Sandbox Tech

BigBody79

BigBody79

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Location
Lumberton
I've got a small play structure. (Thanks to a fellow member)

Now that it's warming up I need sand. I'd love to get bulk sand say from a concrete place but not sure if that'd be good for playing.

I also need sand for my yard so this would really be two fold.

Do you put anything down over the old grass?

Cover?
 
I used the thick black plastic you would put under your house. Spray grass killer, lay down plastic, fill with sand. The yellow sand you get from a concrete place is fine, it's more corse then the white "play sand" and less money! If there are any cats around you need to come up with a cover.
 
For your yard you will want to check if the sand has salt in it. Most sand you find does. You really need river sand, or it can kill your grass.

For the play box, any sand will work. Black plastic and a cover tends to work. Only downside to the plastic, it will tend to hold water if there isn't a good cover over the area.
 
The make a special fabric called "Geotextile" or "Membrane". I heard it the other day but the latest is called something else? Plastic does the exact same thing, it's just not a natural material that drains water. All of them can be had at any home improvement store. Don't skimp on thickness if you go with plastic. Or do like me and just not worry about an underlayment for it would take years for growth to penetrate 6-12+ inches of sand. Then just move the box over some and start all over.
Sand, your best bet if you have a truck is to just do a search and find the closest to you. It's usually the same places that carry mulch and gravel as well. A concrete place is not going to want to sell sand for they purchased it for their own reason. And would most likely charge THEIR gas fee along with your local yard. They all charge about the same. Think it's around $23-25 per yard. I am fortunate to have a dump truck and I get a scoop once a year before every party just to keep the kids occupied and not fighting over the tire swing or swing set.
When I worked on the side back in my younger days, I mowed a local golf course and they used pure sand to fill in the divots.
The sand itself has usually 2-3 grades depending on the fine-ness. Cost a tad more but I always get the finer grade for my sand box. The others tend to get rocky.

Hope that helps?

Lumberton? Don't ya'll have sand like everywhere??? :)
 
jeepinmatt said:
The concrete places love to sell sand to brick masons, and they'll be happy to sell it to anyone else too. Lowes sells it by the 1000lb bag for $50 and its good clean stuff: http://www.lowes.com/pd_152858-44889-819332001018_0Z1z10yb5__?productId=3369216&pl=1&Ntt=sand
I used a couple of these doing the foundation for my house.
Click to expand...

Price sand from a concrete place and you'll see WHY they "love to sell to brick masons"...

Lowes. That's about half a cubic yard if not less? Unless you are trying to haul sand in the trunk of your car, I believe I'd rather hit up a gravel/sand joint???

And how can it NOT be clean unless you get a shitty grade and it has rocks in it???

Just trying to state the facts clear jeepinmatt and help save BigBody79 quite a bit of money. We talking $100 savings or better now just for the sand box, not counting the back yard...

Durham Rock Yard is listing it at $22.50/cy loaded.

All I got. Good luck and I'm out...
 
I called a play here locally that is a mulch/gravel/sand place. I'm pretty sure the lady said 122.00 for a pickup truck load at 1.5cu yards. They are calling it play sand.

Hard to say. Seems like a lot.
 
No way!!!^^^^^ $122 for 1.5 yards!!! That's more then concrete! !! To FILL the back of my f250 is $90 and that's 4yards! Now this is just that yellow sand, but dam what they got!? Must be really nice!! Yellow sand (witch works just fine) should run between $20 and $30 a yard
 
I called back just to make sure. I did have the price wrong. It was 120.42. White Sand as much as my truck would hold. Which from what I'm gathering is only going to be between 1.5-1.75 cu yards. Fullsize 6' bed.

WHI Sand and Gravel Fayetteville, NC
 
Yea we're pretty sand around here but I don't know of any where that sells playsand. I'll keep looking into it. I was expecting closer to 60-70 for a truck load which is reasonable in my book. But looks like I'll be going sand bags from lowes.
 
Only difference between play sand and sand from a concrete place is grain size, and possibly the play sand has been bleached and chemically treated. Sand from a concrete place is has to be nearly perfectly clean to mix concrete and brixs mix. Unless you have to have white "play" sand I'd buy the stuff from concrete place and be done with it. I've also read to add cinnamon and it will keep bugs and cats outta it
 
Loganwayne said:
Only difference between play sand and sand from a concrete place is grain size, and possibly the play sand has been bleached and chemically treated. Sand from a concrete place is has to be nearly perfectly clean to mix concrete and brixs mix. Unless you have to have white "play" sand I'd buy the stuff from concrete place and be done with it. I've also read to add cinnamon and it will keep bugs and cats outta it
Click to expand...
But then the kiddos eat it lol!!
 
Besides, it's like everything else they will play in it like crazy for a week or two then be on to something else! ! now hammers and axes! ! That's the gift that keeps giving! ! Lol!!
 
One thing to think about - if you go the route of putting down heavy plastic first, you should consider makin ga cover for te hsandbox. Otherwise unless it is really well protected, when it rains, it will become a giant soupy mess that will never dry out.
 
For the bottom, go to lowes and get the weed "paper" more of a felt/burlap material designed to line flower beds with.
Water flows right through it and it prevents grass grow through. SOme even has a a weeb inhibitor in the paper.

We did that with our kids sandbox when Lane was 3. The sandbox has been topped up several times but never had a weed problem.
 
I just bought a few bags from lowes when i outfitted the sandbox here. Play sand is very fine. I only used a few bags and it was easy.

Gee wiz guys, we can over engineer anything on here...
 
krehel24 said:
So the French drain under the sandbox and a retractable pool cover for the top is a little much??
Click to expand...

Maybe but not necessarily, however neighborhood cats will still take a dump in it when you aren't looking. Nothing says good times like a free tootsie roll!
 
this reminds me of the time my crazyass overprotective neighbor was telling me she had to buy special sand for the sandbox that didn't have mites, or bugs in it. :confused:

I was like... bitch I have a whole back yard full of sand.......
 
There are a few sand pits up this way that have some decent quality stuff. G.S. Materials down in Candor actually produces golf course sand now, and their rates seem decent.
 
I may sound redundant, but sand from the concrete plant or a concrete grade sand from a sand quarry is gonna be best for the sandbox and cheaper too. It's washed and run through a sieve for particle consistency . The larger grain size is easier to clean off than play sand also. For the yard I'd find some river or creek sand. A lot of concrete plants will have this too, they use it in their lesser quality mixes as a filler for washed sand. The different particle sizes are great for loosening compacted soil, but it will usually contain some trash (sticks, rocks, etc)....I've even found a fish Or two lol... Whatever that dredge can suck up...

Like Ron said, find some geotex or a good quality landscape fabric that is not gonna deteriorate in a few years
 
Back
Top