So for Father’s Day my wife and daughter got me two books, Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do) and Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share. We decided to start working through some of the projects and this weekend we picked the “Best Slip ‘n Slide Ever” project from the Geek Dad book. Basically it involves constructing a super home-made water slide that rivals anything you can find in the stores. I decided to document our build progress and include our successes and failures for the benefit of others.
The materials needed are:
- Roll of heavy-duty plastic (we used an 8′ wide 6-mil roll) ~ $35
- Foam pool noodles (number determines length of slide) ~ $2 each
- Optional – large pool noodle for end ~ $5 each
- Self-sticking Velcro strips (enough for two pieces per noodle) ~ $0.50/noodle
- Sprinkler hose or lawn sprinkler ~ $6 per 50′ hose or ~$5 for a simple sprinkler
- Stakes (I had some so don’t have a price)
- Patience, an hour or so, a nice warm day, and a steady supply of water
Here are the materials we used:
Slide Materials
The first thing you do is figure out how long you want to make your slide. We laid out 6 noodles with about a foot between each to get a 35′ slide (each noodle is 5′).
Sizing the Slide
Once we figured out how long to make it, I left a little bit extra on either end, at the front for an area to double up the material for staking it down and at the end for wrapping it around a big noodle to stop you. Next we unfolded the roll and pulled it straight and flat. You can see in the next picture the area at the front where we double (actually quadruple) folded the plastic so that it would resist tearing when we put in the stakes:
Unrolled Slide
With the slide plastic unrolled, you can start laying out the noodles and applying the Velcro strips. We used two pieces of Velcro towards the end of each noodle and positioned them so you can fold the plastic around the noodle and stick the plastic to itself.
Positioning Velcro Strips and Noodles
Do that for all the noodles down the length of the slide and then fold the material over so it sticks and traps the noodles in place. Be sure to keep the same line going down so that the slide stays straight. We matched up the edge of the folded-over piece to one of the creases in the plastic material. We also used some heavy bags to hold the slide in place while we worked so the wind didn’t mess with it as much.
One Side Complete with Velcro and Noodles
Continue to the other side, trying to match the position of the noodles with the first side as you go down:
Second Side Ready to Stick Together
Once both sides are complete, flip the whole slide over and stake down the top (we also pulled the whole thing really taught and staked the other end as well). You can run sprinkler hose down each side by the noodles to keep the slide wet:
Completed Slide with Sprinkler Hose
Finally, when we staked the other end, we also wrapped up a large noodle in the excess plastic to serve as a stop for you as you get to the end (actually worked more like a speed bump if you were going fast enough at the end and didn’t stop by then).
Slide End with Large Noodle Bump
So you are probably wondering, “how did it work?” Well, it actually worked great once we ironed out some kinks in our implementation of the “Best Slip ‘n Slide Ever.” First, you need to keep the plastic really tightly pulled so it doesn’t bunch up anywhere. To do that we pulled it really tight and re-staked it at the front and back. You also need to really bunch up the plastic where you stake it otherwise it will tend to tear as you use the slide. Second, the sprinkler hose that we had kept on bursting out the side near the water connection. I don’t know if we just put too much pressure in it or what, but that hose was a big failure. If it had worked it would have been great since the hose provided water down the whole length on both sides. We ended up just using a regular lawn sprinkler set to always shower down over the slide towards the middle and front (since the yard is sloped towards the back, the water ends up flowing towards the end anyway). Finally, make sure you get a nice run going before you jump on and make sure the slide is nice and wet. My daughter and I were both able to get all the way down to the end (and sometimes past) once we got our water source tweaked.
Overall, it was a nice DIY project that turned out to be a very impressive slide. For about the same price as you pay for those commercial Slip ‘n Slides, we made our own that will last a lot longer, is a lot longer and wider, and is sure to be a hit with the other kids in our family (and probably the parents too!).
Totally awesome that you put this together and got some real enjoyment out of it! Please make sure you put a link to this blog post into the forums at the book website so others can learn from your efforts. W00t!
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This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a prime resource for free. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!
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There is a outdoor camp and picnic area I have been to a few time that has a quite long one, they use a little bit of soap to slick things up on the way down.
Could we get a closeup pic of the stakes? I’m just wondering if you put them through the plastic, or if they’re some sort of clamp thing.
