DIY Backyard ice rink
Follow this winter’s rink design and construction on my Backyard Ice Rink page.
Update 12/19/2007 – I make it sound easy so it’s only fair to tell the story of my first rink
Update 12/9/2007 – Find out how to build your own rink rake for under $20
Update 12/6/2007 – Here’s a tip for keeping your garden hose from freezing
Update 11/25/2007 – Click here to see photos of how I built this year’s rink.
When I was a kid, every winter my dad would pull out some old boards and plastic tarp and assemble a backyard ice rink. We had a collection of old skates we would go through to find a pair that fit and have a blast skating on the ice.
Three years ago for Ethan’s 2nd birthday we got him his first pair of skates and I decided it was time to put up our own backyard hockey rink. I’ve been putting the rink up for each year since then and have gotten it down to a very simple process. I typically assemble our rink during Thanksgiving weekend, but I decided to post this early for anyone planning on putting up a rink for the first time. I’ll post detailed pictures when I put our rink up, but here is the basics.
How to Build a Backyard Ice Rink
1) Location. You’re yard might seem flat, but you would be surpised. Put 4 stakes in the ground for where you envision your rink will be and rink string across diagonally making sure to keep it level. Now measure how high the string is off the ground from one end to the other. If its 5″ on one end and 8″ on the other you have a 3″ drop. Considering you will need at least a 2 inch ice base that means your water level will be 5″ at the deepest end. This is important for determine what size lumber to buy. If you have a very large drop from one end to the other you can either build a super structure or start getting fill. I’ve done both and getting the fill is the easiest in the long run.
2) Lumber. The construction is actually very simple. I settled on a 16 x 24 sized rink which is two 8 foot boards on one side and 3 on the other. No cutting involved. I had been using 2×8 boards, but am considering going with 2x10s to allow me a deeper ice base and let me cover more ground for a larger rink. 16×24 for fine for little kids, but as they get bigger they will want a larger rink. Make sure you get pressure treated wood and buy a couple extra boards.
3) Hardware. Buy a box of 2 1/2″ prime guard decking screws. The new pressure treated wood will eat threw the old galvanized screws very quickly. The prime guarded ones have a coating to protect the metal. They cost more, but you can use them for several years.
4) Liner. There are 2 ways to do a cheap liner. The first is to buy a large sheet of vapor barrier. Lowes sells a 20′ x 100′ roll which I used for my rink. This stuff works great, but is hard to use for more than 1 season. The roll is long though so I used half one year and the other half the second year. Last season I bought a large tarp which is much thinker material. It seems to have held up fine and will try using it again this year.
5) Assemble. I cut the extra boards into 12″ pieces. These are used on the outside of the rink to attach the boards together and to reinforce the corners. For my 2×3 setup I needed 1 piece on each end and 2 on each side for a total of 6. Add in 4 for each corner and thats 10 pieces. Lay your boards out on flat surface, put a 12″ inch piece over a seam and start drilling in screws. Make sure they bite into the boards, but don’t go all the way through. I used 8 screws on each seam. Once the sides are together, stand them up in place and overlap at the corners. Put a couple screws in to hold it up where they overlap and than add your corner piece on the side to give it some reinforcement. I’ll get better pictures of this when I put mine together.
If you have any gaps under your boards because of dips in the yard, rake up some leaves to stuff under them. If you leave these gaps as-is your liner might bulge through them as it freezes and tear. I used hay for this as well. Anything that the mower can simply eat up in the fall is easiest.
Once the boards are all up, lay your liner down. I’ve attached the liner to the boards 2 ways. With the ‘disposable’ liner I stapled it onto the outside of the boards. This works, but as the weight of the water pulls on the liner it will tear. You also have a mess of staples to pull out in the spring. With my tarp I simply wrapped it over the boards and tucked it back underneath. This worked great, but you need to make sure your tarp is big enough to handle it.
6) Fill It. You are now ready to fill it up. It is best to wait until you are getting some consistently cold temperatures, but this is often hard to predict. Last year we had a very mild winter so I had over 6 weeks with a pond instead of a rink. I fill it from my garden hose to a depth of 2 inches at the shallowest. When it freezes it will expand making it a little deeper.
7) Wait. It will take awhile to freeze all the way through so be patient. If you get on the ice too soon with will just break and freeze uneven. Try and fish out any leaves, branches, or critters that find their way into the water.
Prep it. Zamboni time! I purchased a Rink Rake to smooth my ice, but you could easily build one. This is a simple device made of PVC pipe that distributes a thin layer of water onto your ice just like a zamboni. Do this a couple times to build up your ice a little more and make it really smooth.
That’s it! It does take a bit of work and practice, but the materials are really very cheap and most can be re-used for a long time. I’ll post more tips and pictures when we get closer to winter. Feel free to send me any questions you have. Here are some pictures of our hockey rink from last year.
Ethan rescues salamanders from the rink during a warm spell.
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Thank you so much for this site! I’ve learned a lot. I live in the Northeast and built my 30′ x 40′ rink on Thanksgiving. We’ve had so much warm and cold snaps that I haven’t been able to use it yet, but wanted to share a neat idea I had about an unlevel yard. I have about a 10″ slope over the length of my rink and I used 2 x10s to build my frame. I raised my low corner up by almost a foot which left some dips under many sections of my frame. I found a great way to fill in those gaps without much effort at all. If you take strips of scrap carpet and line them along the inside of your frame all the way around, you will have no worries! The great thing about it is that you can probably get the carpet very cheap or even free from places like lowes or your local carpet stores. I got about 100′ of it for nothing and it protects my liner all the way around.
