Can I sink a normal trampoline into the ground?

[Summerdays2014]

Hi,

I’d like to get my son a trampoline for his birthday in January- he’ll be 3. He’ll be getting lots of bits for Christmas so I thought a big outdoor present would be great.
I think a sunken would would be safer and look better! Has anyone got one? Can you sink in a normal trampoline? Has anyone done this? Did you do it yourself or get someone (who?!) to dig the hole for you?
Any advice appreciated!
Thanks.

I wouldn't, you wont be able to inspect it for damage and thats not what its designed for.

A good net is the best safety device, weve had our trampoline for 10 years without problems.
Cant understand why you would have a trampoline without a net.

Sorry, me again!
Make sure you teach them to always shut the zip on the net when they're in there, dead easy to slip out.

Oh, and enforce "absolutely no food of any kind on there, ever" rule from day1.

Trampoline with safety net =£100

Digging a hole got a trampoline would require a mini digger. (Weekend hire £200)You’d also need a skip (or two) to get rid of the earth (a few hundred quid)Then probably reinforce the sides so they don’t cave in (concrete - I’m guessing not cheap?). Possibly add drainage do the hole doesn’t fill with water. And not cheap).

It’s a nice idea and yes does look better than a big net but will cost at least 10x as much.

We have.

DH and DS1 dug a big trampoline sized hole with sloping sides so its deepest in the middle and a small ridge for the top metal ring to sit on. We put the soil banked around 3/4 of the edge and have planted this with low growing mainly evergreens. The soil under the trampoline is covered with weed membrane.

We dont use the legs just the top metal ring.

It's been in about 18 months and blends into our small garden well.

Also, sorry to be a fun sponge but watch him like a hawk on it and don’t let anyone else on it.

My three year old broke her leg on a trampoline, the doctor said that they are the cause of most of the injuries he sees.

Get a net and keep it above ground where you can inspect for damage as a PP said.

This tp net with 'igloo door' is brilliant for children getting on and off who sometimes forget the zip.

Our neighbours dug a hole by hand, and just puta normal trampoline in, their kids love it. No mini diggers, no skips( though big garden to distribute the soil and clay) no expense. They did it over a weekend.

My friends did this, apart from the Facebook photos I’ve not seen it so can’t comment on safety etc but yes it can be done. And the dad just dug the hole himself no diggers needed

When I was younger nobody around here had nets (near the start of the trampoline craze) and looking back it was very unsafe. No one got hurt though. Loads of people on at the same time as well.

Question though, if you are on the trampoline and you fall into the net, does it actually stop you from injuring yourself? I feel like it would just break or tip the trampoline over.

You can definitely sink a normal trampoline into the ground, but you might have to put a small retaining wall around the perimeter to stop the edges of the hole collapsing. Takes a couple of days to do depending on how much you like digging. It’s also worth putting something at the base for drainage.

If it’s safety you’re after, can you get something like this? Spring free trampoline

We have a spring free trampoline and it's fabulous.

There's a house near me which has a trampoline in the front garden which is right up against the garden wall and has no net around it which means if they fall off they fall over the wall and onto the street below. Makes me nervous when I see the kids all jumping on it.

It totally goes against the MN grain, but we’ve had a trampoline for 13 years, since ds was 3, and we’ve never had a net on it, and not had injuries.
Ours is huge-14 feet so has a big “sweet spot” with a large area between that and the edge, and we rigorously enforced one on it at a time.
We didn’t have a net, because the kind of kid my ds is, he would have seen it as a challenge, he’d have been bouncing against it, and knowing him, would probably have tried to bounce over it 🙄.
Medics will tell you that the least dangerous kind, is sunk into the ground-I’ve seen a few folk do it, by hand, over the space of a weekend, so it’s definitely doable.
Ours is some of the best money we’ve spent on ds, he’s almost 17 amd STILL uses it-we had to replace it about 5 years ago as the frame was going to fail!

A friend has this in their garden, they just dug the hole by hand, no reinforced sides or drainage (and it's at the bottom of a slope so lots of water which hasn't caused any problems). And the trampoline can still be lifted out regularly to check for damage etc. They've had it for about 2 years now with no problems.

We have one! DP dug it in two days during the heatwave. It slots in fairly neatly and is ace.

No way would I risk putting a normal trampoline in the hole, it's be terrified it would rust or something, it's not made for living half underground.

Cost of trampoline was about £700. The company will install it for the same cost again, but thankfully DP was happy to spend the time digging and is reasonably handy / good at measuring precisely etc

It gets a lot of use, a lot more than it would of it needed climbing into. DS 18 months is always running on and off it, and I did a lot of gentle bouncing on it to wind him when he was small. Step on / step off makes such a difference to frequency of use, and hassle helping little ones on/ off - BIL has a normal one and it's a right pain in the arse helping toddlers on and off constantly.

It is pricey tho, so I guess worth considering whether it's possible

I suppose you can but you'd need a bigger hole = more expensive having it dug. We have a sunken one and got a gardener to do it. The specially designed ones have shorter legs.

Ooh and we have a net too, which overlaps so no zip.

I watched a programme a few years ago which says that evidence shows that the most dangerous aspect of trampolines is if more than one person uses it at the same time. It's to do with the increase in force of the trampoline springing back up from the larger person and impacting the smaller person coming down iyswim. The force is equivalent to falling out of a first floor window. So sunken or not I think the best safety measure you can take is by ensuring only one person and on at a time.

I did trampolining a lot as a child/teenager. I had a trampoline in the garden as well as lessons.
Personally I always think the ones in the ground look dangerous. This is why I think this:
On the very rare occasions I fell off (3 times) while doing flips the distance between my height during the flip and the ground enabled me to correct myself somewhat so that I would not land on my neck. If you have a trampoline set in the ground there is less distance between you and the ground and therefore less time to correct yourself to a position for landing. If that makes sense?

Have a net,if not convinced ask anyone who works in A&E.It doesn't totally stop injuries but those without are worse.
Personally I rarely let my dd use one when she was little.

We have one sunken, did it ourselves, no expense but a bit of hard work. Children love it (and all the neighbours children!) and very safe. I like that it's not so imposing in our garden

Even if the trampoline is sunk into the ground, surely you still need a safety net? I mean, you could still lose your balance and fly off and land on hard ground? Or am I missing something?