continued
from Backyard Ice Rink Info
4.)
Once you have confirmed your area head down to your lumber
store and get your wood. As mentioned before you will need
to detirmine how wide your frame should be and of course
your measurements for length. Your length measurement gives
you your total length of lumber requirements. eg. If you
have a 60' length to your rink then you could use 6 @ 10'
pieces or 4 @ 15' pieces for your length for each side.
Consider the fact that you need to store your lumber in
the shed or garage and you don t want to buy 15' lumber
if your storage shed is 12' long. You can also store it
outside and stack it with a cover over so it does not warp.
Pick whats best for your needs.
5.)
So you get your wood home and place it where you want your
rink to go. Assemble your frame and lay your liner inside
. Staple it to the frame above the water line and turn on
your hose. Let your water level rise and stop it when you
have all plastic covered to a minimum in your shallowest
area of 1"- 2". Let it freeze and then you can skate. Your
biggest issue is fastening your frame and keeping it in
place while your water level rises. Most rink builders stake
their frame and put the liner on the inside. Part two to
follow delves into building your backyard ice rink the old
way where you would stomp snow and sprinkle water and fill
in low spots and spray again.
Construction
of The Old Fashion Rink With No Liner and No Boards
Although
this backyard ice rink can provide many hours of excellent
family activity and provide a facility in your own backyard
for improving hockey skills and figure skating routines,
it is much more difficult, labor intensive, and the surface
takes longer to become perfect. However, it is cost effective
and a viable option to the liner rink we love. The following
is a time proven technique, if you have the weather to
support this concept.
Section
1
The
building up of the base for your rink can be accomplished
in a variety of ways. The base is important because it
is the support for the ice surface and allows the luxury
of escaping occasional thaws. There are several ways to
build a base as follows.
- Mow
your law before your first snowfall but after several
frosts so the grass is reasonably short (perhaps shorter
than your usual summer mowing).
- If
there are several days of cold weather in the forecast
(below freezing), it is a good time to consider construction
of the rink. Remember that if these days are unseasonably
cold wait. The worst scenario is to start building the
rink and have it melt due to warm weather.
- The
more level your yard the better (this is very important
with our liner rink). Use a lawn sprinkler to saturate
the entire rink (move the sprinkler if necessary). The
colder the weather the better, this will cause the water
to freeze soon after hitting the ground. After the water
soaks into the ground let it freeze and re sprinkle.
This process will need to be repeated many times.
- Use
pooling water or slush / snow to fill any low areas with
a flat backed shovel to smooth off the top. The slush
/ snow patches may need to be left to freeze, then repeat
the sprinkler process afterwards.
- Use
cold water to spray a heavy second layer of water to
form a solid second layer.
- Continue
with a fine to medium spray for several nights.
- If
there is snowfall during this time, utilize it by shovelling
the snow to the sides of the rink making 6" banks.
Afterwards spray the banks with a fine mist (these banks
will contain water for following floods, but will not
be too high for children to hurt themselves.
- Slush
is still to be used to fill any low areas.
- If
you are building your rink after snow has fallen, it
is not necessary to remove the snow (unless there is
more than 3"). Utilize the snow by misting a medium
spray from the hose. Saturate the snow to a point of
slush but do not over saturate, as the snow will run
away in a melted mess. Allow to freeze and medium spray
again repeat #4.
- If
by chance the weather warms during the process the whole
entire procedure may have to be repeated (this is why
the new fashion rinks with liner and boards is favoured).
- If
it snows lightly while building the base, the snow helps
make the base thicker. However, building the base during
a snowstorm is inadvisable.
- As
of now your rink building adventure is coming close to
you being able to use warm/hot water to achieve a nice
finish, making the rink super smooth. This is done by
using warm/hot water on the rink, this causes all the
uneven bumps and high areas to melt, at the same time
filling gaps and holes and giving the rink an even finish.
The best concept is to use a flooder (see our links to
these) as per their instructions, drag it across the
surface of the rink evenly and smoothly.
Other
methods of building a base are as follows
After
a snowfall roll the snow flat, using a roller, snowshoe(s),
or snowmobile. Then mist to medium spray with cold water
(be careful not to totally saturate). Repeat this process
until a solid snow base is formed and you will soon be
ready for warm/hot water flood (with flooder).
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