Keeping the kids entertained can be a hard job for any parent. You want to keep them active and healthy but can’t spend every minute of every day playing with them and keeping them from boredom. Why not use railway sleepers in your garden to create the perfect play area for them. It means that they can be closely monitored, whilst allowing you to get on with whatever it is that you need to do.

Railway sleepers are great as they can be used for a variety of different things both in your garden and in your home. Probably the easiest ways to guarantee endless hours of fun for your children is to create a sandpit. This shouldn’t take longer than a day to complete and allows you to experiment with many different shapes and sizes.

Firstly, you should decide where about in your garden you want to have your sand pit and measure out the area. Once you have decided on the area, you will need to check the ground and prepare it so that it can sit completely flat along the ground. Once you have a flat ground, you will need to buy the materials. These include:

1. New railway sleepers, ( as old railway sleepers will have had creosote treatment and are unsuitable for children to be near)

2. Screws/fixing brackets and decking screws

3. Play sand

You will need to either measure and cut your railway sleepers yourself or have this done when you buy them. Then you will be able to lay them round the side of the planned area for your sandpit. Then you will need to screw the sleepers together, thus ensuring that the structure is firm enough for children to play in without it moving.

Once this is done, you can fill in your sandpit with your play sand. You can add as much or as little as you like, although it is advisable not to fill the sand pit up too much as it tends to get everywhere! You could also make a lid for the sand pit to prevent it getting ruined by the rain or attracting any unwanted visitors. This could be done fairly easily using a fabricated waterproof cover and something heavy to hold it down, perhaps any left-over railway sleeper pieces that got chopped off during the building process. Then hey presto, you have a sandpit! Now there are hours of fun for your children and all that is left is to buy bucket and spade.