Re: Best sand for beach vb court

[Todd <tdh@vbref.org>]

Jason Botwick <sophie@interpath.com> writes:
> What is the best sand for a beach vb court and why? What is a fair price
> including delivery?

The topic of sand is remarkably complex.  There are a bunch of
different grades based on the size of the largest material in the
sand, and smoothness of the individual grains.  I learned the most by
going to a local aggregate supplier and having a look at their large
piles of various grades of sand.  Your sand will be delivered by truck
from such a local supplier, and they can give you prices.  I've
included an estimate and some calculations below for reference.

As I recall...

Masonry sand is the finest grade available.  You won't find any small
pebbles in this.  However, if the grains are too fine, they'll clump.

You want double-washed sand if you can get it.  Unwashed sand still
has a lot of dirt in it which will clump when wet.

Sand of a river-bottom variety is also a good thing for
volleyball...but I can't remember why.  I think the grains are
smoother.

I've heard of "round-grain" sand that is smoother...but the aggregate
supplier I talked with in Austin wasn't familiar with any such
classification.  


Here's a snip from an email documenting my quest for more sand for an
existing court.  The calculations may be somewhat useful for you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
June 1996
The following estimate came from
Austin Sand & Gravel
901 Dalton Ln
385-5379

Since the court should be approximately 30'x60', I estimated the area
of the sand pit to be 40 feet x 70 feet.
40'x70' = 2800 ft^2
I assumed that 4 inches of sand would provide adequate supplemental
coverage.  The volume of sand required would be:
2800 ft^2   x   0.33ft   = 924 ft^3   x  1yd^3 /(3ft)^3  = 35 yd^3

The sand company said that 1 cubic yard of sand weighs 1.4 tons.
35 yd^3  x 1.4 tons/yd^3  =  49 tons

The rate for washed Mortar/Masonry sand (sand that is screened to
remove all rock and is soft enough for use on volleyball courts) costs
$10.20/ton if delivered to this site.  49 tons x $10.20/ton = $500
Alternatively, this sand costs $140 per truck load.  4 truckloads
would be required for this volume of sand.
The grand total:  4 trucks x $140/truck = $560
----------------------------------------------------------------------



More info on building the sand courts is available here:
        http://www.io.com/~tdh/vball/ref/courtspecs.html


I highly recommend Kessel's article:
        http://www.xnet.com/~schneid/sand_court.html



> ------------------------------------------------------
> Jason Botwick
> 
> "Doesn't play well with others"
>  -- Ms. Gleason, 2nd Grade Teacher
> 
> "If Jason possess a single virtue it has eluded my vigilant
> attention. If there are vices -- as possibly there are -- from
> which he is exempt, it is only because it is not permitted to
> human nature to attain perfection, even in evil."
>  -- Ms. Hennings, 3rd Grade Teacher
> 
> "A heavy metal rocker must wear many hats, as it were.
> Firstly, he must be a vocalist who can imitate a
> man having an impacted wisdom tooth removed without
> anesthesia. He also must be a rhythm guitarist who can
> pummel an innocent riff into submission. And, he must be
> a lead guitarist who is a rude, crude, unrepentant showoff.
> Finally, he must be a songwriter/lyricist capable of
> composing songs that deal plainly with sexism, satanism,
> and militarism. Jason scores high in each of the categories,
> and he has been rewarded accordingly,"
>  -- Ms. Elsenheimer, 5th Grade Teacher
> --------------------------

And while I'm ruffling feathers on my netiquette rampage.....

> From http://www.dejanews.com/info/primer3.shtml

                        Don't Overdo Signatures.

  Signatures are nice, and many people can have a signature added to
  their postings automatically by placing it in a file called
  "$HOME/.signature".  Don't overdo it.  Signatures can tell the world
  something about you, but keep them short.  A signature that is
  longer than the message itself is considered to be in bad taste.
  The main purpose of a signature is to help people locate you, not to
  tell your life story.  Every signature should include at least your
  return address relative to a major, known site on the network and a
  proper domain-format address.  Your system administrator can give
  this to you.  Some news posters attempt to enforce a 4 line limit on
  signature files -- an amount that should be more than sufficient to
  provide a return address and attribution.



--
                  Todd H.   tdh@vbref.org
USAV Regional Referee, Great Lakes Region, Palatine, IL
Todd's Volleyball Referee Page http://www.io.com/~tdh/vball/
"So you're a Ref and an engineer? Oh that explains it...."