Denver Decorative Concrete & Custom MasonryHow would you anchor a trampoline to a concrete patio?
We have such a small yard that with the kids’ swing set we don’t have room to put our brand new trampoline on the grass. We plan to put the trampoline on our concrete patio which is 12’x36′.
We definitely want to anchor it for both safety and weather-related reasons. The trampoline is 8’x14′ and we plan to put it at the end of the patio, so 1 end and 1 side could be anchored onto the grass somehow, although we’d like to avoid that so as not to hamper mowing or weed eating.
Any serious advice is greatly appreciated!
I would use anchor bolts and fixing band but there’s probably lots of different ways you could go. You need to drill 2 holes either side of the support bar of the trampoline then cut a piece of fixing band to length and bolt it over the base of the trampoline, kinda like a bracket. when the bolts are done up tight it ain’t moving anyhere.
http://www.wickes.co.uk/Multi-Purpose-Fixing-Band/invt/246015
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/18356/Fixings/Shield-Anchors/Shield-Anchor-Bolt-Type-8-x-75mm-Drill-Size-14-Pack-of-5;jsessionid=QVIKTSQOOQFKUCSTHZOCFFA
You may wish to reconsider putting the trampoline over a cement patio for safety reasons. Kids get wild on these trampoline and could easily bounce out on the cement and sustain serious injuries.
It would be simple to get some wedge anchors at a home center and bolt the thing down, but you would need at least one, and preferably 2 per leg but I’m concerned about what you do when the kids outgrow it or you want to sell the house and you have to deal with the holes in the concrete. Can you add weight to the legs in some way with sand or other heavy objects? Like the kind of system that is used for awnings that you see at craft fairs and farmer’s markets? I’ve seen buckets of sand or gravel attached with stretch cords, but you could use a good weather resistant rope, too. This way you could put the thing away in the winter or for cleaning, or is that going to be too clunky looking?
If you still want to permanently anchor the thing, then I’d recommend 1/4 wedge anchors because you do not need anything bigger and the smaller, the better. Buy or rent a hammer drill because a regular drill will not go through concrete and several decent quality masonry bits (not VT American). If you do not use them, you can take them back to the store, but when 1 breaks and you only bought one, it means another trip back to the home center, so get several Bosch or equal quality.
Once you have your anchors in, all you have to do is bolt down an angle bracket, drill through the leg and attach a bolt through it into the bracket. Use either lockwashers or nuts with a nylon insert to prevent them from loosening from all the bouncing. By the way, I’d use as much stainless steel hardware as I could because no matter where you live, the hardware will get rusty and you will want to remove it without using a cutting torch or grinder, though you will have to use something like that to get the top of the anchors flush to the surface of the concrete when the time comes. They’re engineered to never come out by forcing a wedge into the edges of the hole when tightening the nuts on top and are almost impossible to remove, especially old ones.
I’d still look into some sort of sand bag or other weight system if you have time. Ask at a place that sells play equipment. If your trampoline has more than four legs, you could be dealing with a lot of holes in the future.
i like the sandbag idea. if your supports are u-shaped you could lay sandbags over them. they sell whats called a tube sandbag that people who live in snowy parts of the country put in their vehicles trunk for traction. they weight sixty lbs. are about three ft. long and ten in. in diameter. two of them on each support should hold pretty well. they cost about $6 a piece.