Backyard Ice Rink Tips
November 16, 2007 by John
Filed under DIY Projects
We’ve been getting a lot of hits on my backyard ice rink post so I thought I’d add some more tips.
- Location, location, location. Besides finding a flat spot, examine your yard early afternoon and see where the shadows are. Our rink is actually in the front yard since that is the north side. The house casts a shadow over most of the rink which makes a HUGE difference during a warm spell. One area of the rink will get sun and start getting slushy, while the part in the shade is still frozen solid.
- Timing. The temperature is starting to drop and while it is real tempting to put that rink together and start filling it up…WAIT! The air might be cold, but you need to wait until the ground is frozen. I jumped the gun last season and filled up as soon as I assembled the rink. The air temperatures were cold enough at night to freeze, but I ended up with an iceberg because the ground was too warm and kept melting the bottom of my rink. It might be tempting to try walking on the ice when its like this, but it will crack easily and can give you ridges when it refreezes. Wait till you have a few days where the day time highs hover around freezing and the ground gets frozen.
- Leaf skimmer. We got a pool this summer and I’m excited to be able to use the leaf skimmer to get the leafs out while I’m waiting for the water to freeze. Any foreign object sitting on the ice that catches the suns rays will melt holes. This is another reason to wait a little while before filling up your rink…let those leaves come down and get raked up. The skimmer will also be handy to rescue any salamanders that decided to go for a dip.
- The water from your hose is WARM. My first year when I was experimenting with ways of smoothing the ice surface I made a lot of mistakes and they all boiled down to the same thing. That water coming out of your hose might seem cold, but it is too warm for your ice. If you put too much water in one spot it will melt holes in your ice or could shock it and make cracks. Worst case it will melt all the way through and create air pockets. Buy or build a rink rake…you won’t regret it.
- Benches. Keep those picnic benches out this winter. Put them alongside your rink so the kids have a place to sit and take a break. My boys love to pretend they are the penalty box.
- Christmas Lights. I make sure to put some of our Christmas decorations near the rink. The extra light lets you do some night time skating and really makes you feel all Norman Rockwell-ish.
I’ll post more tips as I think of them. Right now I have a platform bed project at the top of my to-do list, but once that is complete I’ll assemble my rink and put plenty of photos on the site. So far it seems like we’re heading for a normal winter and we’ll hopefully have some ice before January.
One consideration with your liner is that the kids WILL step on the edges. Not a problem if you align it the same way each year. Last year was my first using a tarp and it seems to have held up great. Notice I got one with a silver side to reflect the light. Any dark colors would be a bad idea.
Start ‘em young! Ben is 2 1/2 in these pictures and Ethan is 4.
[...] John’s updated the site with more tips, you don’t want to miss them - Backyard Ice Rink Tips. I also couldn’t resist adding a picture of a future NHL hockey player [...]
Yay, backyard ice rink pictures! Even if they’re from last year! Though our own backyard is too small (well, maybe not) I always feel a rush of creative energy when I read about your rink and see photos. You guys really make things wonderful for your kids and have such fun with them. Having fun WITH our kids makes life more fun for us! Putting in the time and effort to do things in a meaningful way is not always easy, but it’s always worth it.
~Paula
But what if all of a sudden your ice just cracks what should do then?
Rip some cheap 3/8″ plywood into 8″ strips and use them to hold the tarp to the insides on the rink boards. 3-4 screws per board holds the tarp way better than a few hundred staples. Position them so they are 1-2″ frozen inside the ice but keep the screw holes above the ice level. Leave 1-2″ of tarp slack at the bottom. It saves your tarp from tears and extends years to the life of it. It’s much easier than staples. Best of all it looks professional and keeps the puck from flying off easily.
I have a friend who uses a laser level but I just put 2″ of water to find level. Leveling Egyptian style!
Use thinner plywood for curved corners. Once you try it you will never go back to staples.
Many thanks for the tip on the rink rake! It saved me over an hour compared to spraying with the hose.
