Baby pool, and sand/water table on a deck?

[lizamann]

After we move next month, I will own my first little piece of the outdoors - a 10 x 16 deck. Wooo hooo! (You homeowners can all laugh now...) I am desperate for outdoor space and spend more time thinking about this darned deck than the whole rest of the condo.

Anyway, this deck is on the third floor, directly above 2 neighbors' identical decks. Assuming it meets the weight requirements, do you think I can put a baby pool out there? If I do, how would I drain it without spilling onto the decks below? And what about a sand/water table? OK with a mat under it, or is it just way too messy to consider in such a space?

Love to hear from any deck owners, especially in a condo type situation.

[kaylinsmommy2]

Is it like a wood-type deck? We have a balcony (much smaller than yours. :( ) and I ahve a sand/water tableon it on top of an outdoor mat that DH bought from Home Depot. the mat is dumb since it gets wet when the water drains. But our balcony has a drain for water/rain in general, and we can let water out taht way. My concern about the baby pool is that it would be very hard under the bottom of it, even with a mat. I'm not sure if that's true, or whether a baby would even notice. But, depending on the age of your child, a sand table by itself (or a sand box) would be awesome!! We've only done water in it once (since there's no hose outlet on the balcony, so I had to bring buckets filled with water), instead, we play with the sand very often. She loves it!
Sorry if I'm rambling. I hope it makes sense.
Caroline
Kaylin 6/5/04

[amp]

This is tough. We drain our pool every couple of days (baby pool) and I don't see how you could do it without getting the other people's decks wet. They are hard to move when full, so trying to dump outside/over the deck would be tough, unless you barely fill it. You could throw out buckets of water, but that would be very tedious!

Also, our DS makes quite a lot of water splashing from his pool and even fills buckets and dumps them out, so that could also be a problem. Not that you'd allow it, but hey, stuff happens. If you could figure out the draining it part, you wouldn't have to be too worried about small spills drips, if no one was out on their decks.

Good luck!

[cinrein]

We have a sand and water table on our deck, single family home. The sand gets everywhere. No way to keep it contained to the table. So I sweep it off my deck every time Anna uses the table (don't want sand tracked into the house). My concern would be that people below or even around you would get a mini sandstorm when you sweep off the sand. Maybe if you put a really big tarp under it and gathered it up so you could shake it out at ground level?

Cindy and Anna February 2003

[beckyr88]

No advice, but good luck on your move! I am sooo jealous of your little piece of outdoors!! Hopefully you'll figure something out!

[C99]

dbp

[C99]

Hey, I didn't know that you had bought a place -- Congrats!

We don't use the water part of our sand/water table, but the sand gets everywhere! We used to have it on the patio part and J. swept it every weekend. Now we have it over dirt and have mounds of sand underneath the table. I think it would be really windy up on the 3rd floor, too.

I think a baby pool would be more doable, but I am not sure how you'd drain it. I'm sure there's gotta be a way to set up a reverse drain hose. As far as hardness, I think you could probably put a foam mat underneath the pool.

[DebbieJ]

Congrats on the new condo!

I agree with the PP. The sand will be everywhere. It will fall through the slats and onto the balconies below. :(

My ds likes to get a shovelful of sand and walk away from the table. It is all over our driveway and in our landscaping, no matter how often I redirect him or try to get him to dump it in a bucket. Plus, the sand on the deck can get quite slick and pose a falling hazard. Bummer, huh?

~ deb
DS 12/03
And a niece or nephew arriving in early August!

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/10029.gif

[C99]

Beth,

I saw this at Target and thought of you and this thread. They have something in their Too Hot/Way Cool line of summer things that is a sand and water tabletop thing. It's not a lot of sand or water and it looks like it sits on top of a tabletop for play. Age 18M & up. It's green and orange.

[sugarsnappea]

How about putting the sand/water table in one of those plastic baby pools to contain the mess? You would still have to figure out a way to clean the pool, but the mess will be contained. No sand falling into the neighbors' Chardonnay! :)

[lizamann]

Thanks!