Building a sandpit - Part II - Digging and filling
Written by Delwynne Fife
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
To see the first part of this project, click here .
The next step was marking out the area and digging out the pit. As I was going to build a brick border around the base of the sandpit, I had to mark the area larger than the sand by the width of two bricks. I also had to dig down deep enough so that the bricks would be flush with the surrounding area when I was finished. I measured it all out, marked it with a shovel and then lifted the turf (and clay) with a pick and lots of elbow grease! (Image 1)
While I was digging, my wife was putting the two frames together with the angle brackets. The 2 frames would be placed on top of each other to create a little height.(Image 2)
Once I had the area dug out, I levelled it with a builder's spirit level. The bottom frame was then placed over the hole and the weedmat was cut to size and placed on the bottom of the pit to prevent weeds coming up through the sandpit (Image 4). In the four inside corners of the frame, I dug a hole to place some supporting pillars (Image 5). These hold the frame in place, allow me to keep one frame on top of the other and cover the metal brackets to prevent injury to the kids if the dig close to the wood. On top of the weedmat I poured a thin layer of fine gravel to help with drainage(Barely visible in image 6).
I screwed the frames to the pillars from the outside. Then I laid the bricks around the base of the sandpit as can be seen in the photos below (Image 6).
The last step (and the hardest work) was filling the sandpit with sand as I had to carry it from the front garden in a plastic baby bath as I couldn't get the wheelbarrow around the house!
