Best place for large quantity of Play Sand?

[SoupDragon]

It must be available in bigger bags than the ones in Tescos. It's not on the B&Q website but I assume they do bigger bags of the stuff.

Any suggestions?

i got some from argos last summer, but not sure if they're bigger than the tesco bags

there's 15kg in a bag

soupie, i was so amazed by the quantity required i rechecked the calculation. of course you were right - yikes.

There must be a bulk supplier! What about those huuuuuuuuuuuuge sandpits at children's farms etc?

Bundle, I think the 15kg bags are standard. I did see a 25kg version but had no price (some garden centre site)

i suppose there must be a supplier for nurseries etc...the childhood museum have a sandpit, do you think they cart a million 15kg bags up all those stairs??

these do 25kg bags too

Travis Perkins I believe... Builk bag (should be about 1 tonne), or individual bags...

Looky here .

...You can haggle a discount off these prices over the phone.

Ah, I knew you'd be the man with the answer

Now, excuse my dimwitted female brain, but how many KG is a tonne?? The Tchibo pit needs 144kg to fill it to a satisfactory depth

Pamina, oddly enough the Homebase site implies their sand isn't available instore.

(and a tonne is 1000 kg isn't it? Rather more than I require )

The online bags are only 15kg though.

I'm so excited about my new sandpit! Er, I mean the DSs are excited about their new sandpit.

Builder's Merchant. Make sure you ask for "silver sand" though, as ordinary builder's sand stains everything orange. The bags are v. heavy, so you will need an extra person (male, strong) to help with loading and unloading.

I think the bags may be measured in volume, ie. litres. But if you tell the builder's merchant the dimensions of the sandpit, they should be able to calculate how much you need. That's what we did, anyway. The bags were not a tonne (that's a dumpy bag full, far more than you need!) I would guess our were about 50/60kg. A strong bloke can just about carry one at a time, but not very far.

Builders merchant dropped on tonne of sand around to our house (lots of wheel barrows full) as we made a huge sandpit. Much cheaper than anything else

I can sense a new thread comig on "Best place to find an extra person (male, strong) to help with loading and unloading play sand"

I feel this should be the role of the person who was jointly responsible for producing said children in the first place. Sort of payback for carrying around 4 kilos of baby all day in the last weeks of pregnancy.

Well, yes, but then he'd have to know about the sandpit purchase wouldn't he?

1 T is a lot for 1.2 X 1.2, if that's the dimension you're trying to fill...

But... kids like it deep so they don't scratch their knuckles on the soil / patio / membrane underneath and they then have plenty of depth to dig for treasure etc. (well.... I did ).

Sand goes nasty after a few years - nosy cats / algae / chucked around, so having some spare means you can top up / change as necessary. Maybe get one drop off and share with a neighbour ? Alternatively, trade prices on 25 kgs will probably be v. close to 1 T, so just get what you need.

BTW - did you all know that google has a built in covnersion calculator ?

Just type in 1 Tonee in kilos for example

or 14 stone 3 pounds in kilos to return 90.2648816 kilograms

etc. amazingly useful. Fun to play with !

Excuse me soupy - I shifted that tonne of sand myself thank you No man needed. It was about 20 wheelbarrows full.

Now of course we have decided to create the pond again, the sandpit was to fill in a big 4m x 4m pond and it hardly made a dent in it . So we need to reline the pond (not emptying the sand too much effort!!)

Manual handling Regulations mean that standard bags are 15kg or 25kg. (Argos delivery man not allowed to lift more than 20kg on his own)

Ask for silver sand at a builders' merchants. You could ask for 144kg in a 'big bag' - one of those big white woven plastic bags with 4 loops lifted by forklift. Then you have the problem of shovelling it into wheelbarrow and tipping it into cavernous sandpit.

I guess I need to buy a wheelbarrow next then...

It might be cheaper just to buy a (male, strong, with barrow for sweaty labour).

Your 4 X 4 pond sounds great, crunchie !

You know you can design them with false bottoms - presenting minimal depth to top surface and all the volume of water hidden beneath... did this in my garden.

Oh, and believe I am the proud daddy to a Great Crested Newt !!!!!! (turned up 2 days ago )

"false bottoms"