Minimum Ice Thickness

[Jesse10]

Quick question here, what is the minimum thickness my ice can be assuming my liner is sitting on frozen dirt (not grass). Could I get away with two inches? My rink ended up having a lot more slope than I had first calculated (my fault) and while my deep end is thirteen inches thick, my shallow end is only two inches thick. Thanks for any help.
Jesse

[Joe]

Hey Jesse - you can get away with thinner ice on harder surfaces as long as it's cold enough, but where you'll get hit is in late February. The ice tends to evaporate, and the thinner it is to begin with, the quicker it'll deteriorate once the sun gets warmer towards the end of winter. Did you use 14" boards? Any way you can get some additional height?

[Jesse10]

Raising the sides isn't a problem for us, our problem is a lack of water supply. We are in the process of drilling a new well, which might solve the problem completely, otherwise we are going to wait until right before we get some really cold freezing weather than haul water in until we have a minimum of two inches.

Another solution might be shrinking the overall length of the rink. Our rink is 35-75 feet, so I have considered shrinking the length by ten feet which would eliminate the entire high end of the rink. Our rink would still be 35-65, which is decent size for the first year.
Thanks, Jesse

[kevmac]

Woah woah woah! Never and I mean NEVER talk about reducing the size of a rink. We only talk about bigger and better around here!! :-P

Take note that over the course of the winter as you are flooding if you take the time to add a couple of extra coats you will slowly build up the thickness of your ice. Pick one of those extra cold nights, bundle up, grab some whiskey and call in sick the next day.

Cheers
Kevin

[Jesse10]

Thanks Kevin and Joe,
hoping to get everything finished up tommorow afternoon...then the wait for cold weather.
Jesse