Thanks again!
Building a 20 x 32 rink and now there is like 20 in of snow should I just wet down the snow to create the ice surface? Ideas would be appreciated
John –
This site is AWESOME! Thank you! My neighbor & I built a rink for the first time this year. It’s 72′ x 32′. We’ve read the posts here and built our rink rake. IT’s a great little project and activity. And the kids LOVE it!
We have a frustration that’s driving us nuts that I hope someone can help me understand. …I saw it here a couple of times in the blog, but I didn’t see any answers (they’re probably there, and maybe I’m too bleary-eyed to comprehend…) We are getting a lot of “SLUSH” on the ice. Also, even though we had a 2″ thick layer of ice that we were skating on, snow from the recent snow storms all turned to slush on top of the ice. As an example of our slush… I shoveled about 6″-8″ of snow off the ice at lunch time. There were some soft spots, but the ice was generally hard.
So here’s our frustration… Right now, it’s 11 degrees out, the high temp for the day was 25 degrees F, and there’s a great deal of slush out there. Why would we have slush on the ice since lunch when the temp never got above 25 degrees F? Also, why would snow turn to slush on TOP of the ice? Wouldn’t the ice provide a protective insulation layer?
Here’s my theory… I’m guessing that the depth of our water is the cause. For why the snow turns to slush on top of existing ice, I’m guessing that the weight of the ice and snow is pushing the ice down into the water. And since we have so much water, it “displaces” by curling up around the edges. The water spreads across all the snow and, viola! a layer of slush, not snow. This could also explain the “SLUSH” we’re getting. Since it was a cold day, more ice formed, therefore, more displacement. I’m also thinking that the ground is still not frozen, at least not beneath the ice, and that somehow plays into this.
…And with the freeze-thaw-freeze cycle we’ve experienced, our ice core on Saturday morning looked like a triple-decker ice bowl sandwich —> ice on top followed by layers of slush, ice, slush, and then ice.
OUR CONSTRUCTION: We used a 100′ x 40′ 6mm clear plastic tarp. We also build support brackets from free lumber sources (a.k.a. SCRAP from construction sites) and placed them every 4′ to support a plywood wall. Our shallow corner (SE) is ~2.5″ and our coffin corner (NW) is 23″ deep. The other corners are 14″ (NE) and 8″ (SW). We’ve varied the height of our walls accordingly.
We seem to have a leak – the grass in the NW corner is always wet. the tarp was whipped around by the wind as we were filling it, and I repaired two holes with duct tape. Anyone know how to find and repair it?
Mike
I have the exact same slush problem you described in your Dec 22, 2008 post. What did you do to rectify the problem? Did the slush freeze hard enough to reflood or resuface on top of it?
Brent
hey…
I dont know if this will help you…. but on mine I had the problem with slush last year, and with freezing rain (that was the worst) it absolutely destroyed my surface to the point that I couldnt even think about a “Zamboni” …so what I ended up doing was using hot water… I bought a nice heavy duty red hose (for hot water) and use that coming from the hot line in my basement sink…(this year I think im going “y” the hot water line in with the cold with another shutoff to the spiket outside so I dont have to run a hose out of a window)
anyway…I dont know why or the science behind it (or if im just nuts) but it seems to freeze way harder and better with hot than with cold water… maybe because it melts the top layer and then slowly goes down to freezing temp together.. (instead of just almost freezing on contact like with the cold water) its give a glass like finish every time…… granted… with this… its a good idea to do it after you are done skating for the day to prep it for the next few times of skating….
I decided to not set mine up till the end of December this year because im in Buffalo and we don’t usually stay below freezing until then…..last year I set it up earlier and it just made more work for me and my son fighting with it when it melted….
I used my snow blower on mine last year anytime it got over a couple inches of snow… made easy work of it instead of spending an hour of skating time shoveling off the rink… but I did get this 4 foot shovel (snowpusherlite.com) that makes quick work of just of inch or two of snow……
My rink is made from pvc pipe and flex hose clipped over it (with tarp in between) its was a kit thing its like 52×30 or something like that…. I just fill it till it flows over the edges works great all winter long….hardest thing is getting the sides up with poly foam board brackets I made (because the yard isnt level) ..found this website here and it got me thinking about at least making the sides and the one end out of wood to make boards for a hockey puck……
hope that idea with the hot water helps anyway.
Thanks for the great idea with hot water! enjoyed your post. My hockey and figure skating kids thank u in advance. Wyoming, our area at least, sounds like a weather match to yours.
Hi,
I am hoping you can help me. We hope to build our ice skating rink tomorrow using a tarp. The area I am building has a rock wall on one side and was planning on having the rock wall form one of the sides of the rink. Do you think the tarp will rip being against the rock wall? I am going to put a liner under the tarp to give another layer of protection. Can’t decide what to do.
Thanks!
Bob
I have been doing a back yard rink with a liner for the last three years. Still looking for a good way to get the rink frozen and deal with lake effect snow. Any tips?
Heavy snow can be a real pain when the rink is only half frozen.
