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Made to Stay! Made to Play!

First Permanent Ladder Toss Game

Research indicates that time spent outdoors can improve a person’s health and happiness. Parks, playgrounds, campgrounds, and beach recreation areas are designed to keep people physically and socially active. The benefits of participating in fun, outdoor games extend beyond improved personal well-being. They have a positive impact on the community, too.

Great for Parks or any recreation area.

Cities, park districts, apartment complexes, and universities across the country know that well-utilized recreation space boosts social ties and reduces crime. Until now, the challenge was to find affordable, low-maintenance outdoor games that appeal to a wide range of ages and require minimal upkeep.

Doty & Sons is offering a solution by introducing B.Y.O. Ladder Toss game to its line of permanent, outdoor recreation products. Ladder toss is played by throwing bolas, two balls connected by a rope, from 15 feet away onto a freestanding, three-rung ladder. Point values are assigned to each rung and the first player or team to reach 21 points without going over is the winner.

What makes the B.Y.O Ladder Toss game unique is the concrete stand. Because concrete has a long service life, it conserves resources by reducing the need for reconstruction, and resists weathering, erosion, and natural disasters. Few repairs and little maintenance will ever be needed.

Available in two styles

B.Y.O. Ladder toss is available in two styles, detailed as follows:

Item LT4232 has concrete ends with steel rungs.  Concrete is reinforced and available in standard and special pigmented colors.

The rungs are made of solid, 1” steel bars that are powder coated twice for extra protection against the elements. The bars are secured to the stands with stainless steel security bolts and additional colors are available upon request.

All Steel Ladder Toss with an industrial look.

Item LTS4232 is all steel.  The All steel model is heavy duty I beam construction.

The steel is powder coated twice for extra protection against the elements.   Standard color is black. 

Rungs are available in many colors by special order.  Standard color is silver gun metal. 

Ladder Toss will make a great addition to any park, apartment complex, campground, resort or beach recreation area. 

Ladder Toss can be purchased as follows:

1. Stands with rungs.  For customers who have existing concrete pads. 
2. Ladder Stand with Base   The precast base and stand can be installed same day without need to mix concrete. 
3. Ladder Stand with Base & Throwers Blocks.  Precast throwers block makes a nice set and prevents wear spots in the lawn.

For more information about Doty & Sons and their extensive product line, go to www.dotyconcrete.com.

Playing ping pong is fun indoors, but now can be played outdoors!  Whether at a park, apartment recreation area, water park or any outdoor location, playing ping pong is fun!  Grab your paddle and ball, go and play.

Doty & Sons has introduced a new style ping pong/table tennis to it’s line of outdoor game products.  Ping pong table, Item T1086045 features as stylish leg design and heavy duty I beam supports. Doty & Sons manufactures ping pong tables that include the following features:

Heavy duty stainless net.
The strongest on the market today. Regulation height (6″)  additional 4″ sandwiched between the table tops. Heavy duty gussets add strength.

Table available in different colors.  
Table shown with graphite color legs and french gray color table top.

Heavy Duty ping pong/tennis table with heavy duty I-beam supports.

Add a wood accent to each side for a classic look. Shown with IPE lumber accent panel. French Gray color table top with SB11 (granite aggregate, sandblasted finish)  legs shown.

Buddy Bench.

Doty & Sons manufactures concrete benches with recycled plastic lumber.  Item B4151 is 5 foot long, 2 concrete legs, recycled plastic lumber back and seat with stainless steel hardware.  The benches are great for recognizing individuals or groups, remembering loved ones (memorial benches) or class gifts. Recently a Boy Scout, Colin Good,  came to us about his Eagle project.  We worked with him so he could purchase three Buddy Benches for a local school. Colin organized the project which include installing concrete block and the benches.  An article about the project recently ran in the local newspaper.

This article appeared in The DeKalb Daily Chronicle is copied here.

