Children love water! You can experiment wonderfully and make wonderful nonsense with it. Especially in the summer months, such a water play wall in your garden is definitely a highlight! It is flexible thanks to clever plug-in brackets.
Step By Step
The wall made of wedge strips offers plenty of space for experiments with water and “toys”. Thanks to a manual bilge pump, the little ones can pump the water out of the mortar boxes and from there let it run down through the various attached elements such as gutters, a flower box, a funnel or even a “mill wheel”. The so-called French cleat wall allows the parts to be re-hung and rearranged again and again.
You need this:
- two mortar boxes
- Douglas decking & squared timber
- 3 posts, coarsely ribbed
- rhombus strips
- waterproof wood glue
- screws
- nails
- Wood stain and brush
- Mounting elements: gutters, flower boxes, funnels, buckets, hoses, etc.
- Manual bilge pump, hose system
- Universal angle, alternatively folding rule
- pencil
- Crosscut and miter saw
- table saw
- Undercover jig set for invisible screw connections
- cordless drill
- Drill with countersink and depth stop
- Force
- hammer
- Support pads from terrace construction
- hearing protection and goggles
1. build substructure
First the substructure is built. To do this, the mortar boxes must be measured. You determine the length and width of the wooden box.
A border with a floor is then built from the decking boards and squared timber. Terrace pads are attached from below to prevent waterlogging.
2. T-stands as supports
The next step is to build the two T-stands that will be needed to support the French cleat wall. To connect the wooden parts, the Undercover Jig Set for inclined drill holes is used, among other things.
Tip: if you want to screw two pieces of wood together, force them together to pre-drill and screw!
3. Cut wedge strips
The wedge strips required for the wall are now sawn from the wooden strips with a 45-degree cut using a circular saw. You can then use the corresponding counterparts to build the storage boards or hanging aids for the various toys and reposition them again and again as required.
4. assemble wall
Then the strips are screwed to the two posts at equal intervals with the bevel pointing upwards. Pre-drill and countersink to prevent cracking of the wood!
Tip: Force a bar at the top first so you’re working at a right angle. You can also cut two pieces of wood from leftovers to measure the distances, so you don’t have to measure each time. A drilling template also helps to ensure that both drill holes are always placed in the sa
me way.For even more stability, another bar is screwed vertically in the middle of the rear wall.
5. final assembly
The plug-in modules for the various water toys such as funnels, gutters, etc. on the wall are cut from the leftover pieces of the strips and glued. Depending on the intended use, a suitable suspension can be built from the basic brackets, for example a flexible device for the gutters with threaded rods.
In order to protect the wood for water-intensive outdoor use, it is treated with a glaze.
In the last step, the manual bilge pump is mounted on the side of a support with an auxiliary board and connected to a hose system. This ensures that the water is transported up from the mortar boxes and then runs down again through the various “toys”. The children can change the arrangement again and again, if necessary with the support of an adult.