Hi there, I too live in the “lake effect” area and have experienced difficulties with major snow events. Unfortunately it is something we Michiganders must deal with. My advice is to plan on marking up a “snow removal” calender when you know when you may get a break from the weather. It make take several days for a major lake effect event to pass but if you plan some time to try and remove snow off the rink as much as possible, that may make your rink survive. I will let no more than 6″ at a time build up on the rink. Yes it will become frustrating constantly going out and snow blowing, shoveling, whatever but you will be glad you did. This my second year doing this after talking with eveyone about how they go about the process i have figured out that everyone does just about the same thing. Tons of snow removal in the beginning, use hot water (if you can), and make yourself a Zamboni, they are fantastic!
the slush is caused by the sun. You need a 2nd tarp to put over it durring the day when you are at work. The biggest enemy is the sun. It may be cold out, but the sun still generates heat. Hope this helps
We built our first backyard rink about 2 weeks ago thanks to all of the guidance on your site – Thank-You! Because my backyard is not even, I had to use 2 x 8′s. One corner is 2 inches deep and another is 6 inches deep. How do you know when the ice is ready to skate on? I built a rink rake but I am afraid to step on the rink because I’m not certain if it is frozen all of the way through. To make matters worse, we had a full weekend snow/ice/rain storm that has left about 2 inches of slush on top of the ice (about 1″ was frozen prior to the storm), although with temps in the teens during the overnight, when I checked it this morning the slush seemed to be totally frozen. Any guidance on how to know if it is ready to step on? We have had about 5 days of below freezing temperatures with the exception of a few hours here an there.
The results of my December 18th experiment (covering rink with old liner to keep freezing rain and sleet off):
Was just far enough north to miss the freezing rain and ending up getting about 5 inches of heavy snow. The snow was way to heavy to allow dragging the liner off the ice. Ending up using a snowblower to remove most of it then was able slide the liner off the ice. The ice underneath was in perfect shape. I think this will work in general for light ice storms as long as the ice is completely frozen before laying down the liner. If the surface of the ice was at all wet the liner would have frozen into the rink.
I’ve read what you’ve had to say about when the snow falls on the ice, however, it didn’t entirely work out. I thought the ice beneath the snow was thick enough to walk on, but it turned out to be real hard slush. I decided to try and remove the snow anyway with my snow blower. Today I awoke to an extremely bumpy rink with tire tracks and hard ice bumps that my rink rake has no effect on. Is there any hope for me or should I just let mother nature take care of it? I have tried to shovel the tops of the bumps off with gardening tools, being careful not to scratch the liner, but its no use.
Matt,
The weather this month has been a nightmare for outdoor rinks. You’re going to need to keep flooding with the rink rake to both remove some of the bumps while raising the level of the ice. Normally the snowblower has no problem on the ice, but you do need to shovel off any snow tracks it leaves. But a slushy surface can leave it a mess which is the problem everyone is having this year with so many mixed precipitation storms.
With more bad weather in the forecast and slightly warmer temps, I would wait until after the next storm. Then shovel it off…this should leave some snow/slush around the bumps. The rink rake will melt that stuff and add to your base as you work to get it all smooth again.
Something else that might work is to use the house without the rink rake on the bumps. Melt them down, just be careful not to make any holes. This won’t make the ice smooth, but will lower the height of bumps. Then use the rink rake for the finish coats. I know that big bumps can defy the rink rake since it rides over top of them and the water runs off to smooth the flatter areas while leaving the mountains you’re trying to remove.
we have VERY rough and bumpy ice…only 2 spots are smooth like glass…how do i get it all smooth so that we can skate on it….the whole rink is frozen solid it holds my 130lbs of weight, but it is way too bumpy to sakte on…HELP please
use the rink rake that will smooth it out
Awesome site here with tons of great information. My first time rink is up and we will be skating tomorrow. For those wondering about a rink rake to smooth the ice I took the advice in one of the threads above and built one myself – in case it is helpful here is what you need:
1 – 3/4 inch 10ft section of PVC pipe
1 – 3/4 inch foam insullation tube (to wrap around the PVP pipe)
1 – T- shaped connector
1- pvp hose adaptor
2 – PVP pipe caps
PVP joint compound
This costs about $15 tops and works great. Cut the 8ft pipe into three pieces. I did 2 sections of 3ft and one section of 4 ft for the handle. Use the T- shaped connector to connect the three sections of PVP pipe and seal using the PVP cement (just ask somebody at home depot if you have not seales PVP joints before – it is VERY easy). Next attach the PVP caps to one of the ends and the top of the handle and the hose adaptor to the other end of the rake and seal with PVP cement. Next wrap the foam insulation around the two three foot sections (the foam serves as a great squeegee when you apply water to your rink). Finally, drill 1/4″ holes one inch apart across the foam portion of the rake. This took me about 10 minutes to build and I let dry and had it on my rink within an hour.
THIS IS VERY EASY – hope this helps!
Just an update – we are enjoying our 24×40 rink. Lots of work but going great. As long as we shovel at end of night and flood when needed.
Christine – sounds like if your stuff is gone either pray for a hot day to melt and reform the surface or add about an inch of water and refreeze the surface.
To remove smaller bumps (1/4 inch or less in height) I bought a $3 clothes iron at a consignment shop and duct taped a hockey stick to the iron’s handle. I could feel the curious eyes of my neighbors on me as I ironed my ice, but it worked wonderfully.
WIND!!!!!!! we have had 50mph winds for two days and my once perfect rink is now a dirt covered mess. I am thinking i will need to hose down the rink and squeegie off as much of the dirt as i can and then re build some good ice over the top.asn sugs for the rookie ice builder. I would hate to loose all the fun we have been having.
Here goes… My rink has about 10inches of water at the high end and 3inches on the low. The low end has completely melted but it seems the high end has about an inch or 2 of frozen ice but the edges are completely melted. We’re scheduled to receive another snow storm here in the northeast 2 days from now. The weather is going to be below freezing beginning tomorrow. After the snow storm we receive should I shovel off or wait until I know the ice is completely frozen which I’m assuming will be 5 days or so? I’m thinking if I wait the snow will stick to the ice and there will be a real mess. But if I shovel before completely frozen I’ll get tons of slush.
