Trampoline project!

Here's our Trampoline project...

When we bought the house, it said that it came with an in-ground trampoline!  We were so excited!

This is how we found it!  The sides of a round hold were supported with corrugated metal that had caved in which cut the original mat!  So we really just had a hole with a frame in it.  A useless mat and a bunch of short springs.  Also, there is some curbing around the the trampoline that I'm not sure what to do with the space between.  I thought it would be nice to get some of that nice soft poured rubber playground flooring, but that turned out to be expensive.  It was a project just to measure the amount we would need!

We measured the dimensions of the area inside the curbing and subtracted the area of the trampoline.  

The first thing we did was pull the trampoline frame out of the ground.

Got all the supplies ready with Bill & Aaron

We pulled it into the garage since it decided to do a nice summer July rain.  It actually rained a lot!  What we did first was take treated 2x4's all around the outside of the frame, one ring a few inches from the top, and another down lower.  This would give us something to screw the corrugated metal into that would support the dirt pushing onto it.  This way it won't cave in again!

Cutting the metal into pieces

You can see in the picture below the two rings of 2x4's screwed into the frame with self tapping screws.  Then we are screwing in the corrugated metal into the frame.  I used a thin grinder to cut the corrugated metal.

Screwing the metal into the wood beams

Batman helped

Damon loved helping to cut the boards at an angle

Screwing in more boards

Then on the top we didn't want to have an exposed sharp metal edge for kids to step on.  So we took two more 2x4's and sandwiched in the metal.  This gave a nice top support for screwing in some trex decking as the nice finished top to it.  I used long lag bolts to hold those together.  We even broke one trying to get it too tight!  Drilling pilot holes through this whole process made it much easier!

Adding Trex on top

Here you can see the nice trex decking added a nice finish to it.

Screwing Trex on

An more on...

What the tramp looked before putting in the ground

I was a little worried about how it would bounce and mainly if the springs would hit the trex decking, so we put it all together above ground just to test it out.  When I got the mat, then didn't have the right size, so we ended up getting one two inches shorter, so he said try it out and if I didn't like it I could take it back.  The extra stretch actually made it bounce better, I think!  We also got all new longer springs so that it would have a nice bounce.

Making sure the hole is going to be big enough

I solicited hard to get 7 guys to help me.  We had to dig the hole out a bit more just to make sure it would fit.

Took 8 men to move the heavy tramp frame

Took some time to level it out and make sure that it was good and secure.  Then put the dirt back in.  We put some in the bottom of the inside just to push back on the bottom edges a bit, then filled in the dirt next to the frame.

Putting on the springs

The Mastermind behind the madness... I mean amazing project

You can see the finished product here.  The Trex looks really nice as a finished look.  The trampoline is raised up a bit just to allow the air to flow freely out as the kids jump.  If it is flush with the ground there isn't room for the air to escape with the safety mat on. 

Putting the pads on

Finished project

You can find my kids jumping, along with neighborhood kids, at anytime of the day!  Next we need to finish the space around the trampoline.  We are looking into using some more Trex to make a ramp to the trampoline.  It turned out quite nice!