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Is there a children’s party in the schedule and you are wondering that can you set up a bounce house on concrete? Maybe there is no other option in your yard and you’re looking for some alternatives?
Questions like these can be hard to solve sometimes and I’ll try my best here to provide some help. Maybe your kids don’t have to be disappointed.
As we know, children can get quite wild when they are excited so what we as adults can do is set up a safe environment to have a little one. With a bounce house, we want it to be stable and not move around causing any danger.
How to set up a bounce house on concrete
We have two options here. Is it a bounce house that is to be set there only temporarily or a bounce house that we will set there often? Or maybe it will be there often and long times in general?
Usually, when it is anchored on the ground like grass, bounce house-ground stakes are used for anchoring it down on the spot. This kind of option isn’t usable with concrete.
Also, concrete is a rough surface compared to the ground with grass. Something should be placed under the bounce house so friction from kids jumping up and down won’t eat the material bounce house is made of slowly away.
Honestly, I’m not sure it would happen, but to me, it seems something that could. Preventing that is rather cheap so why not.
How to anchor bounce house temporarily
Now the bounce house anchors can’t be used so what to do? A temporary option would be using bounce house sandbags that work as a weight on the spots the anchors would be used.
If the concrete ground is level, this should weigh the bounce house down and the movement should be minimal. Depending on the size of the bounce house, ground levelness, and size of its users.
That being said, if your bounce house isn’t staying at its place on the concrete, there is not enough weight on the anchoring spots. You might need to add more than 1 bag to them.
How to make permanent bounce house anchors
Now I’m a lazy person, I have to admit that. If I set up something regularly for the kids I try to look for permanent solutions.
In this kind of situation, I’d probably use metal anchors on the concrete to hold the bounce house down. Especially if I have bought one for regular use.
The first reason is that I don’t want to be playing around with sandbags. The second is that the path of least resistance is a threaded metal rod with a fastener that can be put in and taken out whenever I need to put it in place.
Step 1: The first thing we want to do is pick strong anchors for the bolt house. We want metal anchors that have pullout strength that is enough so it won’t tear off. This shouldn’t be too hard.
If you don’t know what kind of anchor to get, I’d personally use one that expands when you twist the threaded rod in. This way it’s easy to place and easy to get off if you need to change it.
I might even overdo it, but not much. There are anchors for safety ropes for example that can easily carry human weight and won’t tear off when a worker/climber falls. I might use something like that on the ground.
Step 2: Mark the holes. You might be able to do this with the bounce house not inflated. If not, inflate it and mark the holes. You only need to shift it a little to be able to drill.
Step 3: Mark depth on the concrete drill bit and drill holes for the anchors. It’s important to mark the depth as you don’t want to drill through the slab. Slabs might be as thin as 4 inches so plan accordingly.
If you don’t know how thick your slab is, take that 4 inches and drill only at 3 inches. Try to plan the anchor accordingly as well.
Step 4: After drilling, vacuum holes so the dust and debris won’t be on the way when you place the anchors. It will make it easier.
Step 5: After you’re done with drilling and cleaning the holes, roll the nut into the threaded rod and the rod into the metal anchor and push them in the holes. Don’t tighten the anchors before you push them.
Now when the anchors are in the holes you can place a second nut on the threaded rod end. If you roll it to the first one and use 2 wrenches to twist them together it will lock the nuts so you can use a wrench to roll the threaded rod with ease.
After the expanding anchors are tight in the concrete, unlock the nuts with two wrenches again. Roll them off.
Step 6: Place the bounce house on the spot.
Step 7: Use the threaded rods or other anchor alternatives to hold the bounce house in its place. As stated before I’d get that safety rope nut and metal anchor that fits that.
But you can use pretty much anything you like with this method. Just be sure it can handle the pull. If there is some kind of bolts, these could be used to cover the holes when the bounce house is not there.
How to inflate bounce house
If you don’t know how to inflate the bounce house, I put this here as well. You can use an electrical blower to fill it with air.
Remember that the bigger the bounce house is, the more power is needed to fill it. You might need a 1-3 horsepower blower for the job.
Usually, these blowers should come with the bounce house as they have to be powered while the bounce house is being used. Still, if you don’t get one with the house you need to rent or buy one.
The job itself should be pretty much a plug it in the wall job. It’s a large fan machine that will blow air after all. Some don’t recommend using extension cords as it could lower the power of the blower.
How to fold a bounce house
So the fun is over, how do I put it away. First, you will need to power it off and let it empty out of air.
It should be empty of air quite fast. Just keep an eye on the spot where the air blower is attached so it will be easy to access and take off. There should be some kind of deflation zipper.
After that, you will be walking on the bounce house so the air will be pushed out. After that, you will start folding it by rolling it from the opposite end of the deflation zipper.
You should know how it was when you first opened it. You should be able to get it like that as well.
Conclusion
You should know now how to anchor a bounce house on concrete either temporally or permanently. The latter is not necessary to act with a rented bounce house.
If you are still thinking can you put a bounce house on a driveway, you can with certain conditions. The requirements were that the ground is level.
If your driveway is a slope, you are probably not even considering this. For a normal, slightly sloped driveway it should be possible to have the bounce house on it. With the bounce house sandbags weighing it down.
If you’re thinking about how long does it take to set up a bounce house, it will be 30 minutes job more than likely if you have everything ready and using sandbags. The anchor job will take longer naturally.
The bounce houses come in many sizes, the anchor method can hold anything down really. At least anything that would normally be held with ground stakes.
If it feels stupid to do those only for a bounce house, the same method could be used for tent pavilion. So when it’s not used by bounce house, you could set up a tent pavilion on your patio, as an example.
