fallen trees sawn into pieces. They make a very interesting and quite reliable fence. Before digging in, the wood needs to be processed – so that it lasts longer. There are modern impregnations with a simultaneous tinting effect. Comfortable. The processed stumps must be dried, and while they are drying, dig a moat around the perimeter of the future sandbox. Its depth is at least 20-25 cm. You should not do less – the kids will walk and jump on the stumps, so they should hold on well. Insert the logs into the ditch with the butt end, level, fill the gaps with soil and compact well.
From logs, you can also make a fence for a traditional type of sandbox. Put a base on the ground: a piece of linoleum, for example, in which to make several holes – to drain water after rain. Put logs on the base, making a rectangle / square out of them. You can fasten them with long nails, but it is more reliable with studs – steel rods with threads at both ends. Under them, it will be necessary to drill a hole obliquely at the junction of the logs. The diameter is slightly larger than the diameter of the stud. Drill the edges of the hole – so that you can drown the nuts with washers. Insert the rod into the hole, put washers on both ends, tighten everything with nuts.
You can make benches from above – one or two boards and benches for kids are ready. Of course, they rarely sit on them. More often they build their sand castles on them.
How to make a playground for children, see here.
How to make a sandbox: step by step instructions
To begin with, we will analyze the general principles for the manufacture of sandboxes of any design. With some modifications, they are repeated every time.
Step one. Site Selection. The place must be chosen so that part of the sandbox is in the shade, part in the sun. If this is not possible, we put it in a sunny place, and we make a canopy over it. Please note that there are no large trees or bushes nearby. They, of course, give a good shade, but leaves are pouring from them, and the sand will often have to be sifted.
Do not place the sandbox in strong sunshine, nor should it be in a corner where there is no air movement at all. But she also has no place in a draft. Another important point: if you plan to let the baby out to play in the yard on your own, the play area should be clearly visible from the window of the room where you spend most of your time.
Step Two. Layout. If the sandbox is rectangular, use pegs and threads stretched between them. The pegs were driven in, measuring the required dimensions (the standard size of a children’s sandbox for children from 2 to 5 years old is 1,7 m * 1,7 m). Between them they pulled twine, rope, cord. We checked the diagonals, in order for the angles to be straight, they must be equal.
If the sandbox is with rounded corners or sidewalls, you can draw an arc with the help of sand poured into a bag. A small hole is cut in the corner of the bag and the required shape is “drawn” in this way.
Step 3. We are digging a pit. We remove the sod, and take it aside, remove some soil, cleaning out the roots along the way, removing stones. The depth of the pit is 20-30 cm.
In the middle of the sandbox, make a small square of greater depth: with a side of about 60 cm and a depth of another 30-40 cm (the total depth of this hole will be 60-70 cm). Pour gravel into the hole. This will be a “water drainage system”. If you form a slight slope from the edges to it, the sand will dry quickly after the rains.
Step 4. Laying the base.
We add a little sand (5-6 cm) to the bottom of the resulting pit, leveling it well. Now we need to lay the foundation. The best option is geotextile. It is a non-woven material, very tear-resistant. He will not allow grass to germinate, he will not allow sand to mix with the earth. If you bring it to the edges of the pit, it will also “hold” the earth, preventing it from flowing in when it rains.
If geotextiles are not found, you can lay a piece of plywood or linoleum. Only in them you need to cut a few holes (1,5-2 cm in diameter) for water drainage.
Further, there may already be differences – it depends on the chosen model and the method of installing the sandbox. Features of their construction are discussed below.
DIY sandbox: step by step photo reports
No matter how simple the design may seem, questions arise as it comes to implementation. To make them smaller, we publish several models of home-made sandboxes with step-by-step photos that capture the main nodes.
Simple construction
The easiest thing to do is knock down a rectangle or square from the boards. For a sandbox, the normal side of a square is 1,7 m. So you will need 4 or 8, 12 boards of this length. Sizes can be larger or smaller, the choice is yours. The number of rows of boards depends on their width and how high you want to make it.
If, as described earlier, they dug a pit of 25 cm, then poured 5 cm of sand, it turned out to be a depression of 20 cm. and above), the total height is 10 cm. If the board is 2 cm wide, 20 tiers will be required (boards, respectively 30 rows * 10 pcs = 3 pcs).
You will also need a bar with a section of 40 * 40 mm. It will need to be cut into pieces equal to the height of the sides of the sandbox. In our case, this is 30 cm. 4 pieces will be needed. The total length of the required timber is 1,2 m. All lumber is well polished, then impregnated with protective impregnations, otherwise the wood will quickly lose its appearance.
We take two boards, fold at an angle of 90 °. We put a bar at the junction, nail both boards or screw in self-tapping screws – two for each mount. We attach the next board to one of the ends, put the bar and repeat the operation. So we collect the first row. It will look like the photo on the left.
The second and third rows are assembled by analogy. For each connection we put two hardware (a nail or a self-tapping screw). Just make sure that the heads do not protrude and the tips do not stick out.
After the required height is collected, we can assume that the sandbox is made by hand. But, as always, now I want to add something to make it more convenient for the kids. They usually like to sculpt Easter cakes, and they need a platform. You can nail small plywood triangles in the corners or also assembled from chopped boards. Another option is to nail two longitudinal boards. They are perfectly installed on the bars in the corners. We also hammer nails into them.
