Outdoor Skating Tips

[RoadGame]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I think we will have more wadding pools than rinks for the foreseeable future:


https://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/ab-52_metric_e.html

I don't know who has the better track record but I'm a bit surprised to see the Weather Network with a meaningfully colder forecast over the same period:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca...lberta/calgary

Take Dec 6th for example: EC has a range of 6-14C, WN has a range of 0-9C

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I think we will have more wadding pools than rinks for the foreseeable future:


https://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/ab-52_metric_e.html

Nah it will hold, especially if his backyard is fairly shaded. Once frozen you would be surprised how well they hold up, especially if taken care of.

[tvp2003]

Weather forecast looks much more promising tomorrow and this weekend if you’re looking to set up an ODR...

[moncton golden flames]

I've had my structure in place for weeks now cursing the warmer weather, until last night. Started setting up the tarp and poured water around 9:30 and wrapped it all up by 11:30. It's a solid 2" thick everywhere and I will leave to set until Saturday. If all goes well, I will be painting the lines, creases, circles and logo and then top coating with as many light sprays as I can before the hose freezes up.

Rink build timelapse.
ODR 2020 by the wild are strong, on Flickr

Done for the night.
ODR 2020 by the wild are strong, on Flickr

This morning.
ODR 2020 by the wild are strong, on Flickr

Inserted some screws so I can attach my string line to for straight lines. 12 screws in total.
ODR 2020 by the wild are strong, on Flickr

I'll post some more pictures after I get some paint down.

[RoadGame]

moncton - what kind of paint are you going to use?

A few general musings:

As much as the past few weeks have been a test of patience, it has been kind of fascinating watching the few leaves I didn't get to in time slowly migrate deeper into the ice. I figure their dark colour was enough to locally melt the ice (absorbing sunlight I guess) during the day and then they'd refreeze a couple mm lower the next day.

Another interesting change a few days ago was what had been a totally crystal clear piece of ice managed to have some kind of degassing event and the ice is now full of pea-sized air bubbles trapped everywhere. Doesn't photograph well for me but looks cool.



Also to undercoverbrother's comment about the ice being pretty resilient, notably the 2 inches or so of freeze I got that first night a while back persisted throughout. My problem was it sits atop several more inches of water, so I've had to wait.

The overnight snow we got a couple days ago also pebbled my surface, but about 15-20 home depot buckets of water were enough to substantially improve the smoothness.

I'll post some pictures hopefully this weekend when we inaugurate it.

[Hanni]

Question for you rink builders about flooding, looking at building a rink next winter and bursting a pipe scares the crap out of me, can you run an outside tap in the winter? (Brand new house, frost-free faucet)

Google wasn't very helpful.

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by Hanni

Question for you rink builders about flooding, looking at building a rink next winter and bursting a pipe scares the crap out of me, can you run an outside tap in the winter? (Brand new house, frost-free faucet)

Google wasn't very helpful.

I always hot flood by hose, light spray. I keep the hose indoors in the basement laundry room. I connect to a laundry sink and run it out thru a window. This keeps my hose in the house and always clear and ready to use.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by RoadGame

Also to undercoverbrother's comment about the ice being pretty resilient, notably the 2 inches or so of freeze I got that first night a while back persisted throughout. My problem was it sits atop several more inches of water, so I've had to wait.

Yeah sorry I should have been more specific, you can't skate on a floating 3 inches of ice it needs to be a solid freeze.

[RoadGame]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Yeah sorry I should have been more specific, you can't skate on a floating 3 inches of ice it needs to be a solid freeze.

My fault for lack of clarity. I understood I needed to wait for a solid freeze, I just meant you were right that the ice I did have initially held up really well despite weeks of warm weather.

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by RoadGame

moncton - what kind of paint are you going to use?

My plan is to use an acrylic paint. I have no clue how successful it will be.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Hanni

Question for you rink builders about flooding, looking at building a rink next winter and bursting a pipe scares the crap out of me, can you run an outside tap in the winter? (Brand new house, frost-free faucet)

Google wasn't very helpful.

Originally Posted by moncton golden flames

I always hot flood by hose, light spray. I keep the hose indoors in the basement laundry room. I connect to a laundry sink and run it out thru a window. This keeps my hose in the house and always clear and ready to use.