Also, when I shoveled off from the last storm I wasn’t careful around the liner so I now have a bunch of holes. I used some duct tape to patch the holes. Will this work?
I laid out an area (approx 20′ x 30′) for my ice rink. I can’t afford to spend much, but I’m gonna go get a tarp tomorrow because of the temperature fluctuations in Michigan. However, my backyard is kinda sloped and there is currently some ice back there where it floods. Is it gonna cause a problem if II lay down my tarp and start filling my rink with the existing ice under my tarp? I’am assuming that I may get a nice rink set up, but when the temerature rises a little, the ice underneath my tarp will thaw and my rink will have some issue. Any advice?
Excellent Blog. Thanx for all the great input.
This year is my second rink. Last year I used a snow mound and a cheap chinese tarp – big mistake – the seams were not properly sealed and it leaked badly. Snowed that night and was now stuck with six inches of snow and could not remove cheap tarp. Ended up using the pack and ice method for the rest of the winter on top of the cheap tarp. A lot of work but we got 8 weeks of skating with my kids and their friends. An absolute riot.
This year I was going to do much better. Built a 32 x 48 foot border with 2x10x16′ boards. Then my first mistake. I purchased the 20 x 100 foot sheet cut it in half and taped it with duct tape to make a 40 x 50 foot sheet. To give my self a better chance I folded it in the middle and taped it again. However, it still leaked and with the fold this center section wanted to float with trapped air. Corrected this with some bricks – but the seam still leaked bad. As I have a lot of ice now on top of this I will be using the pack and ice for this center section of my rink.
Moral/recommendation: Use a high quality single piece liner. Next year I will use the white poly tarp as a liner recommended above.
You can use 6mm poly, duct tape the seams but make sure you use a bead of acoustic sealer along the seam as well.. hope this helps!
We also had a rough December with crazy temps. I had the rink perfectly smooth and then left for vacation the last week of December. Then we got the 60 degree temp. When we got back the ice was in really rough shape and I’m having a really difficult time getting it smooth again.
I have a homemade rink rake but have also tried to just flood the rink as well.
When I put a new layer or water down it either doesn’t seem to bond with the ice below or I get a lot of air pockets. The new ice, in most places, will also freeze very crusty. Could this be because I used too much water or not enough? Or could it be from using cold water as opposed to hot or warm water.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Mike
First year rink builder. The rink is 16′ x 60′ ( this is all i can squeeze in the backyard ) with ice thickness of 3″ to 18″. We have had great skating most everyday here in southeast MI since Dec 28th. Just recently about 10 days ago i notice the rink was getting thinner ice on on the shallow side. The plastic was showing 6″ x 12″ bare in a couple of spots. You see after each night of skating i would clean the surface with a shovel but was not adding any water. Also i believe after a Sunday rain the water got under the plastic and when it froze the ground heaved.
After adding about 1/4 – 1/2″ of water for 3-4 nights straight seemed to help. I also experience the air pockets. It did correct itself and finally smooth out, but only when applied a very thin layer.
Mike,
I too had a good rink then was hit by warm temps and wind. I put down four layers of ice with a rink rake that I build and it was crusty for the first two, the more i put down the better it got. The ice is in great shape now. I was conserned when the first two layers had big flakey air pockets but just kept poorintg the h2o to it. so far it is working out great. I use cold to reserface
Thanks Kidder. Good to know.
I woke up this morning after putting another layer down last night and it’s getting better. Now if it would just stop snowing. lol. This thing is a full time job.
Amen to that Mike. I had it smooth as glass for a few days then the freezing rain, then then the snow, then the snow to freezing rain to rain back to snow. Looks like more snow for Saturday here in the northeast. Followed by lots of cold, so at least resurfacing will be easy. This is my first year and I knew a lot of time would be required but this is getting a little out of hand.
Take heart, this has been the worst start to rink season I’ve ever seen. The freezing rain is the worst thing you can get. A normal snow is easy to shovel off and often I don’t bother doing another resurface, just let the kids skate on the dust. Freezing rain ruins it and can take multiple passes to fix.
I’m wondering what happens to the grass under the rink in the spring. does it come back nicely as if the rink had not been there?
The grass will look better under the area of the rink….greener and thicker!
Hi Mark
Can you water when it is snowing? If yes, should I use hot or cold water to get the best result?
Thanks
Pat – Don’t water when its snowing or it will turn to slush and freeze bumpy. If its snow (and not a mix) it will shovel off and the ice will be fine underneath. Leaving a little powder on the rink is fine cause the next pass with the rink rake will take care of it. Hot or cold seems to be a matter of preference. Cold is my only option and it works for me, but others swear by hot. Just don’t leave the hose on the ice in one spot for too long or it will melt it!
This is my first yr at my brand new home moved in dec 6th and started right away,that caused many problems as my rink is severly of level by at least 6-7 inches.i used 2×8″s on a 57×37 surface,half the rink is full ,half has 2 inches of bumpy ice,if i can putting water just on the low side will it eventually catch up.
I’ve never tried recovering from that situation. What others have done is stack more boards on top of the boards at the deep end, attach them with pieces of wood screwed in from behind. Hopefully you have enough liner to run up these new boards and then you can flood the rink more to fill in the high spots.
