Thinking about doing one up when the real cold weather hits, yall have any tips or tricks from years of building backyard rinks that yall wanna share????

(1)Lazy: Get plastic.
(2)Cheap: If you like lots of hard work you don't need plastic for forming the foundation. Get a sprinkler and be prepared to spend several hours a night for a week + to get a good foundation.

I went for option 2 last winter. I had a beautiful foundation laid and was about 2 - 3 more floods to a beautiful rink, then it warmed up to 10 degrees for 2 weeks. The rink survived the first week, but the second week holes started to appear. 2 days after the foundation was gone the weather dropped to -10 again. :mad:

Use warm water if you can to flood it, it freezes smoother. When I made my rink I had a hot water tap outside, and it made a huge difference.

I tried back in the day, but it didn't freeze very evenly and took forever, so my dad and I gave up on it.

-Rick

heh... at the home farm we have like 1/2 an acre of area that fills up with water and freezes on it own.. ya just need to smooth it out sometimes... :cool:

[ November 16, 2004, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: Haunz ]

Yah we just look or hope someone has a pond nearby lol. The one year we tried to make one the ground wasn't so level and it turned into a flooded side yard lmao

My dad use to make a rink in the backyard used some boards as a frame then put plastic down worked pretty good then would put snow around the boards then freeze them abit so we something to kinda stop on instead of wood.

Yah we just look or hope someone has a pond nearby lol. The one year we tried to make one the ground wasn't so level and it turned into a flooded side yard lmao...........


yea thats what im worried about....just going to have to wait and see...would be nice to have a rink....gives me something better to do then play poker or watch tv

Greek as long as you make sure its either level ground or that your foundation/wood frame is level around you should have no problem

Gotta love them piled up snow banks, saved my ass as a youngster trying to stop quickly more then a few times. :eek: :eek: :D

Knowing how to stop helps [img]tongue.gif[/img] j/k I know how it works I wish i had a snow bank when i got plowed by a guy who plays football that weighs like 250 lbs lol Big fat guy with no skates told him to take out the guy i was tryin to take the puck off of I came around on a spin move to try and get the puck and WHAM the guy hit me like a friggin train lol I laid on the ground laughin for about 10minutes. [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]

I only know how to stop 1 way lol, that's if i turn to my left lol..if i try stoppin to my right boom over like a tree lol

I stop easier to the right, for the longest time i've been tryin to learn how to stop with the inside skate thats tricky.

the only way i know how to stop is going full speed right in to the boards or snow pile. man that hurts. and thanks for giving me some ideas for a back yard rink i can help my sister build one this year. she has always wanted one now we know how to build one.

Waybe Gretzky's dad used to turn on the hose at night and turn it off in the morning.

A few things that worked for him. He had a natural depression in his back yard. He also waited for a cold snap of - 20 or more.

If you don't have a natural depression you can't just let the water run. It will become a river( like the person who said they had a flooded side yard).

Then you have the two options given - plastic and boards which is nice low maintenance, or my suggestion. Get a sprinkler, let it run so it covers a large area. Move it every couple of hours. I also had to tamp the slush down with my boots and shovel to make a good base. I couldn't just shovel the snow away either because then the water just disappeared into the group. I don't recommend this method. Too much work.

Maltese the flooded side yard was a result of melting snow from rise in temperature. [img]tongue.gif[/img]