For years I used the external hose bip at my place. The water while "cold" is still warm enough to have an effect on the ice sheet. In fact I neve had a problem with the flood. That being said I was always sure to prep the ice before a flood. I shoveled any excess "ice" or "snow" from skating off the surface so it was as smooth as possible.

My recollection is that newer homes have a different type of hose bip that stops freezing and doesn't need to have the water turned off to the outside.

I took this approach through some really cold spells in Central Albarta. You just need to ensure you keep the hose somewhere warmer than zero, for me that was the garage.

[Hanni]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

For years I used the external hose bip at my place. The water while "cold" is still warm enough to have an effect on the ice sheet. In fact I neve had a problem with the flood. That being said I was always sure to prep the ice before a flood. I shoveled any excess "ice" or "snow" from skating off the surface so it was as smooth as possible.

My recollection is that newer homes have a different type of hose bip that stops freezing and doesn't need to have the water turned off to the outside.

I took this approach through some really cold spells in Central Albarta. You just need to ensure you keep the hose somewhere warmer than zero, for me that was the garage.

This is my thought and understanding as well on the hose bib, I'm far from a plumber so some verification helps the peace of mind that I probably won't turn my basement into a swimming pool.

I remember my dad using the basement laundry room taps as a kid and it worked well. Unfortunately ours is in the middle of the top floor of a 2 story so that isn't going to work.

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by moncton golden flames

My plan is to use an acrylic paint. I have no clue how successful it will be.

Paint Fail!

I ended up using coloured duct tape for the lines, and poster board for the logo and creases. There is now about an inch of ice over it all, after a few long nights spraying.

IMG_20201213_141054 by the wild are strong, on Flickr

IMG_20201212_161414 by the wild are strong, on Flickr

IMG_20201212_151914 by the wild are strong, on Flickr

[topfiverecords]

Nicely done! Very jealous.

[RoadGame]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Looks great! I too live in an 25' infill and was contemplating doing this. You'll have to let us know how useable the size of the rink is - that's the only thing holding me back.

My kids are just learning how to skate, and for them it has proven to be a good size at 10' x 14'. As you can probably guess from the marks in the ice my "skating" looks more like stride - turn - stride - turn - stride - turn... I'm thinking next year I'll stretch it to 10' x 20' so at least I can take two strides. It has been good fun playing tag, pass the puck and 2-on-1 shootouts with the kids though. No regrets at all.

Regarding hose connections I thought I'd share this bit - I managed to do one resurfacing from my outdoor hose but the second attempt failed as the tap is frozen shut now. I managed to break off the apparently cheap pot metal builders' grade valve handle, so I have a new spring project all lined up. It has been no problem resurfacing from my kitchen though, I have a large bucket (10L?) and a 4L milk jug and when one is filling I'm out dumping the other. 3x of each is usually enough. Nothing more satisfying than bouncing the puck off the boards as it slides across pristine ice.



moncton - your lines and logo look amazing! What are the dimensions of your rink? I think I'll have a go at a center ice logo based on how good yours looks!

[topfiverecords]

How’d you get the Blue Man Group to play intermission?

[DeluxeMoustache]

Yes, sweet lines and logo, Moncton!

[Ducay]

Got mine setup on sat AM as well before the deep freeze. Amazed how long it took to freeze up even in the -15 weather (~2-3" deep on one end, 4-5" on the other) Took until Monday morning basically.

Its in full sun so gonna be a battle here this week. Obviously not much I can do about that, so hopefully the freeze/thaw doesn't make my nice solid/clear ice turn into garbage flakey stuff

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by RoadGame

moncton - your lines and logo look amazing! What are the dimensions of your rink? I think I'll have a go at a center ice logo based on how good yours looks!

It's 14'x24'. It was a gift last christmas, Rink in a Box from Canadian Tire.

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Amazed how long it took to freeze up even in the -15 weather (~2-3" deep on one end, 4-5" on the other) Took until Monday morning basically.

I agree. I poured mine last Wednesday night and it wasn't solid until Saturday, and it was no more than 3" deep anywhere.