Just Built My Own Rink

[Ti-girl]

Wow that sounds awesome

One of the advantages of living in Sask.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide open spaces.

It's a huge ass rink and takes HOURS to do, but I guess my brothers have been out there for about 3 hours a day fixing it up.

Got the boards set up, the lines painted, the creases painted and the lights in.

 

[Nbr-17]

One of the advantages of living in Sask.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide open spaces.

It's a huge ass rink and takes HOURS to do, but I guess my brothers have been out there for about 3 hours a day fixing it up.

Got the boards set up, the lines painted, the creases painted and the lights in.

I can see that. I spent a little over a year working in Regina. Lot's of space indeed, pretty flat and boy oh boy does it ever get cold.
Met some really nice people while I was there too.

 

[Nbr-17]

What sizes does everyone have?

Mine is usually 35x45 or so:

 

[Ti-girl]

Dad even rigged up our old quad with a "Zamboni like" blade and water system. It has to be really cold and really thick to use it though.

I'm working in the Queen city right now. Colder than...well...It's effing cold.

 

[iggyDDS]

i gotta move to canada

awesome stuff with those rinks guys

 

[MikeD]

How on earth can you guys get an IceNGo rink kit to work with such a severe drop?
I tried to build mine on my backyard cement patio and it was only 3" difference and the water raced off the back-end.
From 2 seasons of trying to get this kit to work, it seems like you can only be off a 1" max. Both times it's been a disaster for me to the point where I just tossed it all and bought 2x12's and some greenhouse 4mm plastic.

for your 3" drop it would be a piece of cake. The worst part for me is being on a well for water. With the one end about 9" lower, it takes a heck of a lot of water to bring it all up to get a solid 3" of ice over the entire 40x80. One end will be 9-10" thick and the other about 3, sicne it rests directly on the ground.

IF you notice, there isa lot of extra liner that hangs outside the edge of the PVC. as the rink fills you gently pull up on the low sides to draw that liner inside while lifting the edge. Prop it up with straw or snow for a temp fix. Once you have it all filled and set level, install the forms cut from the template. Remember to make a diagram with the location of each prop and its hight. Number each prop. When it comes time for the next seasons install it goes much easier.

Also, if your slope exceeds the 9" max, remove a section of PVC from each side and/or each end depending on where the slop is going. This will give you more liner to take up the slope BUT its going to take a HUGE amount of water.

Also, the ground must be FROZE before you install the kit. If not, the heat from the ground will keep the rink warm and make the ice bad.

 

[NewBostonFan]

What do you guys think is the most cost effective way to build up one end of a rink when you have a 12-16" drop? I have a 30x60 liner and the kids want the rink this year. I was thinking plywood, but for a drop this big, I'm afraid that just staking plywood up won't be enough support and as I fill the rink, the back will collapse under the weight. Since the kids are getting bigger, this may be the last year so I don't want to buy the fancy brackets nicerinks has. Well, I want them, but I just can't rationalize them Any ideas?

 

[Hank19]

What do you guys think is the most cost effective way to build up one end of a rink when you have a 12-16" drop? I have a 30x60 liner and the kids want the rink this year. I was thinking plywood, but for a drop this big, I'm afraid that just staking plywood up won't be enough support and as I fill the rink, the back will collapse under the weight. Since the kids are getting bigger, this may be the last year so I don't want to buy the fancy brackets nicerinks has. Well, I want them, but I just can't rationalize them Any ideas?

I don't know if this will work for you but this is what I did.
I have a minimum of 7" drop on my property. Probably closer to 8".

What I did to prop it up was get long steaks and then screw the boards to the steaks. Then I pounded in the steak as high or low as I wanted. My ground is very uneven (not only north-south but east-west too) and this proved very effective for me and it didn't cost extra by having to buy more and more boards to make one end much higher than the next.

Although, if you have a 16" variance you might not get away with this. That's pretty significant.
What might be effective is simply buying 10-12" boards and doubling them up at the end. It's expensive but it would work.

For next year what I'm going to do is dig a 4", 30x20 hole in my yard, level it out and then replant the sod. Then when it gets cold I'll simply fill in the hole with water. Easy-breezy. That's what my wife's uncle used to do and he said you can't tell there's a decline in your yard unless you're right on top of it.

 

[MikeD]

What do you guys think is the most cost effective way to build up one end of a rink when you have a 12-16" drop? I have a 30x60 liner and the kids want the rink this year. I was thinking plywood, but for a drop this big, I'm afraid that just staking plywood up won't be enough support and as I fill the rink, the back will collapse under the weight. Since the kids are getting bigger, this may be the last year so I don't want to buy the fancy brackets nicerinks has. Well, I want them, but I just can't rationalize them Any ideas?

If you can find a local farmer who hs straw for sale you have an easy fix. Hay is not an option unless you dont mind the seed that is going to be dropped into your lawn.

When you break open the bail of straw be gentle. It will stay in semi compacted sections. Lay the straw to level. The cost around here is 1.50 per bail. You can place your liner directly onto this or lay the plywood down.

 

[javorka]

If you can find a local farmer who hs straw for sale you have an easy fix. Hay is not an option unless you dont mind the seed that is going to be dropped into your lawn.

When you break open the bail of straw be gentle. It will stay in semi compacted sections. Lay the straw to level. The cost around here is 1.50 per bail. You can place your liner directly onto this or lay the plywood down.

Good advice (as always!). I'd add though, that the straw will be a bit of work to clean up once the rink melts. Maybe you could stuff it into plastic garbage bags.....that way you might be able to use it more than once, too, if it doesn't get wet and you have room to store it over the summer.

