Quote:
Originally Posted by MacDaddy77
This is awesome though!!
I was going to post this same question in a couple of weeks!!
What is everyone using to hold the boards in place??
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Stakes.
You can buy a bundle of 3/4"x1-1/2"x16" wood stakes from Home Depot etc. I lay my boards out, make them straight with a chalk line, then I stake the boards about every 5 feet. Maybe obvious, but make sure you pound your stakes into the ground on the outside of you boards. Also, When you are finished installing your boards, do yourself a HUGE favour and number them in sequence and "arrow" indicate the edge that contacts the ground. If your rink is fairly large, you will certainly appreciate this when you set up the following winter. Also, because I don't use a tarp, any voids between the boards and the groung are fillied in with common top soil. This method is quick and the soil freezes quickly, Do not use sand, it takes longer to freeze, it's difficult to keep it in place and it's messy and almost impossible to get it out of the grass in the spring.
White Ice
When my rink is at it's maximum thickness, it is about 3" thick at the front and at the back fence end it is usually about 8" thick. I have found that the ice becomes translucent at about 1" and by the time I get over the 2" mark, the ice is pretty much "white". The front portion of my rink, because it is pretty much right outside my back door, is applied over a concrete pad that is stained a dark brown. I can't see any idication of it when the rink is done, no darkness, just white ice, not "hollow" looking at all.
Heavy Flood:
This is pretty simple. A heavy flood is just applying as much water as you can in one session. Once you are out there with your hose, you will be able to tell when enough is enough. I'm guessing 1" is probably good for one session. The tricky part of doing the heavy flood is when you are applying water in temperatures below -15/20 degrees. At these temperatures, the water will freeze rapidly. It will freeze so fast that it will not be able to find it's own level, especially on a large rink. If you don't have the tip of your hose directly on the ice and you are not moving the flow of water rapidly over the entire surface, you can actually create high spots, hills and really ugly layering, it's almost like the water you are laying down is thick like thinly mixed cement. Also about the hose, when it's that cold, it's gotta be right on the ice, don't attempt to stand in one local and just spray everywhere, you'll end up with a lot of repair because of splashing and frozen waves. Don't use a nozzle for heavy flooding either, just the end of the hose with nothing on it, and keep it moving! One more thing, Never, Never think that you can lay your hose on the ice, turn on the water and walk away, the water will bore a hole through the ice in a matter of seconds and begin to undermine a massive void under the ice.
Grass:
I'm proably not the one to be answering this one, We have a giant pool in the summer and then in winter the rink. Needless to say, I don't have any grass in these areas, although I find that the pool is the real killer of the grass and not so much the ice rink.
Wood:
I have had my boards for three years now. They are all standard spruce. I stack them up in the summer outside and in the winter they are pretty much covered in frozen ice the whole time. I installed my boards about 2 weeks ago and they are in perfect shape, just a bit dirty.
GO!
Don't bother waiting for the snow, If the evening temps are cold enough and the days don't get too warm, you can get a head start and a nice base to work with.