For all those that are asking about using a towel behind your rink rake, I found it to work more against me than help me. The problem is your water is warmer than the ice and what I found is the towel would slush up the water so I alway ended up taking a shovel to clean it to try and get the ice flat. I took the towels off and it worked a lot better because the water can “find it’s level” better. If you have bumps do it a couple times. sometime if it is cold enough like it had been here in New Hampshire, I can do it twice a day. Just be sure to bring the hose in after each use
Pat – do not water when it is snowing. Everything I know was learned from reading this blog. John is the ice guru. I have had GREAT ice so far this year. I didn’t touch it for a few days: horrible weather, snow, ice, rain, sun everything, just left it (like a mutual fund) and went to shovel and it was smooth as glass. Had a birthday party where 15 kids beat on it for about 4 hours and it is looking a little carved up, but I flood at night when the air is cold and calm and let it freeze all night. When I flood in the afternoons or morning I find the ice surface to sheer off in certain spots.
John-
I’m a first timer at this and I had my first major screw up. I thought that my ice was frozen good enough to walk on and it wasn’t. The ice broke in my deep end (I have about a 4″ drop) and ripped my tarp under the ice and no way I can get to it to fix. Some water escaped, but not a ton. I’ve tried flooding after the top froze again, but it still leaked. My rink isn’t to full anymore and I have about 3-4 inches in the deep end and basically nothing in my shallow corner. Forecast shows for about 4 inches of snow and very cold. How can I fix?
/Kurt
I was able to sweep and shovel the snow off and was able to reflood with the rink rake. It was cold enough that the water was freezing almost instantly, so I tried to put a good amount on. However, when I woke up this morning, some of the top ice was brittle and paper thin and didn’t adhere to the solid ice underneath. Do you know why this would be? It didn’t happen all over, just in spots. We got about another few inches today, and forecast says brutally cold for the next couple of days. My plan is to get the snow off again and try to put another good flood on it. What do you think?
/Kurt
so,i had glass for ice on 1 side then bumpy on the other,the bumpy side is the high side with not much ice.i flooded with hot water and presto,no more bumps.still not enough ice for me to skate on 270lbs but its getting there.it is 3 degress out and i didnt really notice is was slightly snowing and put down another puddle,but by the time i was down it was snow on top the water.did i damage the surface,or will it be alright.this site is great seeing ive been outside workin on the rink at least 1hr a day,(did i ruin the ice if i put water down and it immediatley snowed on it).
My brother and I are starting our very first backyard rink. Trying the good old Canadian way of using no liner and no wood for boards. Began by building boards out of snow and watering and packing with feet and shovels. Than packing the snow in the rink area with feet and shovels, and watering and packing and so on. How much do u think we need to water before we can flood a lot?? Or should we just go slow layer by layer until we get a good base?? Please Help.
This is my first year attempting this project. So far it hasn’t been all that bad, but I do have a few questions. I used 2×6′s to frame my rink and also used a tarp. I filled it and found that after 4 or 5 days that it had frozen but one corner, the level had dropped about 3.5 inches, regardless it still froze solid. Here is my concern: I built the rink rake out of PVC, as you suggested and found that it works perfect, but every time that I flood the ice it cracks. Is this normal? Will this cause problems later on, or will it become stronger the more I flood it?
Thanks!!!
Frank,
I get that cracking too and it doesn’t cause any problems. I think the warm water on the slab of ice shocks it and causes the cracking. If you ever walk on a large lake during winter you hear the same cracking.
Thanks John,
This is my first year building a ring as well. Thanks to this and other websites the experience has been great. The kids and i love our rink.
The cracking happens to me to when I flood. I have to admit, it scared the crap out of me when it happend. I thought I screwed up all my hard work. But the next mornig the surface was smoth as glass. I’m glad to hear that the cracking is normal and dosent cause problems.
Well, I put another good layer of ice on yesterday. However, I’m still getting areas where the ice is brittle on top and don’t know why. Can anybody tell me why this is happening? I would like to skate on it sometime this winter.
Thanks, Kurt
Kurt,
How cold is it and how much water are you putting down? I’m guessing its really cold and the top of the water is freezing faster the water on top of the ice. Have you tried using less water and wrapping a towel around your rink rake?
For those of you that end up with some bumps on the ice (like frozen slush or pebbles) try using an ice chopper that is sharp and shave the hi bumps off..just like a real Zamboni does.Sweep off,then use your rink rake..works for me.My scraper/chopper is 8 inches wide.
I just built my first 16 X 48 ice rink for the kids. I used 6 mil clear plastic and 2 X 6 for the sides. I then cut 12″ wide pieces of 2 X 6 and joined the boards together. To support the sides I cut 2 X 6 angle braces and screwed them to the side of the 12 inch joining pieces. I then drilled a hole through the tip of the angle and drove a 6 inch garden stake through them for stability. The rink is rock solid is support. I made the mistake of leaving some snow under the plastic – which has caused the ice to be shallow in some areas (1 1/2 or maybe less). I did walk in the water as the hose was filling it and stomp down some of the snow to make it better but I do have a slope. The funny thing is that I laid out the rink perfectly level and there was no gap at the end boards but guess what – the ground must have un frozen while filling with water and now I have the ice nearly 6 inch deep at one end and about 3 at the other with some 2 inch in the center. So far so good.
Some questions I have are.
1. I checked the ice this morning and the deep end has ice but when pushed on water comes up from under the ice. Seeing how it will be cold the coming week (I am in Buffalo NY) how long will it take the ice to fresh enough so the water stops coming up and it is skatable.
2. I could add some boards around the rink but am curious if I can get away with the thickness of the ice as it is. Does making it deeper resolve some issues or make it harder to maintain long term – as it is deeper and takes longer to freeze.
