Toy Box Recycling

Jan’s interior window shutters arrived from China and have been fitted.  It’s taken eight weeks from the time the window frames were measured until fitment.  Curtains and rails have been removed and the holes filled

The lounge windows

Master bedroom

All I now need to do is make the Jarrah display cabinet for the lounge and hang various paintings, photos, etc

Meanwhile the toy boxes are being recycled.  Most of Perth is built on sand so there is very little in the way of a stormwater system.  The rainwater is channelled into soak pits.  Some are quite large and surrounded by security fencing whilst the home owner is expected to supply their own.  My workshop probably needed a stormwater system as the water was being discharged onto the lawn.  that wasn’t causing an issue but I felt something more permanent was required.

You can purchase the framing (box) for soak pits but the price ranges from $60 upwards.  These purpose manufactured boxes are just prefabricated plastic boxes and I think I can save the money.

My solution is to recycle two of the children’s toy boxes.  Our youngest is 40 next month and lives in Manchester so he’s scarcely likely to want them.

The boxes are approximately 18” square and I will bury them in the ground upside down.  I’ve drilled a 90mm hole on one side near what will be to the top.  This will be for the 90mm PVC inlet pipe

Easy digging into the sand at the rear of the shed.  I’ve fitted PVC pipe coupling to the metal downpipe using some self drilling screws left over from the shed construction.  I’ve screwed the connection together rather than gluing them just in case I have to dismantle the system at some future date

I cut the PVC pipe to length on the bench saw using a clamp as a stop and then rolled the pipe around in my hands through the blade to get a square cut

One section of pipe was fitted to the box and then the box was fitted to the downpipe connection

The hole was then back filled with sand in stages.  Between each stage I used the hose to compact the sand with water.

I’ll let the sand settle for a few weeks before placing one of my recycled 2ft square concrete slabs on top