Do Bounce Houses Ruin Grass? Can Potential Damage be Avoided?
Most homeowners agree that maintaining a healthy lawn is a matter of pride. You want your house to look nice, and proper lawn care plays a notable role in that. So when you hear stories of bounce houses ruining lawns, you take notice. Do bounce houses ruin grass? Is that really true?
Here’s the short answer: No, bounce houses do not ruin grass. But without taking a few precautions, your bounce house can contribute to a list of factors that will turn grass yellow or brown.
The recipe for discoloring grass almost always includes some combination of dryness and high heat, both of which are common in the summer here in the States. There are other factors to consider too; weeds and bugs are frequent culprits. And gardeners spilling fertilizer on their lawn while transporting it can disrupt the pH balance of the grass as well.
Now here’s the good news: grass is incredibly resilient, and discolored grass is usually far from ruined. Grass goes dormant when it’s distressed, hence the color changes. To paraphrase a famous Monty Python sketch, it isn’t dead … it’s just resting. It’s waiting for conditions to improve so it can spring back to colorfulness again.
Most of the time, discolored grass can be brought back to its green glory with just some mild watering and a splash of patience. If there are bigger underlying issues, like insects or weeds, those might need to be addressed first. But in most instances lawn discoloration is a simple matter of dryness and high heat, and easily fixed with a sprinkler.
How Does a Bounce House Affect My Lawn?
A properly set up bounce house isn’t going to have any lasting impact on an already healthy lawn. But setting up your vinyl crossover or commercial inflatable on already-stressed grass can lead to problems. Easily remedied problems, but problems nonetheless.
Bounce houses are large. They’re heavy. Ours here at Pogo are made from heavy duty commercial grade vinyl. So when you set up a bounce house on grass, it’s going to compound and exacerbate whatever underlying problems your lawn might have.
Contrary to popular belief, bounce houses don’t “smother” grass by cutting off oxygen. Instead, they increase those two aforementioned harmful elements—heat and dryness—and that can cause grass to temporarily go dormant. Usually, this is easily fixed with watering. And better still, it’s pretty easy to avoid entirely.
The best way to prevent a bounce house from ruining grass (well, making it go dormant anyway) is to ensure the following:
- Always set up your bounce house on a healthy lawn
- Use lighter colored tarps beneath your bounce house. Darker tarps can absorb sunlight and pass the heat directly into your grass
- Avoid “high heat” areas on your lawn that are frequently exposed to direct sunlight and aren’t watered regularly
- Never leave your bounce house up for more than 12 hours when avoidable
- If there’s a shaded area of your lawn suitable for your inflatable game, set it up there instead
- Don’t set up your bounce house in the same location every time you inflate it. Try to move it around your yard to different areas with each new setup
- When your family and friends are done enjoying your bounce house and you’ve rolled it back up, water the grass for good measure
Make Sure You Have the Best Tarp for the Job!
Whether your bounce house is from our vinyl crossover collection, or you’re setting up a bigger commercial inflatable, the heavy duty tarp you choose is going to play a significant part in keeping your bounce house from damaging your grass.
Browse our selection of commercial quality heavy duty tarps. Dark tarps work great indoors and for setups on cooler days in spring or fall. Lighter tarps and more colorful tarps are ideal any time of year, but they especially shine (no pun intended) in the summer, since they’ll reflect sunlight rather than absorbing it.
Need help finding the perfect tarp for your bounce house, inflatable water slide, or inflatable obstacle course? Give Pogo’s sales team a call today at 716-566-5806 and we’ll be more than happy to point you in the right direction!
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