Quote:
Originally Posted by 4X4
I remember a few years ago on hockey day in canada, there was a contest for best backyard rink. The one that won was in Ft. Mac (IIRC) and it was two neighbours that knocked down their fence and used both yards.
The greatest thing about it was that one of them had a tree in the yard that he didn't want to remove, so they had in right there, in the middle of the rink. The kids were joking about it saying that they named it "Woody" and that it taught them to keep their heads up while skating.
If anyone has a pic of that, please post it.
BTW, nice rinks, guys.
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I was a finalist in that competition that year with this rink.
Here is the link to our write up
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hdic...contest/5.html
The ice on that back there is almost 2 feet thick to make up for the slope, you can see how high the 4' boards are to the 6' fence... The ice went to 3" thick at the other side.
A tarp isn't necessary, but it really helps on the warm days where water starts to form at the edges, it tends to keep some of it there. Really though the water pretty much evaporates the second it thaws so the ice kinda "shrinks".
You can make a "tarp" any size you want using vapor barrier and tuck take that works perfectly, I've used it several times now. Just ask if you want instructions.
Avoid flooding in snow, snow makes the ice "softer" and ruins the strength of the ice... just avoid flooding in snow or while there's snow on the ice.
About the color of the ice, I wanted to get the logo to really stand out, so I used a 5 gallon bucket full of water and about a cup of white paint primer, it was like milky white then I rolled it on an early layer of ice and from there on out it was like glow in the dark white
. The logo took hours to paint, I wouldn't recommend ever doing anything like that again, rofl. when you cover any markings you put on your ice keep in mind, water between -4 and -7 freezes clear so make sure to do a covering flood at the right temperature or it'll freeze over cloudy.
Edit... I almost forgot, the grass comes back under the ice likely better then any other grass in the yard, and the little bit of paint never left a trace...