3. Should I continue to add to the surface or wait until it freezes underneath first as I think adding water now would make things worse.
4. Instead of a rink rake can I just use a garden sprinkler.
5. Has anyone had any luck with filling one end with more water once it freezes and trying to level out the surface – I know when it melts but that is fine.
6. If I add and brace another 2 X 6 on top of the other boards do you think it will be too much to support for the base boards underneath. I am worried about the pressure causing them to bend outward in time. Considering the only support wood will be on the outside of the boards.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Kevin
Can someone help me w/rink rake DIY instructions, I can’t seem to find on here. I’m assuming the t-shape, w/hose adaptor. Really just curious on size of pipe to use and spacing and diameter of the holes. Thanks.
Ben
Great site with alot of good information. Second year rink builder this year with a 24ft X 40ft rink. I have a similar problem with my rink as Owen’s post from December 16th, 2007, although I think his was with water and mine is with ice.
Like many others, I have a low side and a high side on my rink and I have compensated on the lowside with extra boards. The low side is about 18in deep and the high side is 4 inches deep with a rink level surface. The water froze into a very nice block of solid clear ice and my son and I were able to skate on it several times.
One day we heard a big crack sound and saw a deep one appear in the ice. The next day the ice level had dropped 3 inches on the low side with no appearent water pooling outside the rink. Within the next few days the ice level continued to drop and more deep cracks appeared. The ice level has dropped a total of 8 inches and I’m not sure if it will keep going. There is enough ice to skate on as this still has 8-10 inches, but it is not not even with the surface. Also I don’t know if it is going to keep dropping.
Has this happened to anyone else? Can you explain what is going on? More importantly, what should I do to keep the rink going this year?
Thanks in advance
Luis
Luis,
Wow, I’ve never encountered anything like this. Is the ground frozen around the rink? Did you build over the septic? Not sure what could explain one side melting so much. Could the ice have slid down the hill at all?
How long after you flooded the rink did this happen? Maybe it wasn’t frozen completeley and water leaked out underneath. You might not see any puddles if the ground under the rink absorbed it. I worry that trying to fill the rink will melt the ice you have and the water will continue to leak. If you are getting this snow storm you could try shoveling the snow off the good side onto the low side. Pack it down hard. Then run a rink rake over it over the next few days. Just saturate the snow, let it freeze. Keep doing this to build a new base and then use the rake to flood over the whole thing. This will let you build up your base without using a lot of water which would melt your good ice.
This is all experimental so let us know what works and what doesn’t. And in the spring please stop back to give us a report on any findings. The more I think about it the more I suspect you got a tear in the liner.
I have a question that I hope someone can respond to today. We are supposed to get about 10inches of snow followed by freezing rain here in the northeast today. My question is should I wait until the storm is over then shovel the snow\freezing rain off or should I shovel all the snow off the ice before the freezing rain arrives. Thanks…
BD,
Wait until the freezing rain is over. It will make a shell on the snow. Harder to shovel, but your ice will be pretty much the same as you left it underneath. If you shovel the snow off first, the freezing rain will freeze to your ice and leave you with a bumpy surface which will require the rink rake to fix.
Oh boy!! What a disaster. I was the guy who told you that I had cracking every time I flooded the rink at night. One day we had a thaw out. About +4c and some of the ice melted but I noticed that one end of the rink was 3 inches below the 2×6. So I decided to refill the entire rink. What a mistake. First off I think that one end of the rink has a leak in the tarp. Secondly, after refilling the rink a lot of areas had air pockets so when I went to step on the ice it cracked right through to the next layer of ice. Is this pretty much the end of my first rink or is there time to salvage it?
Frank
Well now I have a slightly different problem. In my earlier post I wrote about the ice level dropping. We had a recent snow fall that turned into ice/freezing rain. I tried to shovel off from the good side to the side that had dropped. That seemed to have built that side up, but my rink now has major bumps and is unskateable. It went from smooth as glass ice to something that looks like the moon.
From reading the other posts, it seems this has been happening to others throughout the season and the solution that appears to work has been to pass the rink rake to melt the bumps and build the base using warm/hot water.
How much water should be used with the rink rake? A light pass, as in resurfacing or a heavy amount as in flooding? Also, can this be done in the day time or is night time better.
I appreciate any advice.
Thanks in advance
Luis
Just my 2 cents. If your rink gets really banged up from this weather with big craters and bumps. Then I would say you need to flood as much as you can to smooth it out. Try to flood during a mild temperature break so as not to get that crusting non binding ice effect. Then when you are smoothed out with “mild” bumps you can rink rake.
Think of it like working with joint compound. Flooding is the actual application of the joint compund rink rake is sanding.
Get an ice scraper with a sharp edge and have at her. A rink is alot like detailing a car and/or painting…it is all in the prep work.
My rink has been phenomenal all season, I do think largely to the fact that when it is warm, we stay away until I know it is re-froze. If it is shelly or bumpy, I scrape it off, and go over with the rink rake.
At the end of EVERY night whether skated on or not, I go over with a shovel just to cleam off the surface.
well it is over year one is in the books. I had fun and the kids did as well. we had a 30×30 rink for 3mo. it held up great and took small repaires every now and then but a great bang for the buck. I think every one should give the best tip they tried and post it up. TIP FROM ME- when small holes start to form kick them in and fill with slush. wait over night and rink rake in the mor\ning for smooth surface.
Silly Question:
i’ve never done this but want to do this in our backyard next winter.
