Anyone ever make a backyard ice rink?

[perchjerker]

Hey gang, me again
Just filling up our backyard ice rink, was wondering if any of my WC buddies ever made one, and want to share your experiences with me.Its a great family thing to do in the hard water season. I used to build them when I was a kid, so far, so good...

[PWaldow123]

perchjerker,

I used to make one every year. One thing that I found out was to apply the water in very small amounts when flooding. Just put down a 1/16 of an inch per coat. This will give you the smoothest ice and will also prevent deep chips. Good luck and have fun :)

Paul

[perchjerker]

Thanks bud, I will take your advice.

[Pitts]

Hey man use a sprinkler and apply in thin coats.
Make sure it is real level and plow the snow off of that area.
Your grass will winter kill sometimes in that area. If there is enough snow side boards are not needed just use the plowbanks or if snow is short use 2X4 wood for the sides.
Have fun


Pitts

[Boatnut]

Dad used to make a 2x4 frame and drape it with "visqueen" or plastic sheeting then fill it with water...it was the hit of the neighborhood.

That was back when we had real winters though...before global warming! LOL

[perchjerker]

Yea, i tried the sprinker thing, it was a pain trying to fill all the nooks and crannies. I am doing the visqueen thing with 2X4's this time around. We will see how it goes...

[Homer]

I'm building one right now.

I used to go the visqueen route. The first thing I learned was that my back yard wasn't nearly as level as I thought it was. :-) It's pretty tough to go that route when you've got 10" of water at one side of the rink, and dry visqueen at the other.

I had a few bad experiences with visqueen, but that was due more to warm winters than anything else. The last few years, I've had excellent success by waiting for a good snowfall, then soaking the snow until it turned to grey slush and then stomping it as flat as possible(referred to around our house as the stomping party). Once that froze, it was just a matter of applying thin coats of water to it. That approach works like a charm when you've got 3-6" of snow to work with, as you can be up and skating in a couple days. So far, we've only had about 2" of snow and the stomping party resulted in a few patches of bare grass. I'm now building it up gradually, but it's a lot slower than having a solid base.

As an aside, I thought I watched the weather a lot during fishing season. Wait 'til you've invested 40 or more hours into getting the rink functional here in SE Michigan. You'll be watching the forecasts like a hawk, always fearing the mid-winter thaw that can ruin everything.

[ebijack]

if your really interested, i can get the info for you. there's a place that sells the liners in 3 different thickness in any length i believe. the thinest will last acouple years if i remember right. and they had plans too with complete kits. a guy at work just bought another one. he does it every year.

[water_wolf]

Hey Perch,
You made me remanice(sp?) about my childhood with this post. All though I never made a rink I had a team mate of mines father made the ultimate rink. It was aprox half size of regulation size rink complete with boards (1"x6" reinforced) with lights, red/blue lines, face off circles, goal crease. Even made our own push around Zamboni. What a blast we had back then.....Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Rich Ferguson

[perchjerker]

Thanks for all the posts, guys. I decided to try the plastic route this time around. I have built them using a sprinkler similar to Pitts and Homer suggest, but like Homer said, if it gets warm you get screwed. I got some real nice plastic from Home Depot, although its only 20 ft wide, but the rink is about 60 ft long. Its about 1/2 filled now, hopefully the yard is level enough, thats my only concern at this point.

water wolf, I had a friend when I was a kid whos dad had special grass in his backyard, like putting green grass it made for a great rink, he did all the stuff you talked about, too. His kid was quite a player, made it to a NHL farm team, if I remember correctly.

[cnags]

My Dad and I used our cement driveway for our rink.We used 2x6's for the boards,and would flood it little at a time.We would flood it every night after we were done playing so that it would fill all of the chips,and plus it would frezee better,being colder than during the day.Just make sure that you have it thick enough so that you don't ever reach the cement,it really screws up your blades very fast.This is how I got my start into the BIG leagues.Good luck,and always "KEEP YOUR STICK UP".

[The Great Guide]

My dad used to make a rink in our backyard every year. The only problem we had was keeping all those Norwegians from drilling holes.

TGG

[brw]

I bought one of those kits last year and proceeded to waste gallons of water. Trouble is my back yard has a slope of about 12-15 inches over 50 ft and I couldn't level the %&*$## thing enough to back the water up. The kit came w/ cutouts to cut styrofoam levelers of various heights but they were better in theory than in reality. I'm open to suggestion as to how to level things so the kids can skate.HELP FROM A NON- ENGINEER!!!!!!!!!!(And happy new year to all)