We live on a lake. I plow with an atv. This year we got a foot or so of snow on top of about 4 inches of ice which caused a lot of water pressing up between the top of the ice and bottom of the snow. Thus, I had a lot of 4×4 tire tracks in the slush that have now pretty well filled in with the spray and now the rink rake. (NOTE: I did not plow when there were only 4 inches of ice!! This would be extremely dangerous, perhaps fatal! I waited until there were 8 inches before venturing out with the atv.)
I just drill a hole in the ice and put in an electric pump, connect the garden hose and it works great. Afterwards I turn the pump upside down, drain it and store it that way in an outside shed. Then when it’s time to flood the rink again, I prime the pump with warm water just in case it may have frozen up a bit. This morning at 10 Degrees, it took about 10 minutes to unthaw. You can tell if the pump is frozen because the motor just hums and the pump does not turn. When this happens, turn it off immediately and wait a few minutes for the warm water to loosen it up.
The rink rake did a real nice job and the new ice froze in about 20 minutes.
We live on a hill so I just pull the 100′ hose up to the house right away and it drains. When I use it again, it is usually partly frozen, but within a minute, the lake water pushed out what little ice there is and it works fine. We’ve had quite a bit of below zero weather here but this hose storage method works ok and is much easier than bringing it inside.
Our grandkids spent six and hours skating yesterday and they are getting ready for the rink now to get in a few hours before the Packers play.
Again, thank you for the tips.
Merry Christmas to all!
Tom Laney
Colfax, Winsconsin
Just yesterday i built my rink. I made it 16×50. I live in town so its a town yard. Last night into this morning we had an snow/ice storm so i have a snow base with the ice on top. I didn’t have time to get a tarp yet so this will have to do. And i noticed like consecutive rolls like speed bumps. Will this level out once the ice builds up?
Thanks
Adam
Adam - I’ve never built a rink on top of snow, but I’ve read that you need to compress the snow first. Some people just walk all around it, other pull a sled with weights. Otherwise the weight of the ice will make it compress and create cracks.
If you have bumps, try using a rink rake. Yo can flood build up between the bumps and flood on top of the bumps to melts them down a little. Once you build it up enough it should be fine.
Thank You John, I had planned to build the rake this week once i get some extra money and take a trip to Lowes. As for the snow, yes it was packed pretty good, but like you said it should be fine. And another thing, it looks like the snow built up in my corners, like the snow ramped up into the corners.
Hello, thanks to your tips and advice i began building my very own backyard rink. It is in process, but I chose NOT to buy a liner. My rink is 20×30 and with Christmas around the corner I did have the spare cash to drop on a liner (I may regret this later). Anyhow I’m seeing some results already as we just received 6 inches of snow. I packed it down and started to fill with water, already I have a decent base going. For the parameter I used 2×6 boards and screws. I’m very excited and so are the kids. I built my own rink rake out of PVC and a hose valve, it’s awesome. Thanks and happy skating!
[...] good lessons this time [...]
Hi
I have narrowed the slope of my yard to about 6 inches…im assuming i will need 2 inches of ice in the shollow end so that would make my deep end 8 in. My rink will be 45 by 20 so im just wondering if I will need ALOT of water and if this isnt very cost friendly.
Do you have to pay for water or is it just the electricity to run the pump? Usually takes me 2 or 3 nights to fill mine and my well is very slow. You could put the liner in before there is a forecast for rain to save some money or even buy an extension to put on your gutter to run the roof runoff to the rink. Only problem might be getting some junk in the water. Some screening over the end could help with that. I don’t notice a spike in my electric bill the month I fill and I figure I only need to use it a few times to make the money back compared to paying for ice time at open skate. Plus its our own private rink.
For your sideboards, keep in mind that 2 inches makes a good BASE, but you will want to groom it during the winter with a rink rake to keep it smooth. Plus the deeper the ice the better you can survive any warm spells. Also remember the ice will expand so 2 inches of water will grow when it freezes so plan for some extra height on the boards.