What happens to the grass underneath? Does this damage/kill the grass below or does it come back in the spring just like if it is covered in snow?
We’ve been doing it for years and haven’t had any trouble with the grass. Just make sure not to put it up too early (I normally put ours together Thanksgiving weekend) and take it down as soon as Spring arrives and the ground thaws.
This past season was our first year putting up a rink and I will confirm what John said that your grass will be fine and add – one of the companies that make rink liners also sells to golf courses for winter protection of their greens. I realize most people are not thinking about outdoor rinks this time of year, however, with the awful experience we went through with ours, it is still on the forefront of my mind. Let me try a brief recap:
My husband and I sought approval from our village to ensure we would not be violating any codes. After hearing back there would be no codes violated, my husband, in early December, installed 1/2″ plywood with brackets to support them. We had planned for the rink to be 30′ x 64′. Prior to the liner be delivered, we received a call from the village stating they had received complaints about our rink, just an “FYI”. Meanwhile, two tanker trucks of water filled our rink; let the freezing begin! Or so we thought! During the night, someone had cut a 4′ gash in the deep end of the rink and several thousands of gallons of water leaked out and froze in our yard. Our next door neighbor (we thought we were friends), alledgedly was the biggest complainant and went on to try and make our lives miserable. He went so far as to send out a survey essentially asking our subdivision’s residents if they thought an ice rink belonged in our “upscale” neighborhood”. We never heard the official results but did hear that most residents didn’t really care one way or another.
We did get a new liner and more water delivered along with a night vision surveilance camera and recorder.
My children had more fun on that rink and my son “re-enlisted” in hockey lessons with Kenny McCudden. Our endeavor with this rink was purely for our children and their friends enjoyment. Never did we think neighbors would take issue with this and go so far as to criminally damage our personal property!
Our neighbor has threatened to sue our village (I doubt he has the funds to afford that) if we are allowed to put it up again and says he is concerned that before the deep end (about 18″) freezes that some child may drown in it as there are no fences allowed (fenced in pools are required). I really have never seen anyone under 18″ walking around in the freezing weather. Yes, a baby could drown in only 4″ of water, but, they can’t sit up let alone stand up and get out!
This neighbor does not allow his children to walk through the snow and leave tracks in his yard (I’ve never seen a snowman, either).
Right now, with a new village president, the village is considering an ordinance against ice rinks. They think the danger is that great or is it to appease one person? How about all the trampolines that the American Academy of Pediatrics warns against that are allowed in our village. I believe we will be discriminated against if an ordinance if passed banning rinks!
Has anyone ever heard of such problems and has anyone ever heard of a drowning? Please send feedback/thoughts on this when you come back to visit in the coming season. Thank you for taking time to read this.
Invite the neighbor and his family over for a skate to help smooth(sorry) things over. When he realizes how much fun can be had skating on a cold moonlit night and warming up next to a bon fire and a hot toddie he will surely change his tune. Or not, but it is worth a try.
I live in the country and people are begging to come for a skate.
Tom
My gosh, what a terrible story connected to such a joyful project!
Acutally, the grass under my clear tarp was amazing when I pulled it up last spring. It was equivalent of a greenhouse effect. Greener than you could imagine.
Lets get ready to rumble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
upping the anti. this year 60X40 come on cold.
Finally – just trying to time it perfect. Kidder – you got it right, bring it on! I am going from a 24×40 (last year was my first official try and it was amazing!) to a 36×56. That is about as large as I can possibly go in my backyard. Need to get the additional boards tonight, and have established a family tradition of setting up the rink on Thanksgiving Weekend. Interesting to see how the winter will play out.
John, tell me if it would be wise to repair small pinholes in tarp with silicone. Or should I just buy vapour barrier? I prsently have a blue tarp. Should I go to vapour barrier?
Thanks,
Frank
2nd time around – I built rink last year – an approx 36 x 70 rink using a kit with a decent liner. Had no issues at all – ice was flat and smooth pretty much year-round. I made a rink rake out of PVC and religiously resurfaced with hot water each time. I don’t know if this made the difference. The other thing I did was attach a towel behind the rake and put a plastic valve on the top (to control water flow pressure). What I found was I could do one round and then go back an put another coat on since it would be dry/frozen. ALso, I resurfaced at night (always) so it had a good night to set.
I have the boards up now, need to do some leveling and then bring my tarp to a warehouse to lay out and patch up. I’ve been trying to find out the sure way to patch tears/holes without worrying – any suggestions? I have some marine sealant but am wondering about the “adhesive tape” that liner companies sell. Like I said, I want to set it and forget it. Any insight would be appreciated.
Can’t wait to roll out the liner and start filling.
Hello all, I have buit rinks in my back yard for the last 5yrs & the neighbors,family have enoyed it a ton. The rink is 36 x 60 4ft high boards, flood lights, fire pit and all the goodies. This yr I have flooded the rink had about 2″ of ice and had 6″snow fall, anyone for a margarita- huge slush mess ,Luckly super cold temps coming hoping to start re-surfacing and bulding smooth ice surace again, Any tips from exp rink dads would be great? Help with some advise-
Thanks, Scott
Scott – In that situation LEAVE IT ALONE and let it freeze then would probably recommend go over with a shovel, take out what you can then surface it out a couple good times and you should be set.
Plastic down at 0900. h2o flowing. about 1/2 way done. man 60×40 is a lot bigger than 30×30. I am pumped.
Really interested in doing this maybe next winter (my wife being due with our second boy in January means this year is out). I live in Northern Delware in the Mid-Atlantic US, just wanted to see if anyone has tried this in my area and how they fared. Also any tips on timing of putting things together etc. Really appreciate the tips and thanks to the author, this is unbelievably cool.
