Setting up an inflatable indoors

Outdoors you measure two numbers, length and width, and the sky takes care of the rest. Move the same booking into a gym or a fellowship hall and a third number starts doing the deciding.

What we publish about surfaces

Our KidZone Combo w/Slide page says the same thing at more length, and it is the clearest statement of the indoor case anywhere on our site: we prefer to set the inflatables up on grass, but concrete or asphalt are acceptable as well, and the inflatable can be set up indoors if you have an auditorium or gymnasium available at a nearby church or school.

Read that carefully and it tells you what indoors means in practice. An auditorium or a gymnasium, not a living room. That unit lists a space required of 40 ft by 30 ft, and a floor does not get any bigger for being inside.

The ceiling is the number that disqualifies

Across the toddler, bounce house, combo, obstacle course and interactive ranges we read in September 2026, 31 of 109 units publish a height. When a unit does publish one, it is the first figure to check against your room.

Two of the 31 cannot be used as written. The 50 ft Gamer Obstacle Course lists an actual height taller than its space height, and the 72 ft Obstacle Course with slide lists three figures in an order that leaves the height ambiguous. Ask us for those two. The other 29, low to high:

• Under 10 ft. The Human Pool Table at 2 ft, asking for 6 ft of space height. The 30 ft Radical Run obstacle course at 7 ft. QB Blitz, Soccer Shootout and the Two Lane Bungee Run at 8 ft. Snow Throw at 8 ft and the Toxic Inferno Meltdown at 8 ft, both asking for 10 ft of space height. Dual Lane Axe Throwing at 8.7 ft. The Fun Fair Toddler, the Gingerbread Playland, the Play-A-Round golf course and the Sports Zone D11 at 9 ft, with Gingerbread asking for 10 ft of space height.
• 10 ft to 14 ft. The Mechanical Pumpkin at 10 ft. The 35 ft Radical Run and the Big Baller at 12 ft. Batter Up at 13 ft, the Ferris Wheel Bounce House at 13.3 ft and Fore in a Row Golf at 13.5 ft. The Mega Block Combo and the Unicorn Combo at 14 ft, with the Unicorn asking for 19 ft of space height.
• 15 ft and up. The All American Bounce House at 15.5 ft. 3 Play Sports, the Old Glory Combo and the 95 ft Radical Run at 16 ft. All Star Basketball at 17 ft, the Block Party Combo at 17 ft and the Ferris Wheel Combo at 17 ft 6 in, with both combos asking for 20 ft of space height. The Ninja Warped Wall at 18 ft. The 24 ft Mobile Rockwall at 24 ft.

Two things to take from that list. The tallest inflatables on it are combos, because a slide has to start somewhere, and the climbing units go higher still. And where a unit publishes both figures, the space it asks for is often taller than the unit itself: the Gingerbread Playland stands 9 ft and asks for 10, the Unicorn Combo stands 14 ft and asks for 19, the Block Party Combo stands 17 ft and asks for 20.

Measure your room and write the number down before you shortlist anything. A low ceiling is the one constraint that no amount of rearranging fixes, which is the same reason the arcade guide opens on ceiling height rather than price.

Anchoring is the question to ask us

Our FAQ publishes one method for holding a unit down:

A gym floor takes no stakes, and we do not publish what replaces them indoors. That makes it a question to ask rather than one to assume, so put your surface in your first message: hardwood, tile, sealed concrete, turf. It is also the detail most easily left out of a phone call, and it is the one we need.

The utility locating part of that rule belongs to outdoor bookings. If you are setting up on ground, the space guide covers Indiana 811 and what is buried under a lawn.

Power does not change indoors, but the circuit does

The rule is the same in a hall as in a back yard. The inflatable needs to be within 100 ft of a 110V outlet, we supply the power cord, and our FAQ asks that nothing else is plugged into the outlet being used.

That last line is the one that bites indoors. In a fellowship hall the wall you want is often already running a sound system, a coffee urn or a popcorn machine, and that only comes to light when the blower starts. Walk the room and find out which wall is free, or ask whoever holds the keys which circuit that wall is on.

What cannot come inside

The Engine No. 246 trackless train page puts the gas trains outdoors only. That one runs on cement, asphalt or very smooth grass, which makes a parking lot a good venue for it and an auditorium a bad one.

If the room is the fixed part of your plan, the ranges built for indoor use are the arcade and virtual reality machines, the table games and the carnival games. They have no wind limit and no weather policy attached to them, which is the whole argument for booking indoors in the first place. Our weather policy applies to inflatables outdoors: they cannot be used in winds of 20 mph or more, and cannot be used in the rain.

The rules that come with a room

• Shoes off. Our FAQ requires it at every setup, and indoors it is also the thing that keeps a gym floor happy.
• The unit stays put. Our FAQ asks that it is not moved from the setup location for any reason, so the spot has to be right before we inflate it.
• Flat and clear. The published requirement is a flat area free of debris, which indoors mostly means the room is cleared before we arrive rather than while we wait.
• Adult supervision at all times, whenever children are in or around the unit. That does not change with the roof.

Five numbers to have before you call

• Ceiling height, measured, not estimated.
• Clear floor area, both directions, against the unit's space required figure.
• Doorway width and anything on the route in: steps, a lift, a tight turn.
• The floor surface, named.
• The outlet you plan to use, and what else is on it.

Schools and churches book most of our indoor work, and the schools and churches page covers how those events are quoted. If the ages at your event are the harder question, that is covered in which inflatable fits the ages at your party.

Common questions