Backyard Rink

[NuggyBuggy 0]

Very nice NuggyBuggy. Is there a pond underneath?

This is exactly the kind of life i'm aiming for. A nice house in the countryside, a little Sidney Crosby to train with and a beautiful wife to shovel :P Add a couple of playful dogs and i'm in paradise!

Hidious - there's no pond underneath, just ground. If you look in the back you can see a lake, but my kids are still young and it's a little too far to hike back and forth when they get cold, need to go to the bathroom, etc. I can look out from our dining room and see the rink 30 feet away, when they get too cold or bored I can pull off their skates at rink side and tell them to walk inside and see Mom for hot chocolate.

It is a nice life, when we get up there. Next year I will have my rink-building technique perfected. As for my wife - she got a big smile out of your post. But just between us - if you want her, I'll trade her for a few pucks and I'll throw in a Si-core ;)

[sher-awesomeness 0]

Wish I could have one, but Philadelphia-area winters are so random you'd never be able to keep a rink going. Just last month we had that east coast blizzard that dumped 2 feet of snow. Two weeks later it rains. Just recently we have huge 20-30 mph winds and it's 20 degrees for a week and a half, then yesterday we have 50-60 degree weather and it's raining so much the sump pump is running every hour.

[dumbpolak9 1]

can anybody help me, I'm making a shooting pad/mini rink to mess around on. Do I layer it or just pour the water in all at once?

[LivHockey84 0]

all at once first, then layers every time after you use it....like a zamboni would

[dumbpolak9 1]

oh thanks for the help, I was wondering because during the winter classic build they were talking about layering it ever hour or so.

[LivHockey84 0]

it all depends on the temperature and the time u have. They controlled the ice temp and had all the time in the world..so. at a bit warmer temps...20F you can put a fresh flood at about every 3 hours. but in really cold temps the water begins to freeze instantly. for instance.....here in Michigan it is about 20F right now and this morning it was 10 i was putting new coats on every hour and it worked fine.

[jds 20]

Forgive the Celsius here (goddamn metric system) but if you have a liner and it is at least -15 Celcius you can fill 'er up and let it freeze. I did that with about 8" (I only do temp in metric for some reason) of water and after about two nights of this temp it was solid. Then dumping a garbage can of water over the surface will do the trick for a flood from then on. Don't need the extreme cold after that since water is being poured onto a large block of ice.

[LivHockey84 0]

exactly

[fcb51 0]

We built one this Christmas at my in-laws in their front yard. It was awesome until the weather took over and hovered around +2c for a few days up here in QC.

We ended up using an old door and stack up snow behind it to makes the side boards then iced it up and the rest of the rink at night till it was rock hard.

By the end, the side boards were about 2 ft high, pretty awesome stuff really in the end :D

Me in goals for the first time...

Brother in law using me as a target...

]

[NuggyBuggy 0]

Buy a liner or tarp the next time, and you won't be screwed with just a few days of warm temps !

[wcerin 0]

I love my 24X50. Fun all winter for dad and the kids.