Not really DIY I know but here is where you get an answer to anything.
What is a good quality 14 foot trampoline and who sells em? There's a lot of me tooing on eBay and they're all saying mine is best. Whose is? The budget will stretch to £230-£240. I'm trying to avoid the shout of "Dad, we've bust it" after 2 days
wounded horse
Costco usually have a good quality one at a reasonable price.
More to the point try to avoid a visit to the spinal injuries unit and a quadriplegic child. Unsupervised trampolines are the most dangerous piece of "sports" equipment and lead to many spinal injuries. Don't go for poor quality to save a few pounds.
Costco, usually about 240 quid, and if you break it within a year they will give an immediate refund, if you don't like it within a month they will refund with no questions asked.
mrcheerful
In message , wounded horse writes
I suggest a look at TP toys.
Don't have one of their trampolines but do have a climbing frame and it is of very good quality and their customer service is excellent. I heard good comments from others parents who have TP toys trampolines.
We got one of their rectangular ones about 15 years ago. Served well, we sold it on last year as our children no longer used it.
As a Paramedic I have seen many accidents involving these over the years. Some of them very nasty, I urge you to buy one with a decent safety net all the way around. These still allow full use of it, but you are safe in the knowledge that your kids will never fall off it.
Regards
John
We never used it without supervision by spotters, and the children were trained first by competent teachers.
appear to me to be less safe, although there is quite a difference in quality I think it's more about how long it will last and how nice it will look.
Trampolines are great fun and superb for fitness but they do have a few inherent risks you should be aware of. I know you didn't ask for it but I feel compelled to give you the safety lecture, if you know what can go wrong you're likely not to go there.
Back and neck injuries are probably the nastiest possibilities. To avoid them you really need to make sure that your children and their friends understand that they must not bounce off the trampoline. Circular trampolines are much better for this as they tend to force you back into the centre whereas rectangular ones tend to throw you off if you aren't very good.
They shouldn't attempt moves they have not trained for. A somersault or front drop which goes wrong can end up with the child landing on their head - not nice. The very best way to avoid this risk is to enrole them on a trampoline course at your local sports centre. They will get much more fun out of the trampoline once they have learned some proper moves and they can learn more difficult moves with proper support.
After a few bounces you subconsciously get used to the bounce. If you then jump off the trampoline there is a tendency to land with your legs too straight and the result is a tremendous force through your knees. Make sure they understand the need to lower themselves off the trampoline and not jump off.
The other cause of nasty leg injuries is landing on someone else's leg. Some people only allow one child on at a time but that does prevent some of the fun games. We allow up to 3 on at once for general bouncing as well as games such as "crack the egg" and "steal my bounce" but my kids know to clear the mat for tricks and sommies.
Please don't let any of that put you off the idea of getting a trampoline, they are fantastic fun and provided you use them properly they are no less safe than lots of other activities. We've had ours nearly three years and it gets used almost every day even in the winter. In fact (as a nice link back into uk.d-i-y) I had to put up floodlighting in the back garden simply so the kids could use the trampoline on winter evenings.
Things to look out for are: Number of legs - cheap ones have less and the frame flexes more. Diameter of tubing - cheap ones use thin tubes which flex and bend. Springs or bungees - some really cheap ones use bungees which don't give the same bounce quality. Thickness of padding over the springs.
We got ours from GardenTramolines.com who were very helpful and we're very pleased with it. I've seen a couple of TP ones and they look very good too. If you want to see an example of a bad one go to B&Q.
Have fun.
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