Also, don't use bales for seatting around the rink. We've done that and even with nice tight bales loose straws get blown onto the ice making it a hazard.

 

[triggrman]

I love the fact that I can play golf Christmas morning here, but I'd really love to have a rink available at any time.

Ice here is 225 an hour but good luck getting it before midnight.

 

[Hank19]

Well that snow dump just ruined my rink.
I had close to 2" of ice when the snow came. And now the whole thing is a big frame of slush. Ugh.

 

[BINGO]

Well that snow dump just ruined my rink.
I had close to 2" of ice when the snow came. And now the whole thing is a big frame of slush. Ugh.

I need to clean mine off tonight, there is about a foot of snow...too friggen windy yesterday to even think of it....I was glad I hadn't shoveled it from Thursdays snow, there was some pretty bad freezing rain that would of made the ice like the surface of the moon...

I will take some pics soon...

 

[ALF AmericanLionsFan]

I need to clean mine off tonight, there is about a foot of snow...too friggen windy yesterday to even think of it....I was glad I hadn't shoveled it from Thursdays snow, there was some pretty bad freezing rain that would of made the ice like the surface of the moon...

I will take some pics soon...

Please do...love checking out everyone's pics..

 

[Hank19]

I need to clean mine off tonight, there is about a foot of snow...too friggen windy yesterday to even think of it....I was glad I hadn't shoveled it from Thursdays snow, there was some pretty bad freezing rain that would of made the ice like the surface of the moon...

I will take some pics soon...

In my case I can't really shovel as it's mush all the way down to the plastic. I don't want to puncture it.

I'm not really sure how to proceed. I'm tempted to reflood it so that the snow melts and refreezes. But I don't want to make things worse.

 

[QuadDeuces]

Ti girl's pics and seeing that 2000 all star game intro partially inspired me to play some pond hockey, or as we did, lake hockey.

in Pittsburgh



me

Using a broom as a goal...my brother and me.

me

my brother

Great pics. Pittsburgh is an awesome city. The rest of these pics make me want to move to Canada.

-- George.

 

[solventless710]

Look at my glorious rink.

I didn't ''build'' it, the ice was made naturally from inclement weather. I've thought about putting a real rink in, but the ground of my backyard is un-even.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Great pics. Pittsburgh is an awesome city. The rest of these pics make me want to move to Canada.

-- George.

I'm from Pittsburgh...

I used to build my own rinks in Pgh a few years back. I got about 6 weeks of good ice... it was a dream come true to have my own rink and just go out and mess around. But I always wished I could make it bigger than 30X40... plus going out at 2 am to flood the rink and freezing my ass off wasn't much fun.

I now live part time in Kitchener, ON with my g/f and visit her parents from time to time in Pembroke.

Canada is a hockey players dream come true. I have a huge outdoor rink 5 minutes from my g/f apt that I skate on everyday. When we go back to Pembroke there are more outdoor rinks than I can count.

When I first came up here I couldn't fathom that you could just jump on these well maintined rinks and play for free... it boggled my mind.

I just skated on near perfect ice here the other day and had to keep pinching myself...

 

[ALF AmericanLionsFan]

Anybody know much about these guys? Looking at sitting up my own,but wasn't sure I wanted to buy and IcenGo...
https://www.myclickhost.net/~byoung2/index.htm

 

[Hank19]

As you can see, it's still rough around the edges due to all the snow. But this is what it looked like after I applied one flooding with the Rink Rake. Even though it's still not perfect, you should have seen it before I flooded it.

Hopefully, after a few more floods, and some colder weather it'll be perfect for the coming week.

P.S. The rink is 16x32 - not very big but good enough for me and my 4-year-old.

 

[BINGO]

I have cleaned my ice three times this week, and it has been a real chore, we have about 2 feet of snow now, most of it this week......last night I was out until 2 am to get the foot of snow we had dumped on us yesterday. If I didn't get rid of it, it would turn to mush...although one corner was soupy.

I will hopefully be making a sheet of ice real soon, although it may be close to 45 on Sunday..so I may wait it out. I just want to skate Christmas morning with the kids.

Side note, I live acrooss the street from the Police station in my town, and they must think I am on crack...three nights of snow removal in a row until all hours of the night....

 

[Titan124]

$400 (as I choke)! Yeah, up here its around $150 but in the small towns it can be as low as $50-100. Seeing the pictures of those rinks makes me wish that I had taken some pictures of the rinks my Dad and I built. When I was 16, I made one that was 45 ft wide by 75 ft long. I used to skip school on the really cold days so I could get 5 or 6 floods in. We also built a 15 foot wall at one end so we wouldn't lose too many pucks. My rich friend had that exact rink above with benches, lights etc. As a kid living in rural Canada, its go to school, come home and play on your rink, go to practise at the local rink, come home and skate on your rink, sleep, repeat. However, you guys down south could substitute golf for hockey and that would be awesome too!

Well we could, except for the fact that golf might be the one sport more expensive than hockey

 

[javorka]

...Side note, I live across the street from the Police station in my town, and they must think I am on crack...three nights of snow removal in a row until all hours of the night....

...maybe they'd come give you a hand, if you asked...

 

[vivianmb]

here's my rink in connecticut from a couple of years back. i'll post the rink in winnipeg from this year when i take pics.

 

[OilerNut*]

here's my rink in connecticut from a couple of years back. i'll post the rink in winnipeg from this year when i take pics.

Awesome job. Though I hope your youngest kid isn't a Flames fan.