Sandbox Project

Recently my kid woke up from a nap and the very first words out of his mouth were "Me and Grayson and Logan and Trey dig in the sandbox make sand castles." It was immediately obvious to me that he was blearily describing a dream he just had where he and his daycare friends were having a fun day. This wasn't the first time he has mentioned a sandbox, but I now know that it is an important enough idea to him where it is actually being incorporated into his dreams.

Well, that's one dream I can help make happen.

A sandbox is simple enough to put together: 4 walls, 4 seats, a bottom, and lid. It's a box you fill with sand, you see. The DIY Network website confirmed there was nothing tricky about it, but the plan they had online didn't have a great description for the lid. Also, I need to stain the wood to match a pre-existing cedar playset and nearby shed so it doesn't look out of place in the backyard (also why I am not simply buying a big plastic turtle, say).

I tried to do this on the cheap but I also needed to keep it as bug-proof as possible.

I decided to make the box a little smaller than 4 feet by 4 feet so I could just use one sheet of plyboard for both the bottom and top without having to get too fancy with it.

The lid will also need to be re-enforced with a couple of strips of lumber because, in addition to preventing the sandbox from turning into a litterbox, it will definitely be something that will be climbed on. On the other hand, it can't be so heavy that it is hard for my wife to move. On yet another hand, you don't want it flying off in a windstorm, and I want to minimize tiedowns and other trip hazards like that. So my lid looks like the pic you see here.

For those of you wondering why I am even bothering with a bottom: I need to prevent moles and other critters from coming up through the sand and having a bottom helps keep the entire thing sturdy (at least during the construction phase).

I used cedar landscaping timbers for the skids, since they were 4 times cheaper than the 4x4s I was going to use. Why use skids? They help keep the bottom elevated off the ground and can be used as a place to level the sandbox before half a ton of sand is poured into it.

Not too much more to say that isn't said on the DIY site. A couple of things, though.

The seats are a great idea but I moved them to the inside of the corners of the box to make the lid easier to build.

Build the lid first. By building it this way you know how everything is going to fit first and it is easier to make the sandbox a little smaller than it is to make the lid a little bigger.

According to Wolfram Alpha, the density of sand is about 1.79 g/cc, so a 4' x 4' box 8" deep will take about 23 50-pound bags to fill. If you are shopping at Home Depot, the cost for the sand alone will be about $80 (I don't feel the DIY site takes that cost into account). It should be needless to say that you will need a vehicle capable of transporting over 1,200 pounds if you plan on making only one trip. Ford F-150 = good. Ford Escort = bad. Don't be the guy loading a couple dozen 50 pound bags of pulverized rock onto a cart in the store only to discover you can't steer (or move!) it. Think, wouldja!

I was happy to discover that, since I'm not the first person on the planet to wonder how much room 50 pounds of sand takes up, they printed it on the bag. The bags say a 4' x 4' x 4” volume requires 11 bags. So, doubling that, they reckon 22 bags... really close to my geeky and totally unnecessary calculations described in the paragraph above. Sweet.

For some reason, though, I only needed about 10 bags to fill the sandbox. I knew I probably over ordered the sand because the box is actually a little less than 4 feet by 4 feet but to over estimate by 100%?!? I needed a few bags to help with the leveling since the land slopes where the sandbox is, but I still have 8 leftover bags. I suppose I thought that the sand would pack tighter in the box than it actually did. I Luckily I have a masonry project coming up next so they won't go to waste...

My total cost for the project was about $180, but you could knock off about $50 if you choose not to stain it and buy less sand. I don't see how they (DIY network) came up with a price range of $50-$100 unless they had a lot of the stuff on hand (I even used 2 x 8's instead of 2 x 10's). Also, I feel 2 hours is a little on the quick side for this project unless you are not going to build a lid. It took me about 4 hours.

One other thing, please remember that Lowe's or Home Depot will not cut treated wood for you, so you are on your own for making that happen.

You can see the corner of his playhouse in this pic – that's the color this sandbox will ultimately be.

My son loves it! I look forward to building sand castles with the little guy for as long as he will let me. :)