Continuing the theme of “improving” sandboxes. It’s not very pleasant to carry home toys that are soiled in the sand every time. The problem is solved simply: to fence off the part for toys. Comfortable for both you and your child. An additional wall is installed, which is also attached to the existing ones with the help of bars.
And so that there is no temptation to pour sand there, you can come up with a lid. It will be possible to sit on it, or you can build Easter cakes.
A couple of boards, a little imagination and an ordinary box turns into a car. The boys will definitely like this one.
How to make a playhouse for children on the site, see here.
Sandbox-transformer with a folding lid
Construction begins in the same way as described earlier: a box of boards is assembled. The focus is on the lid design. You will also need boards for the lid and hinges – four ordinary door and four with one long shelf.
In our example, 6 boards went to each side of the lid. Attached them in pairs. First, two boards were nailed to the finished box on one side and on the other.
To them, they screwed a short shelf of a loop similar to a barn. Two boards were also attached to a long shelf. It is important that the second one is attached at least half the width, otherwise it can turn it out.
We fasten the next board onto ordinary door hinges. The shelves are on the other side. Then it turns out that the second part of the cover leans to the other side. The second board is attached to the fixed one with the help of an auxiliary bar. It is stuffed on both sides at a distance of about 15 cm from the edge.
To prevent the hinged lid from pressing on the hinges, an additional piece of the board is stuffed onto the first two boards. It serves as a support, when loaded, the board does not bend.
According to operating experience, we can say that children almost never play under the seats: it is inconvenient. To use this area more rationally, it can be fenced off under the toy compartment. Another plus of this solution is that less sand is required.
In this example, the docks are painted with an impregnation that simultaneously gives the wood its color. If you wish, you can use the usual opaque paint. Just take it for wood, for outdoor work. Otherwise, after a couple of rains, it will bubble or crack. Using paint, you can paint the sandbox in more “girlish” colors, although the impregnations can also be of different colors, but they just give a shade.
Sandbox boat
For boys, you can make a sandbox-boat or ship. The main “body” is built as usual, all other superstructures are attached to it.
In this version, it was decided to make the sandbox low. A triangle was attached to the downed hull – the nose of the future ship. It is much higher than the main part. To keep the boards strong, two boards on each side are driven into the ground 60 cm deep. Boards were nailed to them. In the corners, they are also fastened, but only between themselves – with nails (beaten obliquely).
Since the height difference turned out to be significant, a staircase was made from the “deck” to the bow. The top is sewn up with a board, the masts are strengthened.
Only finishing work and equipment remained. After some time, it was decided to make an extension at the stern – and a place to hide from the sun, and put a box for toys there. They put poles from a bar, sheathed with plywood cut to size. The final version of the ship looked like this.
Approximately according to the same technology, another boat was built.
How to make a swing for children and adults, read here.
Sheds
It is far from always possible to put a sandbox in partial shade. More often they put it in the sun, and then they make shading – some kind of canopy or umbrella. There are many interesting designs of such canopies that are quick and easy to make.
Perhaps the easiest to implement is this canopy: two racks are attached in the middle, between them is a cross member. A dense tan is thrown over the crossbar and attached to the driven loops.
This canopy is not much more difficult. Four racks are required. They are connected at the top with planks – they make the upper harness. An awning is sewn in size and stretched. You can fasten even with buttons, even with decorative nails. The main thing is to have the opportunity to shoot in the fall.
Such a roof is a little more difficult to make. Triangles are attached to the upper strapping of the racks – the truss system. They are connected at the top with a longitudinal bar, which is correctly called a “skate” and they put props in the middle. Plywood or OSB is nailed under the soft tiles that are used in this case, and roofing material is already laid on top.
Pay attention to the decor of the sandbox itself: birch chocks are driven in / dug in around the perimeter, which are covered with boards from the inside: so that the peeling bark does not fall into the sand. Quite an interesting solution.
Another simple sun visor for the sandbox. Two triangles are connected by thin planks. They are attached to the racks, only it is desirable to make the racks more solid. For small children, this section is enough, and for older children – from 4 years old – something more solid is required – at least 60 * 60 cm. To save money, you can sew two boards – knock them down with nails on both sides. It won’t be hard to put up an awning.
How to make a sandbox with a “fungus” a small wooden canopy – see the video
Covers
The second attribute required for sandboxes is lids. Not only do leaves fall into the sand and all sorts of garbage gets in, but also animals love to be there … located. You can prevent encroachments on the purity of the sand with a cover. In the simplest version, this is a shield knocked down from boards or cut out of plywood, to which handles are attached.
So that you do not have to remove and install the shields every time, you can attach hinges, and so that the doors do not hang, weld the handles on which they can rest. With the lid open, you get two small playgrounds. Children can sit on them or build their own sandcastles. Therefore, it is more convenient to make such covers from plywood: there are no cracks and it is less in weight.
There is an even more interesting design – exit. This type of lid is definitely made from plywood. Nail the top bar so that a gap remains. A sheet of plywood is inserted into it. And so that the opposite end does not hang out, legs are nailed – small pieces of a bar.
The same principle is implemented differently in the variant in the photo below. It is already for those who are good at carpentry.
Blueprints
In order for the sandbox to be built quickly and easily with your own hands, it remains to provide you with a few drawings. You can start from them, take as a basis. You can and should make adjustments.