My little dump truck loving two-year-old needed to have his own sandbox in our backyard. We completed his easy sandbox in just a few hours, and it was ready to go after naptime.
Before building started, I spent some time searching online for easy sandbox plans. We considered a pre-built sandbox or even those plastic animal-shaped sandboxes. The small sizes or poor customer reviews landed us on building our sandbox. I did a few searches for how to build a sandbox and compared a few sandbox plans.
While we are perfectly capable of building many of the sandbox plans I found, we opted to create a very simple sandbox with just four boards and some corner braces. Here is how to build a sandbox like ours.
How to Build a Sandbox
These sandbox plans are for a 6′ x 6′ sandbox that’s 12″ deep. This easy diy sandbox can be built in just a few hours. If you don’t have a truck to haul the lumber or sand, you can rent one for about $20 from your local home improvement store.
DIY Sandbox Materials
- 2 – 12 foot 2 in. X 12 in. boards, cut to 6 foot lengths (we used Home Depot’s treated “cedar-toned” lumber)
- 4 – 2 in. X 10 in. corner braces
- 48 – 1 1/4 in. decking screws
- landscape fabric (enough to cover 12 sq feet)
- 36 cubic feet of play sand (3600 lbs, that’s 64 50 lb bags!!)
Building the Sandbox
Create the four corners by connecting the boards using the corner braces and screws on the inside of the corners.
Sandbox Placement
If you don’t already have a specific place to put your, sandbox you can build the sandbox frame and move it around your yard (it’ll be heavy). We chose a flat, shady spot that can easily be seen from anywhere in our yard or from the kitchen windows.
Digging Out the Sandbox
If you have the frame of the sandbox built, you can dig out the grass in the center of the frame. You’ll want to dig out the grass as well as some dirt where the sandbox will go. The sandbox frame should be placed about 6″ beneath ground level. This will help the frame support the weight of the sand. The dirt base of the sandbox should be level.
Add Landscape Fabric to the Base
Cover the hole of the sandbox with landscape fabric and place the frame on top, so the fabric goes underneath the boards. The fabric will help keep weeds from growing but also to keep the dirt and sand separate.
Fill the Sandbox with Play Sand
Now you can add the 3600 pounds of sand to the sandbox. We rented a truck to haul the 64 50 pound bags into our backyard.
This play sand is intended to stay a bit moist, which is perfect for digging and playing.
Fill the sandbox with shovels, rakes, buckets, trucks, and tractors and get digging! Get creative by digging holes, creating roads, and building sandcastles.
Our little guy loves getting dirty in the diy sandbox.
Do you have any additional tips on how to build a sandbox? Leave them in the comments below.
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