For children, the sandpit in their own garden is still the greatest thing. They spend hours baking sand cakes, imitating the construction site across the street while playing, digging deep holes and building sand castles. You can easily build a wooden sandbox yourself using our construction plan and detailed instructions. Our self-made model is so uncomplicated that even inexperienced do-it-yourselfers can do it without any problems.
How can I build a sandbox myself?
To build a sandpit yourself, you need wooden boards for the inside and outside as well as a seat, weed foil, gravel, wood screws and play sand. Dig a pit, put gravel and foil in it, build the frame and fill with sand.
The shape
In most public playgrounds, the sandbox is square or rectangular and has a wide wooden seat. This variant is not only easy to set up, but if you build it yourself it is also much cheaper than buying a ready-made model. An inner and outer wooden square, which is stabilized by the seat, form the basic structure.
Material list
- four boards for the outside. The length corresponds to the external dimensions
- four boards for the seat
- four boards for the inside.
- Weed foil
- Gravel to weigh down the foil
- Wood screws
- and of course a sufficient amount of play sand.
Tool
- Spade and Shovel
- Cordless drill
- Tackers and needles
- 4 small slats, string and hammer
The construction instructions
Preparation
First, use a batter board to mark the inner surface that you need to excavate for your own sandbox. Make sure that the edges of the pit you create are straight and at exactly right angles to each other.
Draw the outer boards on a blueprint. The seat boards will later be screwed onto these with a little overhang. If, for example, these are thirty centimeters wide and should later protrude five centimeters on both sides, the following calculation results:
Outer frame minus twenty centimeters=inner frame.
Dig a pit
Sandboxes should have a minimum depth of 15 centimeters. Since children like to dig, it can be a few centimeters more. Remember that a layer of gravel will also be filled in and dig sufficiently deep.
Afterwards, a layer of gravel at least two centimeters thick is filled into the hole as drainage. This prevents the water from accumulating under the sandbox.
Assemble sandbox
- Place the wooden boards for the inner surface together squarely and screw them together from one side with at least four screws.
- Do the same with the boards for the outside.
- Place the outer one in the inner wooden rectangle and mount the seat above it.
Position the structure exactly at the edge of the shoveled pit. Now fix a strip of weed film on one of the insides and run it along the ground to the other side. The film serves as a weed barrier and ensures that no uninvited guests from underground settle in the sandbox.
Fill the sandpit
Now we're almost finished and it's time to fill the self-made sandbox. To do this, use special play sand (€12.00 on Amazon), which you can get in bags or loose in stores. It is characterized by the following properties:
- Stable in shape: Thanks to the grain size and type of grain, sand cakes and castles hold together wonderfully.
- Clay-free: The washed quartz sand leaves no ugly, yellow marks on clothing.
- Non-toxic: Play sand is TÜV tested and is guaranteed to be safe for little ones.
The amount required
Unlike purchased sandboxes, where the filling quantity is often specified, you have to calculate the sand requirement yourself for the sandbox built according to our instructions. If the digging box has an internal dimension of 120 centimeters by 120 centimeters and a depth of 30 centimeters, the following calculation results:
120 cm x 120 cm x 30 cm=432,000 cm³ which is equivalent to 0.432 m³.
Play sand is offered either in small bags, a cheap big pack with a cubic meter content (1000 liters) or openly.
Tip
To prevent animals from contaminating the play sand with their droppings, you can build a cover for the sandpit. A frame covered with a close-meshed net proves to be very practical. This means there is no sealed off space under the cover in which woodlice and other insects would feel comfortable. The neighbor's cat is still effectively kept away. In addition, the penetrating sunlight has a germ-killing effect. And while you're at it, you might also want to build a children's swing yourself.