Collin Good, a Boy Scout from Troop 2810 chartered out of Sycamore Lutheran Church, recently completed his Eagle project. He installed three Buddy Benches at his former school, Southeast Elementary in Sycamore.

The idea of the Buddy Benches began in Pennsylvania in 2013 when a first-grader thought it would be a great concept and sold his school and community on it. Since then, many other schools across the U.S. have adopted the idea. The benches create a kinder playground culture by having a place for kids to sit if they don’t know what to do on the playground, are new to the school, or are just afraid to ask to join a game or group of kids. When other students see a child sitting on the bench, they should invite the child to join their group or sit down and get to know the child. It combats bullying and playground loneliness, and promotes awareness of the needs of others.

Colin Good and Mark Ekstrom

Good began his project by presenting the idea to Southeast Principal Mark Ekstrom, who was excited about the concept and asked for three benches, one for each playground. At Ekstrom’s request, Good helped co-chair the school’s fall pie fundraiser, which is used each year for playground improvement. His responsibilities included creating a flier about the benches to hand out with the pie order forms, counting pie orders, unloading the delivery truck and sorting customer orders, delivering pies and thanking each customer personally for helping support his project.

The next phase of the project took place in the spring. Good and Ekstrom finalized their choices and ordered the benches from Doty and Sons. The Doty family has strong ties with Southeast School and provided a generous discount on the benches. The three back slats on each bench are engraved with the words “Southeast School,” “Buddy Bench,” and “Do a Good Turn Daily,” which both explains the purpose of the benches and is the motto of scouting. A few weeks later, Good organized volunteers to prepare the ground for each bench to be installed. This involved digging, adding sand and leveling and placing the concrete pavers for the benches to sit on. The benches were then assembled and bolted down.

The final piece of the project was to provide the students with education about the benches. Good and several other scouts shared a PowerPoint presentation and acted out several skits to demonstrate how to use the benches.

Bench shown before installing.

Buddy Bench shown on site at Southeast School
Sycamore, IL

Custom Benches

At Doty & Sons Concrete Products, Inc. we manufacture both standard and custom products.  Recently we were awarded a contract from W.E. O’Neil Construction to manufacture custom bench/seating for a project in Chicago, IL. The design called for concrete seats with custom steel support frames. The project design consisted of 20 feet of straight seating in one section. Another section was 12 feet of seating, transitioning into 23 feet of curved seating.  The curved seat matched the arc of the existing wall.

The concrete seats were cast using a custom concrete mix.  The seats were polished and than sealed for a semi-gloss concrete sealer.  The steel brackets were custom fit so that the seat would be level in relation to the changing grade below.  On site field measuring was required to assure a proper fit.  The steel brackets were hot dipped galvanized for long term corrosion resistance.

Call or email if you bidding a custom project.  We can manufacture products based on drawings provided or on conceptual plans.  Products can be made using standard and custom concrete mixes.  We also offer a complete line of products on our web site.

Custom concrete bench with steel support brackets.

Custom concrete benches with steel supports. Shown at 300 South Riverside, Chicago, IL

Inside view of net showing gusset attachment.

Stainless steel net. Standard on both models of outdoor ping pong tables.

Last fall we wanted to demonstrate the strength of our concrete ping pong table.  We’ve designed our table with one of the strongest nets on the market today.  This posed a problem.  How do we inform other’s about the strength besides just saying “it’s strong”?  So….we decided to drive a Jeep Cherokee over the table.  We placed two tables side by side and built ramps on each side. We drove the Jeep over the table several times each time stopping with either the front or back tire on top of the net. We video taped this and posted the video on You Tube. This is the link to the video.

Now this is not a professionally edited video, but it shows how strong the net is.

So what did we prove?  Our customers want products that will withstand everyday use, the outdoor elements and sometimes abuse (vandalism).  Our goal is to provide such a product.  We think we did.

Front tire of Jeep on top of stainless steel net.

Back tire on top of stainless steel net.

Outdoor concrete ping pong table. Shown in standard finish. Natural color table with sandblasted finish base.