Backyard rink thread.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

What is everyone using to hold the boards in place??

I'm planning to brace the length boards with scrap wood and then use corner brackets. All with deck screws.

[Methanolic]

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??

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.

[QuadCityImages]

Originally Posted by Gobsgraham

I've seen this picture around the internet before, but I never knew that making small rinks in backyards was such a widespread practice up there. I'm guessing this is the kind of thing you don't mention to your homeowners insurance agent?

[Methanolic]

I've never heard of anybody having any issues with insurance.

BTW: Sorry for busting this thread with the "Big" image.

If anyone knows how I can delete it, I'd gladly remove it.

[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.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by 4X4

If anyone has a pic of that, please post it.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hdic...contest/4.html

We will worry about putting the fence back in the Spring!

Maybe there's a business out there for inserts in the ground for a 4x4 structure and plastic fences that could be removed in sections and replaced with the seasons?

[Methanolic]

^^^^^^ Perfection!!!

[metal_geek]

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.

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...

[Slava]

A) Congrats on being a finalist in the CBC contest...that is impressive!

I'm debating doing a rink this year, and really the one thing holding me back is wondering how much time it takes to do this properly. How much time do you have to commit to have a good rink, say on a weekly basis? Is this the kind of thing where you need to flood it every night to have something worthwhile?

[Methanolic]

I've found that when I've finally got the rink maxed out, I'll go out every night, could be 20 minutes just to clean and resurface, or up to 1-1/2 dealing with problem spots, re-surfacing, patching, digging out leaves, scraping off "mystery bumps"...Etc.

Often times I'd go out in the morning before work to give it some TLC as well.

It's a bit of a commitment for sure, But it's not a big deal if you neglect it for a couple of days, it just means a little more time will be required to get it in shape the next time you tend to it.

[Methanolic]

Here's a 1/2 decent website you can use for reference.


>>>>> http://www.hpurchase.com/byrtips.htm

[Slava]

Thanks for the info/replies Methanolic. Earlier you were saying that when the temperatures are cold enough at night and not too warm during the day you would start. I'm assuming you're in Calgary...does this mean you've started already or are you waiting for another few weeks?

I'm thinking of starting around November 1 sometime and then we should have a good enough rink by the end of the month or maybe a little sooner?

[missdpuck]

This thread is making me jealous. I might try some of that fake roll out ice stuff.

[Methanolic]

Originally Posted by Slava

Thanks for the info/replies Methanolic. Earlier you were saying that when the temperatures are cold enough at night and not too warm during the day you would start. I'm assuming you're in Calgary...does this mean you've started already or are you waiting for another few weeks?

I'm thinking of starting around November 1 sometime and then we should have a good enough rink by the end of the month or maybe a little sooner?

I seriously thought about starting my rink almost 7 days ago because of the cold temps at night, but it's "supposed" to get warmer here in Calgary late this week. I'd love to be able to start laying a foundation next week or the last last week of October. The sooner the better IMO!!

[BOSSY]

Originally Posted by Bagor

Thanks for the replies.

Just remeasured. Can do a ~20x30 job with room for expansion next winter when I shift a mountain of topsoil next spring. Big enough IMO for two little uns that are just starting. Plus with the amount of snow we get here I need to leave some space to shovel it to.
A few questions. Actually ... quite a few.


Any specific reason for a white tarp as opposed to a cheap and cheerful Canadian Tire blue job. For aesthetic purposes?

So are you saying, have the base ready for the first snowfall, then give it a good tamping, then water it? Couple of inches tamped base good enough?

What's your definition of a heavy flood? An inch/1/2 inch at a time? What's roughly your finished thickness of ice including the tamped snow? When you say a week or so ... are you flooding daily/every 2 days ...? I'm now thinking I might as well get 2x12s.



Firstly, that's one hell of a rink!

Are you applying the water directly to the grass or waiting until there is a layer of snow on it? Is the ground frozen when you're applying or are you saturating it? No ill effects to your grass the next year? (that's the main complaint I've been hearing from folks that don't use a tarp). Same question ... how much depth do you mean by an "application"?

You folks using treated wood or just regular?

Yeah, I'm planning to get a couple halogen work lights, attach one to the fence and build a stand for the other.

Yeah as said above white tarp to protect from the sun... another benefit -is your ice looks white, but major reason is the sun...

I use the first good snowfall to make my base, I go out and walk on it to pack it down then water it to make it slush then drag a shovel over it to semi flatten it then a couple of 4x4's with weights on them dragged over to smooth it out... It doesn't freezed smooth at all but gives you a good base... Heavy flood to me means when you have about a quarter inch of water sitting on top (over the entire rink) - remember early on it will be uneven and you will have indents etc. to fill. Don't forget you want to build it when you have a span of 5-7 days with at least -10...

I might be the exception but when building on the grass I always had problems the next spring and summer - since the tarp it's been fine but up to you...

Some of the best advice I got was cold water for building thickness and hot water for levelling and smoothing... It looks awesome after a quick hot water flood!

Crappy picture but from last year...

[temple5]

The hockey expert on ESPN (Buccicros?) has dome some great articles about backyard rinks how to etc./ I would look there.

[oilfanRob]

Anyone in Calgary actually know when/if it will be possible to start an outdoor rink this year? I've heard that you should wait for -10 temps. is that a high or the low? I don't want to use a tarp - should I wait for some snowfall, or just start freezing the ground at night?

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by BOSSY

I might be the exception but when building on the grass I always had problems the next spring and summer - since the tarp it's been fine but up to you...

Do you mean you had problems with your grass? Was it dying or was it just delayed by a month compared to the rest of the lawn?

[Methanolic]

THIS WEEKEND! ....could be the time to start!


Or at the very least, time to start keeping your eye on the "Overnight Low" Temperatures.

If the weather Network's overnight lows turn out to be true, I will have a decent foundation for my rink by Tuesday. Man! I hope they are right!


Saturday (11/28/09) High +1 Low -09
Sunday ......................High =0 Low -10
Monday......................High -1 Low -07
Tuesday.....................High -2 Low -08


That's enough to get a nice "slow freeze" foundation going. I'd love to see a few -15's next week too!

I'm starting to get a little anxious here, We're already nearing the end of November and It feels more like September. I don't mind a mild winter, But this is getting weird. I really hope I can have the rink ready for Christmas.

Anyway, This weekend's weather is a good sign for the rink builders among us.

[Slava]

I Thought hat I would bump this. I must be doing something wrong as my ice is incrdibly thon and brittle. I just flooded this morning and it's basically "hollow". Any advice/ideas on why I can't get a reasonable base here? It's clearly cold enough!