Joel-
I just used some plastic stakes that I had laying around from tie-downs for tree saplings. They would be similar to what you would have in your camping tent kit for rope tie-downs. In one picture you can see four across the front but we ended up removing the two in the middle (at my wife’s behest) so that we wouldn’t trip/step on them as we were running. I ended up just using one at each corner through bunched up plastic, particularly at the front (uphill) corners since the plastic there was starting to tear.
Yeah we read that baby shampoo works well. The shampoo is very mild so it won’t harm your yard and it gets the kids clean at the same time!
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This is awesome! Best idea I’ve seen for some summer fun, and I plan on doing a blog post on this in the future. Thanks!
I liked this site very much, This blog has got all the useful stuff that I wanted to know about.Thanks.
Paul,
Where are the action videos? I wanna see what happens when you reach the end of that thing at 50 mph.
Seriously, this is a great idea.
Thanks,
Chris
Instead of shelling out money for plastic, go to your local billboard company and ask for vinyls they’re throwing away. They would love for you to take them off their hands. These vinyla are usually 14′ x 48′ and have 4″ pockets on the edges.
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Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by accident, I bookmarked it.
The billboard company I checked with simply repaints them.
ALso when we built our slide, we scooped out a trench with a bobcat & put carpet under it.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
While serious injuries aren’t numerous, it might be wise to preface the article with this alert from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as a possible bit of lawsuit insurance: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml93/93076.html
Cool idea for saving some $$ on supplies!
Good point – have fun with it but USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
hey man nice slide.. when we did it, we used a $20 8ft wide/12ft long/2ft tall inflatable kid pool that you can buy from walmart at the end for our landing pool. How you do that is that you buy extra length than what you need and you roll that extra up and bunch it at the front of the pool and use that bunch as a soft ramp into the pool…. it works especially well if the slide is downhill.. hope this helps!
nice post. thanks.
Where could i find the plastic at? Also, does it need to be set up on a hill? Thanks.
I got all my material (minus the noodles) at Menards. Just about any big-box hardware store (Menards, Home Depot, Lowes) should have similar materials. You can probably get the noodles for even cheaper if you find them at a dollar store when they have them at the beginning of the season. Otherwise your Wal-Mart or Meijer should also carry them.
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Looks like a good ol’ Midwest backyard with plenty of green and no fence! How I remember it being…
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it was very interesting to read.
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?
this post is very usefull thx!
Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
Paul — could you use grommets in the corners to put the stakes through so that you would have the plastic tearing?
Where exactly did you get the Multi-Purpose Sheeting Material for the slip n’ slide?
Yes that would probably have worked better. That was my main issue with the slide and what prevented it from being used more than a few times.
I bought it from Menards I believe – back in the paint department with the other plastic drop cloth/sheets. I imagine all the home improvement stores would have something like that. I think I went with one of the thickest materials they had.
You might want to pick up some grommets from a sewing supply store to create re-enforced holes to put your stakes through. It will prevent the plastic from tearing and you’ll get more use from Slip & Slide
Did you ever try adding soap to the slide to reduce friction?! That would be fun
The old school slip and slides used to have a U shaped stake with a long narrow metal piece like a squished hoop that you would insert the corner of the plastic into then wind it up then use the u stake to stake into the ground. It was very strong and prevented the ripping problem.. I wonder if something like that could be found somewehere on ther internets…
Help!!! We need help with our camping slide. The problem we have is where we go theres no grass but little rocks under. We do have little hills where we usually put but we cant slide down and with cant remove all the little rocks. Any suggestions?
WE need help with our camping slide. Where we go theres no grass but little rocks. We do have little hills but still no grass. we put pad under so we wont get hurt but we do not slide.
Any suggestions??
When I was little, my dad made a simple slip-n-slide by *sewing* heavy duty black garbage bags together, wetting it down & putting a sprinkler near by to keep it wet. Worked fabulously!! Good memories.
“Marlene says:
26 July, 2011 at 1:18 PM
WE need help with our camping slide. Where we go theres no grass but little rocks. We do have little hills but still no grass. we put pad under so we wont get hurt but we do not slide.
Any suggestions??”
Use that cheap outdoor carpet. It’s usually green and vary fine. Its sturdy enough to protect you from the rocks but thin enough that it won’t hinder the slide
Methods for storage, and ease of reusability? Any estimates of the life of the plastic before it tears? I’m considering dropping $60 on a 10ft x 100ft roll of 6-mil plastic sheeting, but I would be more comfortable knowing I could get more than one good use out of it.