Please see our product comparisons and alternative play surfaces, including comprehensive specifications, benefits and uses — as well as links to inspirational garden ideas and do-it-yourself guides.
Our Play Sand brings safe, soft fun to any garden with its incredibly soft texture that’s perfect under little hands and feet. Available in bulk or bagged, these washed, screened and graded high-quality silica grains – unlike beach or building sand – create a non-staining, free-flowing surface that brushes off easily without irritation. Perfect for:
- children’s sandpits
- play pits
- safe play areas
- outdoor play zones
The rounded particles ensure no eye scratches on contact, while excellent drainage keeps it durable. Conforming to BS EN 1177:2008 standards, Play Sand is the perfect low-maintenance choice for renovating your outdoor space into hours of safe, happy play.
Play Sand
£147.00 inc. VAT
Play Sand Calculator
Never lay play sand deeper than 300mm. Sand deep enough to tunnel into can collapse on a child.
Sand is kicked and carried out of a play area easily. A little extra covers that.
Related products
-
Deluxe Pine Play Area Bark
Price range: £250.00 through £415.00 inc. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Softwood Play Grade Chips
Price range: £122.00 through £318.00 inc. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Hardwood Play Grade Chips
Price range: £139.00 through £339.00 inc. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Deluxe Pine Play Nuggets
Price range: £333.00 through £499.00 inc. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Specifications, Inspirational Ideas & DIY Guides
Jump Links
Why Professionals & Homeowners Choose, Applications, DIY Guides & Inspirational Ideas, Maintenance, Purchasing Tips, FAQs, Related Products
Overview
The sandpit gets used every day of the summer, and it is the part of a play area people most often fill with the wrong material. I have dug out and refilled a good few for clients who bought building sand and got orange hands and a surface that set like a biscuit. Our Play Sand is a washed and screened silica sand, graded so nearly all of it passes 1.18mm with the dust washed out, which is the band that moulds and holds its shape instead of going claggy. Dry it reads pale and sandy, and it goes noticeably darker damp. It is EN 1177 tested, and it suits domestic sandpits, nursery and school sand trays, sensory play and jump pits. What you are paying for, though, is mostly what has been taken out of it.
Why Professionals & Homeowners Choose Play Sand
Four things separate a proper play sand from a bag of sand, and none of them show in a photograph.
- Washing takes the fines out, and the fines are the dust that flies up when a child tips a bucket.
- Rounded and sub-rounded grains stay loose under pressure rather than locking together.
- Non-staining sand brushes off skin and clothes, and does no harm to a lawn or border when it goes over the edge.
- Even grading is what makes it mould, where builder's sand slumps because of the clay and silt in it.
- Play sand is not a soil improver. It does nothing for clay and is no substitute for horticultural grit.
- Sand displaces faster than bark or chip, so a pit wants raking level and topping up more often.
Play Sand Applications
Sand is unusual among play surfaces because it is an activity in itself rather than something to land on, which is why a pit gets more use than the frame beside it. A pit sprays sand a metre or two, so the border beside one wants planting that shrugs it off: Festuca glauca (blue fescue) and Carex oshimensis 'Evergold' (Japanese sedge) both take a dusting, and neither is thorny, poisonous, nor a magnet for bees. Play sand is not for soil improvement, potting mixes, jointing block paving or bedding slabs.
- Domestic sandpits and raised sand tables at 100 to 150mm.
- Nursery, school and childminder sand trays.
- Sensory play and sand-and-water play.
- Long jump take-off and landing pits.
- Topping up an existing pit each spring, once the old sand is raked back.
- Filling a pit built for a second life, where the walls become a water feature or raised bed later.
DIY Guides & Inspirational Ideas
Compare the specifications of our premium quality pine bark range to find the optimal product for your next project.
Ben Parrot
From installing hundreds of projects, a heavy-duty membrane is the one layer I never skip
Ben Parrot
Play Sand Maintenance
Sand is the loose fill that moves most, so this is weekly work rather than seasonal. Rake it through once a week while the pit is in use; raking is not tidying here, it is what restores an even depth after a fortnight of digging has piled half of it against one wall. Let it dry out between spells of use, because sand that never gets the chance to dry goes sour. Public pits are refilled annually as policy; a family pit goes by condition.
Purchasing Tips
An 850kg bulk bag fills roughly 3.5 to 4 square metres at 150mm deep, or 5 to 6 square metres at 100mm, so one bag does a pit around 2m square.
Depth is the number worth getting right. A domestic pit works at 100 to 150mm, deep enough to dig and mould in without being deep enough to bury anything, and 300mm is a ceiling rather than a target. Sand is the odd one out here, where every other play surfacing figure is a minimum: a pit deep enough to tunnel into can cave in on a child. Where sand is the impact surface under equipment with a real fall height, that equipment sets the depth, and the sand is EN 1177 tested for it. Ask us for the certificate and match its tested depth to the free height of fall.
Put a heavy duty membrane under it as you build, for separation rather than weeds: it stops sand working down into the soil and soil working up.
If you would rather talk your play sand order through with a person, ring Outdoor Aggregates on 0330 043 7585. The office is open 7am to 7pm, seven days a week.
Play Sand FAQs
What Is Play Sand Made Of?
Play sand is washed silica sand, quarried in the UK and screened so nearly all of it passes 1.18mm with the dust washed out.
How Deep Should the Sand Be in a Sandpit?
A domestic sandpit works at 100 to 150mm of sand. Never go beyond 300mm, because a pit that deep can be dangerous.
How Much Does an 850kg Bulk Bag of Play Sand Cover?
An 850kg bulk bag of play sand fills roughly 3.5 to 4 square metres at 150mm deep, or 5 to 6 square metres at 100mm.
Is Play Sand Safe for Children?
Play sand sold for sandpits in the UK counts as a toy, so it should be tested to EN 71-3, which caps how much lead, cadmium and arsenic can migrate out of it.
Can Play Sand Be Used as a Safety Surface Under a Climbing Frame?
Play sand is EN 1177 tested as an impact-absorbing surface, but the depth it needs is set by the equipment's free height of fall rather than by the pit. Ask us for the certificate.
How Do You Stop Cats Using a Sandpit?
Covering the pit whenever it is not in use is the only thing that reliably keeps cats out of play sand, and a rigid lid beats a sheet.
-
Play Gravel
£157.00 inc. VAT -
Pine Play Nuggets
Price range: £187.00 through £463.00 inc. VAT -
Pine Play Bark
Price range: £142.00 through £463.00 inc. VAT -
Hardwood Play Grade Chips
Price range: £139.00 through £339.00 inc. VAT
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.