Sand for a sandbox

[omelette]

Not sure if this is the right spot for this or not.
We're looking to fill the sandbox we just built but I'm not sure what the best route to go for buying sand.
The nursery sells washed sand and then there are bags of playsand sold at ToysRus. Does it really make a difference if it's not specified as playsand?
Thanks.

[mom0810]

It makes a HUGE difference. The play sand from Toys R Us is beautiful, clean and white. The stuff from the nursery, though "washed," is gross. We bought 4 bags of it and brought it home and I couldn't put it in the sandbox. I had my dh go to ToysRUs (they had been out of it when we bought the sandbox) and get the good stuff a couple of days later and we used only that. It's a HUGE difference. I don't know what I would have done if we had used the other stuff. It's icky. And it was labeled "play sand," too. But there is no comparison.

[gini1313]

When we filled our sandbox before, dh went to a rock/dirt/sand place (what do you call them?) and got a load of sand from there. It worked well for us and was alot cheaper than getting bags of playsand. The sand wasn't as pretty as playsand, more irregularly sized and had small pebbles in it, but the kids didn't care at all. I would say it was more like sand you would find on a beach (and not in Hawaii, lol).

We are now getting ready to build a bigger sandbox (today, in fact) after dismantling the old one and I really wanted to get bags of nice playsand, but after dh told me the price difference, I decided to go with the same sand we had before. Depending on the size of your sandbox, playsand can get realy expensive. And, in our box, the kids kept carrying the sand away and if we hadn't dismantled it when we did, we would have had to refill it... I would have been alot crankier about it if we had paid for expensive sand.

I think the big thing, though, is to make sure there isn't silicone in it. I have heard that some of the sands sold in bags have it in it and it is bad for lungs when you breathe the dust.

[alinajoy]

We got safesand and it is really nice!

http://www.safesand.com

[Ygle]

Well, we got 'playsand' one year and were incredibly disappointed with it. It's okay for scooping and pouring I guess, but not so great for tunneling and building castles (we also found it 'dusty'). The next year we got real beach sand... waaayyy better!

[fruitfulmomma]

I think the big thing, though, is to make sure there isn't silicone in it. I have heard that some of the sands sold in bags have it in it and it is bad for lungs when you breathe the dust.

This. My husband does sandblasting and this is one of the dangers of the job. They have to wear airmasks while working. Probably not as bad for a child using it occasionally but personally I would not want it.

[Thystle]

Originally Posted by alinajoy

We got safesand and it is really nice!

http://www.safesand.com

They have different colors... that is cool!