Sandbox

So I had 2 beams left from building our pergola.

I wanted to give them some good use, so we came up with the idea of building a sandbox for our daughter.

The items I used are:

- 2 impregnated wooden beams 75x225x6000mm @ €43,80 in total
- 4 concrete plates 40x250x3cm @ €87,60 in total
- 4 concrete poles 40x40x80cm @ € 56,85 in total
- 3 kubic meter ( 5000 kg) washed sand @ €98,10 in total
- 1 cover to place over the sandbox 255x255cm @ €96,15 in total
- 24 pole holders 7x7cm @ €96,96
- 2 impregnated poles 68x68x240cm @ €13,98
- 100 wood bolts M8 8,0x30mm @€5,30
- 100 spacers M8 @ €4,74

So the total cost was around €500.

I little bit much than I wanted to spend but hey, nothing beats the smile of your child.

As we had just built our pergola, the sandbox would be placed next to it.

This way we had a view on the box, and it falls in the shades.

I started with laying out the concrete plates so I had an idea of where to dig.

I did the digging by hand.

Just a shovel and my wheelbarrow.

I dug 40cm deep, leveling it a bit on the bottom.

Next step was placing the concrete corners.

I used a grounddrill to make some holes, placing them level.

I then placed the concrete plates in them.

At the bottom I placed some anti weed cloth.

I cut the beams at the right length and prepared the pole holders.

Now I could start filling up the sandbox.

Again I used my shovel and my wheelbarrow, manually filling the pit.

Halfway trough I let my daughter already play in it.

She loved it.

I finished filling up the pit.

I placed the beams in place.

The only thing I still have to do, is placing the pole holders underneath the beams so the wood won't come in contact with the ground and creating a little bench all around the sandbox.

It took me 6 hours to remove all the ground from the put.

It took me 3 hours to place te concrete poles and plates.

It took me 2 hours to prepare the wooden beams.

It took me 3 hours to fill the sandbox.

It will take me about 2 hours to place the pole holders.

It will take me about 2 hours to finalize the whole thing.

With finalizing I mean sanding the beams to prevent splinters and using my mill to cut the corners off the beams making it a bit safer.

This is my first writing, I hope you liked it.

I have raised the beams a bit so it creates a bench to sit on.
I used the pole holders to raise them a bit.
I used my leveling laser to define the middle of the pole holder and measured from a side of the beam to define the center.
I used long bolts to connect both together (beams and pole holders).
I used 6 pole holders/beam to keep it all steady.
I drilled holes in the beams so that the bolts don't stick out.
Afterwards I used silicones to cover the bolts.

My custom made cloth arrived too, so I can easily open or close the sandbox.

When it's closed you can still play on it.