Kyle, I’m in northern NJ and threw my first rink together this winter. It really wasn’t too bad but better planning would have made it easier.
First day(Saturday), laid out 4×4′s in a 20′x30′(+/-) rectangle with 4×6′s in the lower corner to help level. Connected all the wood with mending plates and screws, covered ground with newspaper and 6mil poly scraps as protection for liner and installed liner. Began filling with water. I soon found out that the liner had shifted and the rink would only fill halfway before spilling over.
Day 2(Sunday), pumped out water, shifted liner, increased the “wall” height with a 2″x4″ where it appeared to low and began to refill. All looked good so I spent a couple of hours attaching wood 1″x6″ wood decking material to the perimeter frame with angle brackets(so as to not put holes in the liner). With 2 soaking pairs of boots and freezing rain I watched as the rink slowly filled. It quickly became apparent the change in elevation was greater than I thought and the rink again would not completely fill. To make matters worse, I realized the 19’4″ rink was about 8″ deep in the lowest point therefore the liner needed to be 19’4″ wide + 4″(for 2″ of ice minimum) + 16″(for 8″ change in elevation) therefore 20′ liner was too small.
Day 3 the following Friday, I decided on a course of action. The easiest solution was to raise the level of the ground with play sand. I had to disassemble the wood decking, roll the liner back and shovel 1 cubic yard of semi-frozen sand into the 4×4 framework and rake level.
Day 4(Saturday) I added 1/2cy of sand, raked level, replaced the liner, replaced the wood decking and filled. As the rink neared it’s capacity it became apparent once again that there was 1 or 2 spots that the liner was too low and I could not get the entire liner covered with water. The result was a spot in one corner about 2′x4′ where the liner was exposed. A snow storm began and I decided the project was complete for this season and we would make due.
Day 5(Sunday morning), It snowed all night and I now had a pool of slush surrounded by about 8″ of fresh snow. Within 2 days the slush froze solid and we were skating. I think the slush was a blessing. The slush froze white rather than black like clear ice so the sun’s rays are reflected rather than absorbed.
I have since used the “snow” my son creates skating to cover the exposed liner and a mist of water on cold nights freezes this as well. We quickly had a complete ice surface.
Maintenance has been much easier than others are posting. When the surface gets bumpy, my 8 year old skates hard and within an hour has it cut up and all bumps gone. I use a snow shovel with metal edge on the blade to scrape the surface, a squee-gee from Home Depot to push skate shavings off and just spray cold water from a garden hose to resurface. I bought a “hose-wand” with multi-setting and use the mist to wet down the shavings to keep the thin spot covered and the wide-fan spray to spread water over the rest. On exceptionally cold nights 20 and lower I can add about 1/2″ of ice to the surface and have a glass like finish in the morning.
Best honey-do project in a long time. This spring I’m leveling the backyard to make it easier next fall. It will also add about 10′ of usable space to the length of the ice area. Good luck.
Thank a lot for the info. I will look into it next year. I like the idea of the playsand to level it out, seems like a good cheap way to make a level ice surface.
Kyle,
Did you ever try this? I am in South Jersey and we are considering this project. However I don’t want to disappoint the kids building the whole thing and then never be able to use it. If you did build it, would be very interested to know how long you were able to use it.
Thanks!
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Here it is It needs a few top coats to make it like glass.
Just keep using the rink rake. Eventually you’ll get a sheet of glass as your finished layer. Be patient! It’s December 16 and it looks like the temp. is finally dropping. I’ve got a lot of low spots and rough edges due to rain and wet snow. A rink rake will solve all problems. Have fun and be safe!!
HELP! Our rink was in perfect condition until the Midwest Christmas Storm of 2009! Now we have 1-2 inches of slush with 5-6 inches of snow on top of that. Very wet and heavy snow….No way snowblower will be able to get through it all. Is it a good idea to flood rink for several hours with large range sprinkler to melt the snow on top and then reflood several times? We are thinking just doing a regular flooding will force more slush to the base and the snow will continue to sit on top. Do any of you backyard rink experts have advise for how to handle? Our rink is a pond that is almost regulation size so not a “small” project!
Hope someone can answer…I’ve made a 24 x 24 rink…and have two rolls of 10 x 25 6 mil poly, how can I safely seam the two rolls together? Thank you for your help! Karen
You really cant. Just get one piece.
This rink thing is killing me. Even though it’s my first year installing a rink you would think it would be pretty easy living in Minnesota with the weather we have had. I need help bad. My rink is 45 X 45. I have a severe slope but have installed high enough board to accommodate. My problems: when I flood the rink all the water sits in the deeper areas and I let freeze over night, i get about 1-1 1/2 in. freeze on top. I must have a leak because then the ice drops. Do I need to lay less water and just slowly build a base? If i do this and try flooding the areas that don’t get water because the slope I think the water will melt the frozen ice again. am i making any sense? What should I do?
i just finished assembling my ice rink the other day and i only had a chance to put the first layer of water down. Today it snowed and we got like 4 inches and if i walk on the ice to shovel the snow, it will break. Should ijust pack it down as best i can or should i start all over?
Scotty – we had the same problem and used a rink rake to clean off the ice. if its fluffy snow it will work great, however if there is some slush make sure to only clean off a little at a time so it doesnt get to heavy and crack the ice. The rake we had could read the middle of our 50 x 27 rink but since we had slush we only went about 2″ at a time to keep the weight down.