Your kids likely love playing in the sandbox that you keep in your backyard. Sandboxes have long been a childhood staple, and it’s a spot where many fond memories can be created.
If your kids forget to put the lid on the sandbox, then you might notice that the sand has become wet. When you recently had a period of rain, this can turn the sandbox area into a wet mess that isn’t fit for your kids to play in.
Sand will dry over time, but that doesn’t mean that your kids will want to wait for a long period of time to get back to playing. Is there anything that you can do to help the sand dry at a faster rate?
Read on to learn some important tips for drying out the sand in a sandbox. It should help you to have the best time getting the sandbox back to normal so that your kids can go out and have some fun.
1 – Just Exercise Patience
Just exercising patience is the easiest way to dry out the sand that has become wet. You basically just need a heat source to help dry out the sand, and the sun is going to work very nicely to do this.
You don’t really have to do anything at all if you know that the weather forecast is supposed to be sunny. Just ensure that the sandbox remains uncovered so that the sun can beam directly down to the sand.
Eventually, the sand should dry out enough so that it will be able to be played in once more. This might take several days of sunlight to dry out the sand completely if it got sopping wet during a heavy storm.
The only issue with this is that sometimes the sand won’t dry out evenly if it was thoroughly soaked. You could rake the sand a bit and turn it over to try to ensure that everything dries out.
Do your best to remember to cover the sandbox when the kids are done playing the next time. This should help you to avoid having the sand in the sandbox get super soggy.
2 – Lay the Sand Out on a Tarp
One good way to get the sand to dry evenly is to take the time to lay it all out on a tarp. You could lay down a tarp in your yard and keep it held down with rocks.
Place a somewhat heavy rock on each of the four corners of the tarp. Once this is done, you’ll be able to shovel the sand onto the tarp.
Do your best to spread the sand out evenly on the tarp so that everything can dry out in the sun. Don’t just shovel it in one big pile in the middle.
It’ll dry out substantially faster if the sand is spread out somewhat thinly on the tarp. This might be a bit of a pain because it involves extra work, but it really is going to be the most convenient thing that you can do when you want the sand to dry out fast.
Once the sand has dried out completely, you’ll just need to shovel it back into the sandbox. Try to spread the sand out in the sandbox as evenly as you can so that it won’t be clumpy.
You might even want to rake things out a bit while you’re doing this. It’ll take a bit of time, but that’s just part of the process.
A little bit of labor might make your kids happy due to making it so that they can play in the sandbox again faster. Hopefully, the sun will be bright enough and hot enough to dry the sand out in a timely fashion.
3 – Drying Sand in the Oven
This next idea is likely not going to be practical for drying out the sand in a sandbox. However, it is something that people do when drying out the sand that they gathered from beaches.
You could do this for the sand in the sandbox, but it’d be a slow process due to only being able to fit so much sand in the oven. The basic idea is that you need to place sand on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven for around 30 minutes.
After 15 minutes, you should stir the sand to ensure that it dries evenly. See if the sand is dry after the 30 minutes have passed, and if it hasn’t dried completely, then it can stay in the oven for another 15 minutes.
You can see why doing this for an entire sandbox would be less than ideal. However, it’s worth mentioning since it is a reliable method for drying out sand.
Try to Keep the Sand From Getting Wet in the Future
Perhaps the best thing that you can do is to try to keep the sand from getting wet in the future. If you’re able to protect the sand in the sandbox, then it won’t get sopping wet again.
Buying a sandbox with a waterproof lid is highly recommended since that should keep the sand nice and dry. If you built your own sandbox, then you could do your best to build a lid that will keep the rain from touching the sand.
Even a makeshift cover for the sandbox such as a tarp will do a good job of keeping things tidy. You should be able to lay a tarp down across the sandbox and then keep it secured with ties that stake into the ground.
If you don’t have stakes and ties that you can use for your tarp, then you could hold it down with rocks so that it will cover the sandbox as tightly as possible. The idea is to just make sure that no rain is touching the sand, and you can accomplish this quite easily.
Many people will also line the sandbox with a tarp to keep things from getting messy. A tarp with holes punched in it will do a good job of allowing the sandbox to drain when rain does get in.
Keep an eye on the sandbox and try to remember to cover it up if the forecast says that rain is coming. Being proactive should make it so that you won’t have to do much to keep the sand dry moving forward.
In fact, it’s a good idea to just keep the sandbox covered when your children aren’t using it as a general rule. This makes it so that you won’t make mistakes as often, and your kids will be happier to have the sandbox available to use more often.
Final Thoughts
Keeping your sandbox dry is really not going to be all that difficult, but you do have to pay attention to what is going on. If you aren’t careful, then the sand in the sandbox could easily become a muddy mess that the kids won’t be able to play in.
The best course of action to take is to allow the sand to dry out naturally when this happens. It’ll dry even if it’s just left in the sandbox over time, but you can speed up the process.
Laying the sand on a tarp works wonders when trying to dry things out evenly. You could also use some more exotic sand-drying methods, but it’s usually best to stick to tried and true practical methods.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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Alan Bills
Wednesday 8th of September 2021
Just wish to ask what temperature should the oven be at to dry the sand