MADE: Mobile Sandbox

After I finished my dining table, I was itching for another project to tackle and figured with summer coming up, some outdoor entertainment was the way to go. I LOVED the idea of Ana White’s sandbox with bench, but didn’t like the idea of it taking up a permanent space (i.e., killing grass) in our backyard. I had seen a very simple sandbox on casters on another site so decided to combine the two ideas. So I followed the AW plan to the tee and completely rigged up the mobile part. First I had a sheet of plywood cut to the size of the base. I drilled and nailed it to the sandbox base. I then drilled several holes into the plywood to allow for water drainage. I also added 5 2×6 boards running in the direction of the benches and one 2×6 board in the center for added stability. I have neither read nor seen anything that supports the idea that this will add stability, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. I then drilled a caster on each corner and one in the sorta middle. Positioning it in the actual middle was not possible due to the middle support beam that I added for possible support. I lined the box with landscaping fabric to prevent sand from falling through the holes in the plywood.

Yesterday I moved the box under our treehouse so that it wouldn’t get wet. Smart, right? Nope. The wheels got stuck in the mud and I almost broke my back trying to get it out. I’ll definitely keep it on the cement patio and cover with a tarp during rains. The wood is pre-treated and I added decking stain post-construction, so it *should* hold up in rain either way.

I built this about a week or so ago and Parky has used it every single day. He loves it. Even the big boys love it. Even I love it. If I sit out there with my feet in it and close my eyes, it’s almost like I’m at the beach. Something I’ve learned from this project is that seeing your kids enjoy something you made feels about 1,000 times better than seeing them enjoy something you bought. I’ve also learned that I’m really bad at writing tutorials. Hopefully these images will give you a better idea of how to mobilize your sandbox.

I’m realizing that I didn’t take a photo of this with benches down. Using the handles, they fold down and create a cover for the box to prevent cats and rodents from using it as a litter box :).
The photo above was taken before I remembered that the caster in the middle would not work. My original plan was to add wooden squares to the four corners to make it even. I even HAND SAWED the squares then completely forgot about them.