St. Mary of the Lake Day Care Sandbox

We were approached for a donation of materials for a cap for the sandbox at St. Mary’s of the Lake Day Care Center in Culver.  Apparently they were having trouble with cats using the sandbox as… well… a sandbox.  They had tried putting a tarp over it, but that solution proved poor.  The various wood materials that were requested though would have made a cap that would have been extremely heavy as well as unlikely to survive the elements for long.  We discussed some options and determined that we had better suited materials for the task, but they were not such that the volunteers could complete the installation.  We then volunteered to take on the task

The sandbox was a prefab structure in a hexagon shape.  Unfortunately it was not constructed “square”.  The first task was to reinstall the sides in a true hexagon form.  Then a framework of treated lumber was constructed overlapping the sandbox structure.  It was constructed in such a way to provide a slope to drain the water that falls on it to the sides.  One side was formed slightly higher than the other side to allow it to lap over the center.  The framework was then covered with corrugated, galvanized, metal building siding with a factory painted Kynar finish.  The edges of the metal proved to be somewhat sharp, so the edges were ground so that they were dull.  To further protect these edges, EMT was bent around the perimeter providing a smooth buffered edge and doubling as a handle for picking up and removing the two halves of the cap.

We were happy to provide this service to St. Mary’s of the Lake.  We have completed projects for them in the past, including the award winning sanctuary renovation we completed in 2007.  We truly hope this donation serves the Day Care Center for years to come.